UTTAR PRADESH: Little did Pinki Chauhan, 19, know that she had a silent crusader hidden within until she was gripped by black fever, commonly known as kala azar, at the tender age of 12 in 2015. At the threshold of teenage when girls start getting cautious of their looks, Pinki got kala azar, a complex vector-borne disease, which while receding leaves behind a trail of greyish and black spots on the skin of the sufferer.
After a fairly prolonged duration of pain and fever, when Pinki started feeling better with a sense of having conquered the disease, she was flummoxed to find some greyish or blackish spots on her skin. The dermal discolouration was nothing but the invasion of the parasite, Leishmania Donovani, which is borne by sandflies and causes kala azar.
The phenomenon known as Post-Kala-Azar Dermal Leishmaniasis (PKDL) made the young girl run from pillar to post for the treatment of her condition. A huge amount of money was spent on the same by her parents – Janardan and Prabhawat.
After the ordeal was over, Pinki resolved to take it as a mission of her life to sensitise others about the disease and the sufferings kala azar brings with it. She embarked upon an unending journey to fight the disease by holding special classes in government schools and colleges in her native district Doeria to spread awareness against it.
“While I defeated the infection, I realized that the ignorance towards the causal enemy (sandfly) was almost universal and treatment relatively simple if taken in time. My sufferings pushed me to launch a campaign against it,” said Pinki, whose parents allowed her to take up the cause after completing class 12.
Now an undergrad still in college, Pinki isn’t a teacher, but her classes, nicknamed Pinki Ki Pathshala, are a household name in the district. She can often be spotted carrying a colourful flipbook in a bag and taking an extra class in government schools of Deoria.
It all happened in November 2021, when Pinki came to know about the UP government’s effort for community engagement to create awareness against lymphatic filariasis and dermal leishmaniasis (kala azar). “I joined the campaign and this platform provided me with a chance to put my thoughts into action. I started having a deeper understanding of the disease,” says Pinki.
In April 2022, she began her crusade against the disease from her own college, Babban Singh Intermediate College in Ratasiya village of Deoria district.
Thereafter, she went to Buddha Mahavidyalaya, Ratasiya. In July, she started her visits to schools and community activities. Pinki has set a target of meeting at least 20 people daily. She cycles around the district and interacts with housewives, men and children. Like a well-trained health worker, Pinki talks about the disease, its warning signs and symptoms and prevention besides telling them who to contact in case of doubt.
“A sandfly is about 50-60 times smaller than a mosquito. It is not visible to the naked eye but poses a big threat to our health. Staying alert to the breeding places of this fly in small holes, damp walls and gaushalas is the way to save our skin from kala azar,” she said.
So far, she has reached out to over 10,000 students in Deoria. She has also reached out to over 1,200 households in the Banghata block of her district. Experts say that individual and community efforts in the form of Pinki Ki Pathshala help health workers in the eradication of such ailments.
“Pinki is contributing in her own small way but her efforts are significant considering that India has pledged to eradicate the disease by 2023 end. In fact, health-related goals and targets gain momentum when individuals like Pinki join the campaign and catapult it into a crusade,” says Dr VP Singh, additional director of, national vector-borne diseases control programme, UP.