Dr. Anita began her academic career in 2010 as a lecturer at VBRI. Since then, she has built a strong rapport with students. Dr. Jain's research initiatives have been instrumental in her roles as a research associate and a woman scientist.

Dr. Anita Jain is the Head of the Department of Botany at Vidya Bhawan Rural Institute, Udaipur. Being an avid researcher, she has published several research papers and books on her subject, Indian Ethnobotany.

Hailing from Udaipur, Dr. Anita believes in the profound connection between plants and humans. She says her mother’s expectations and faith in her intellect drove her to the field of education. After completing her M.Sc. in Botany, followed by a JRF and a Ph.D., Dr. Jain worked in the capacity of a research associate and later a woman scientist.

As a part of her research work, Dr. Anita surveyed the Southern Aravali Hills of Rajasthan to identify the medicinal plants growing in the tribal and rural areas of the state. During that time, Dr. Jain interviewed people and documented the information received from them. Later, a few of her students, who have completed their theses, helped in her project.

Delving further into her research endeavours, Dr. Anita says she also created a project on ethno-medicinal plants for CSIR, after which she got selected for the position of a research associate after a gruelling interview round of 45 minutes. Furthermore, her project with DST (the Department of Science and Technology) was commended based on her findings.

Interestingly, Dr. Anita was the first student from Udaipur to have identified the antifungal and antibacterial properties of the ‘naami’ plant found in southern Rajasthan. After which, she was offered another project by the DST. However, she declined it in favour of a permanent job offer from Vidya Bhawan Rural Institute (VBRI).

Thereafter, Dr. Anita joined VBRI in 2010 as a lecturer in the Botany department. She was approved as a Ph.D. guide by MLSU in 2012. She made efforts to get her department approved for conducting Ph.D. programmes in 2019 and was successful in gaining approval. She currently has three research scholars under her guidance.

Reflecting on her early days, Dr. Anita shares that she was born and raised in a middle-class family in Udaipur. As during those times education was not given a priority, especially in the context of a girl child, her mother couldn’t study further after completing her 10th standard. However, Dr. Anita had the zeal to study as a child and was the third daughter of her mother. She used to accompany her two sisters to a nearby school as a two-year-old. At the time of admission, Dr. Anita was directly admitted in first class because of her ability to grasp things in a short time. Though Dr. Anita also enjoyed playing, her mother always pushed her to do something big in life.

Talking about her role models, Anita says that her mother and the father of Indian Ethnobotany, Dr. S.K. Jain, were instrumental in her success. She says that the late Dr. S.K. Jain always motivated her to keep making progress in her research work, and she had also completed two projects with him. Anita has also written a book with Dr. S.K. Jain titled “Bibliography of Indian Ethnobotany.”

Given a chance to go back in time with a time machine, Dr. Anita would like to go back to 1997, when she started her research career, and would meet Dr. SK Jain early on in life to give her research career an early jumpstart.

Her success mantra is to complete the task she takes on and never give up before she achieves her target. She believes every person has the potential to do whatever they want in life. Dr. Anita quotes, “Always do hard work; there is no shortcut to success.”

Dr. Anita’s favourite song is “Mein zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya.”

Dr. Anita believes that we are just one step away from achieving our goals and advises the youth to always indulge in true hard work and practise patience at the same time. She also shares the three rules of success:

• Accepting the right opportunity at the right time.

• Always be ready for any kind of challenge.

• Hard work is very important.