Sharmila Tagore looks on as children eat at Saraitoli anganwadi centre during her visit on Tuesday. Picture by Prashant Mitra

She may have played a village lass at some point of her long acting career, but it’s another thing to actually witness the ordeals faced by the rural women in real life.

Bollywood actress Sharmila Tagore, who was in the state as Unicef’s goodwill ambassador, had that experience on Tuesday when women told her how blind beliefs deprived them of food after child birth and teens narrated how they were being forced to marry.

As part of her two-day Ranchi trip, Tagore visited Saraitoli village of Mahilong panchayat in Namkum block, where she interacted with mothers and adolescent girls. Social welfare secretary Mridula Sinha and Unicef’s state chief Job Zachariah among others accompanied her.

The actress, who received a good feedback about the state government and Unicef initiatives for women and adolescent girls (she met chief minister Arjun Munda in the morning), was taken aback when one Sarita Devi told her: “Just about six years ago, our in-laws would not offer us food for three days after child birth, saying it was a purification process. This is one of the reasons behind high maternal and infant mortality besides malnourishment.”

Luckily though, Sarita, along with a few enlightened women of the village, later formed a team and spread awareness against this practice.

Lauding Sarita, Tagore said: “Women should form teams and go to other villages to counsel those who still follow age-old norms.”

More shock was in store for the National Award winner. A girl studying at Rajakiyakrit Madhya Vidyalay, Mahilong, about 15km from the state capital in Namkum, came up to Tagore and said: “I have a friend here in this gathering who is being forced by her parents to marry. She is afraid to share her problems.” The former head of the Indian Film Censor Board summoned the girl — a Class VII student — and encouraged her to speak without fearing anyone. “Your parents cannot marry you off at this age as it is illegal. Speak to the village head, who will in turn counsel your parents,” the actress said.

She also urged Sinha and Zachariah to send counsellors to speak to the girl’s parents.

Ironically, while parents are eager to marry off their daughters at an early age, the boys are not interested in tying the knots with uneducated girls as Tagore found out.

She enquired from adolescent boys, who attended the programme, whether they would like to marry uneducated girls and the reply was prompt: dropouts won’t do, they wanted graduate girls.

During her nearly 45-minute stay at Saraitoli, Tagore also visited Saraitoli anganwadi centre, where she came to know about different local food, vegetables and greens that have high nutritious value.