Badami is a healthy 5 year old girl. She is vibrant and plays out in the sun with friends. However, this was not always the case. The Veerni team discovered her towards the end of 2003 in a poor village called Unchiarda. She was severely malnourished and anaemic. At 22 months she weighed just 5.5 kilos, less than half the weight of a healthy 2 year old.
She is the 2nd daughter of illiterate parents in a village where most men are opium addicts. Her parents and grandmother didn’t want another daughter in the family and therefore did not feed her. The team tried to convince the family to take her to the hospital. After several weeks the parents finally took action, against the grandmother’s wish, but when the doctor recommended immediate admission they took her home again.
Instead the family consulted a shaman who branded Badami with a hot iron on the back of the neck to ward of evil spirits. Despite all this the Veerni team did not give up. They treated her wound and gave her nutritional supplements. To ensure she actually consumed the supplements, the team made her eat in front of them and continued to do so for several years. Eventually the parents and grandmother cooperated and Badami is now a healthy and well-nourished girl. She is currently 9 years old and does very well in school. She dreams of becoming a teacher.
The Veerni team continues to fight these battles against deliberate neglect and malnutrition in an attempt to save and educate as many girls as possible. Malnutrition remains rampant in India and especially in rural Rajasthan where Veerni is active. In addition to limiting development and the capacity to learn, malnutrition costs lives: it accounts for 50% of all childhood deaths in India. The level of childhood malnutrition equals that of Ethiopia; 47%. As a result, 1 in every 3 malnourished children in the world lives in India. Girls are more at risk of malnutrition than boys because of their lower social status; of the 12 million girls born each year, 1 million will die before their first birthday and 3 million do not live to see their 15th birthday.
Badami was lucky to be discovered in time so that the Veerni team could take action. She was made to look like a boy for a long time, confirming her parents wish for a son rather than a daughter, but she currently wears pink outfits and looks like a real girl.