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Basanti Devi oversees the health, water, sanitation, and hygiene programmes in Keonjhar district. One of the earliest Gram Vikas staff members, she joined us in 1983 as a Health Worker serving the communities of Kerandimal in Ganjam district, training community health workers and traditional birth attendants, and coordinating with the health centres for the immunisation of infants and their mothers. Subsequently, she worked with Community Health Centres and Primary Health Centres in Gajapati and Kalahandi districts.

In 2017, Basanti joined the Staff Development Cell to roll out the orientation of newly recruited Community volunteers. She has also worked on the WaSH Behaviour programme, training staff and community members on promoting greywater utilisation in growing nutrition gardens, nutritional benefits to adolescent girls, women, and children, clean toilet use, safe drinking water, kitchen behavior, and hygiene training in schools.

She was also part of the study on Child Feces Management by Emory University. She worked with Adivasi communities in Chandaka on promoting nutrition gardens and reviving the defunct SHGs.