In this village 30 miles south of Kolkata, three generations of women have depended on Saira Bewa to deliver their babies. On a languid July afternoon, Ms. Saira, 61, squatted on the mud porch of her house in Patra and narrated the story of how she became a midwife. “When I was a teenager, I used to help deliver calves and goat kids at our home,” said the great-grandmother, who goes by one name (Bewa indicates she is a widow). “That is how it started. Soon, I was helping deliver babies.” In over 40 years as dai, as traditional midwives are known in India, Ms. Saira helped deliver scores of babies in this village of 6,500, which has a predominantly Muslim population, armed with a basin of hot water, a blade to cut the umbilical cord and her bare hands.

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