On March 22 when the nationwide lockdown began, 23-year-old Akhila Yadav, one of Telangana’s youngest sarpanches, was confronted with a different challenge at her doorstep. She received complaints from local residents that outsiders were entering their village for toddy.
Akhila’s village, Madanapuram gram panchayat in Chintapalli mandal of Nalgonda district, used to be a hub for toddy tappers.
In order to stop people from entering their village for toddy, Akhila and her father Akram Yadav, would reach the village border in the wee hours and guard it throughout the day.
Speaking to TNM, Akhila says, “It became really problematic to stop the outsiders. We had people coming even from Hyderabad to Nalgonda for toddy. Though we convinced the people in our village not to produce toddy, people from other villages still kept coming in continuously.”
“Despite guarding the border, some miscreants took alternate routes to enter the village. However, we would get to know about it from our informers, and we used to find them and send them out of the village. We were strict and harsh, but it was necessary,” Akhila adds.
For the initial 10 days while guarding the village, Akhila and her father used to take breaks alternately only for breakfast and lunch; the rest of the time they stayed at the border and stopped outsiders from entering the village.
The villagers built a temporary barricade with shrubs and bushes to prevent people from stepping out of the village without a valid reason. They also put up a poster at the border about COVID-19 symptoms and the precautions that must be taken by everyone.
From issuing warnings to prevent people’s movement to creating awareness about physical distancing, Akhila has become a frontline warrior in protecting her village from coronavirus.
Her work won her accolades from Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Health Minister Eatala Rajendra. She was also featured on the Prime Minister’s Mann Ki Baat updates.
Akhila says that their hard work has reaped results. “Now movement in the village has completely come down as more people are now aware of the infection and outsiders have also stopped entering our village,” she says.
She further says that there are no active coronavirus cases in Madanapuram, while 13 people who were in hospital for COVID-19 treatment from the district have now been discharged.
“However, we cannot relax just because the cases have reduced, we need to be more careful now to protect the village,” adds Akhila.
Apart from holding the responsibility of village sarpanch, Akhila also works as a teacher in a government school in her village and teaches English and General Knowledge.
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