ASHA Munni Devi: Navigating Service, Survival, and Silence

There’s something existential about Munni’s routine: the small but seismic daily decisions that define her. Stay home with her feverish son, or rush to deliver a baby across town? Feed herself, or the women she’s helping? Each choice isn’t just a sacrifice; it’s a slow chiseling away of her identity. The phone call crackled to life as Munni sat on the edge of her cot, the quiet afternoon interrupted by the stern voice of the block chief’s wife. The room, bare but for a steel trunk and a thin mat, seemed to shrink as the heated words poured out of the speaker. Munni, a 30 year old ASHA worker from Karwi Chitrakoot, adjusted her dupatta, her brow furrowed. She held