Irom Sharmila, the "Iron Lady of Manipur" or "Mengoubi", broke her 16-year-long fast on Tuesday with a lick of honey.
Throughout all these 16 years, Irom Sharmila was force-fed vitamin and mineral-rich diet through a nasal pipe three-times a day.
According to report in Hindustan Times, the Manipur government incurred an expenditure of at least Rs 10,000 a month on a special vitamin and mineral-enriched diet for Irom Sharmila.
One of the doctors who attended Irom Sharmila told HT that Irom was getting the healthiest and most balanced of diets that even the richest Indians were probably deprived of.
Irom was given supplements with adequate amounts of calcium, fats, carbohydrate and vitamins three times a day.
“We tweaked the nutrient dosage if she lost or gained weight (maintained at 51 kg),” HT quoted a former head of medicine at JNIMS as saying.
Apart from the “doctored diet”, Irom Sharmila did four hours of yoga and walked in the corridor outside her ward under close watch of police escort.
Irom Sharmila is known to be very good at yoga and even doctors were impressed with her yoga skills.
Irom Sharmila normally cooperated with the staff who administered diet to her through a nasal pipe. However, there were days when she would pull out the nasal tube and had to be put on intravenous glucose drip.
