A road to her village, a newborn in her family — before her own delivery, YouTuber Leela Sahu welcomes niece

Indian Express

4 days ago

In a singsong voice, 22-year-old Leela Sahu smiles at the camera and answers a relative's offscreen question — 'Leela, iska kya naam rakhe ho?' (Leela, what have you named her?). Without hesitation, she replies: 'Aradhya'. In the reel she uploaded to Instagram, she adds playfully: 'Ghar mein Pihu, Pari, Sundariya bhi hai'.
The child in her arms is not hers, but her sister-in-law's newborn daughter — the first baby born in the family in 11 years. But Aradhya's birth marks the emotional culmination of a year-long public campaign led by Leela, a Bagheli YouTuber from Madhya Pradesh's Sidhi district who drew national attention to the broken, unpaved roads that made emergency healthcare in her village nearly inaccessible for pregnant women.
'She was born healthy. The ambulance came about an hour after we called, and it took another hour or so to reach the hospital,' Leela told The Indian Express. 'My due date is August 2. My only hope is the ambulance will come in time.'
Leela said this was the first child in the family in the last 11 years. 'That's why I gave her many names, Aradhya, Pari, Sundariya,' she said.
As her own delivery date approaches, Leela says she won't give up. There are six pregnant women who are expecting to deliver in the coming months, and a road is crucial for access to healthcare.
'My work isn't done just because construction began. I'll keep raising my voice till the full road is built. Because this isn't just about one ambulance, or one baby. It's about the other woman too.'
The road, or at least parts of it, has finally started to take shape.
In late July, after months of public pressure and viral videos, construction work began in Khaddi Khurd under the initiative of local Congress MLA Ajay Singh Rahul, who stepped in after BJP MP Rajesh Mishra's comments triggered outrage. The Congress leader said he was moved to act after seeing how the local MP dismissed Leela's concerns by suggesting he would personally carry pregnant women to the hospital on their due dates.
The path to this moment began in July 2023, when Leela, then in her first trimester, posted a video tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
'You got all 29 MPs from Madhya Pradesh, Modi ji. Can't you at least give us a road?' she had said, speaking in Bagheli dialect from her mud-brick home in Khaddi Khurd. Her message resonated across platforms, drawing attention to the region's collapsing infrastructure, where pregnant women were routinely transported by tractor and stretchers due to inaccessible roads.
In March 2025, officials from the Madhya Pradesh Rural Road Development Authority confirmed that a five kilometre road under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana had been surveyed and submitted for state approval.