Who Is Matilda Kullu? Odisha ASHA Worker Featured in Forbes India W-Power 2021

Matilda Kullu, an ASHA worker from Odisha's Sundargarh district made to the Forbes India magazine's W-Power 2021 list.

The same list mentions famous names like Rasika Duggal and Sanya Malhotra. For the 15 years, Kullu has been reportedly working in Gargadbahal village of Baragaon tehsil, Sundargarh bringing healthcare closer to the people of the region.

Here's Everything We Know About Matilda Kullu:

• Forbes reported that Kullu does gives door-to-door service to the people of her village every day after catering to her own family.
• The 45-year-old has faced casteism and fought superstition in her village. She reportedly educated the village people against black magic and to take medical routes instead.
• During the COVID-19 crisis, Kullu like many ASHA workers worked overtime. She took care of about 964 people in the village on the remuneration of just Rs 4,500 per month.
• Matilda Kullu said, “My regular tasks is antenatal/postnatal check-ups, immunisation, sanitisation, promoting hygiene, administering polio and other vaccines, conducting surveys, and so on in my assignee area. I am very much happy to work for the people and especially for my village people. Today feeling very much proud of this recognition.”
• She said that during the pandemic, she use to visit 50-60 houses every day looking for COVID-19 patients and would take them for testing as many were scared to visit the local primary healthcare centres due to infection.
• Her workload also entails taking care post-natal mothers, newborn babies, counselling women before they deliver their babies, breastfeeding and complementary feeding, prevention of common infections and sexually transmitted infections.
• The government had rolled out Rs 2,000 as a one-time incentive during the pandemic but now she back to being paid just Rs 4,500.
• The ASHA worker wasn't even provided with protective gear such as masks, PPE kits, gloves during the pandemic which made it difficult for Kullu to continue in-person contacts.

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