This is the story of Mangli Bai who lives with her son and daughter-in-law in Sandukon ka Guda village in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan. At the age of 72, she moves freely around the village, chatting with those she meets, bringing a smile to their faces with her frequent anecdotes. She is an active member of her village’s Prabal Yatra Manch (PYM), a mutual support platform of older persons. She attends all its meetings and participates actively while motivating others to do the same.
Mangli learned basic yoga and exercises while attending PYM meetings, which she now practices each morning soon after waking up. As part of an intervention on healthy ageing, Dola Ram Gameti, ARTH’s field worker, visited her to conduct a home-safety assessment. He advised her to buy tongs to hold hot utensils after cooking, to prevent burns. On his next visit, he found Mangli using the tongs while cooking – they had cost her Rs 100. He additionally conducted a health assessment based on WHO’s Integrated Care for Older Persons (ICOPE) approach and found deficits in her mobility, vision, nutrition and surprisingly, mood. Mangli shared that she often feels sad and doesn’t feel like doing anything. To improve her vision, ARTH supported her to get cataract surgeries at Alakh Nayan Eye hospital in Udaipur. For nutrition, field worker Dola Ram arranged materials to build a raised-bed garden behind her house, where she now grows vegetables to supplement her diet. To improve her mobility he demonstrated exercises and gave a her a walking stick. And to improve her mood, he advised her to attend every single meeting of older persons and to share more with her family and those around her. Dola Ram also gave her son and daughter-in-law an update on Mangli’s health.
Speaking to Mangli Bai, I realised that she understands the importance of being healthy, of not ignoring health issues and getting appropriate care. Hundreds more like Mangli Bai are currently a part of the Prabal Yatra Manch, taking small but useful steps to care for themselves and improve their lives. The road to healthy ageing in low-resource, rural settings looks rather long, but it is not necessarily bumpy.
– Snehal Sinha (ssinha@ccr.arth.in), Dola Ram Bhil (Community Health Worker)
