Bahatum Nisha lives in Kamta Basti in Lucknow. This is a story about Bahatum’s inspiring role during lockdown in India, and how she convinced a crowd, including a politician, to maintain social distancing to protect her community from the virus.
In April a politician came to distribute dry ration in the Basti area. It was evening and there were media journalists and political carders joining the event. They came to the edge of the community and set up for the ration distribution.
Bahatum went to take a ration, but she noticed that the politicians and media and community members were standing in a mob, totally ignoring social distancing.
Bahatum took a stand and said, “You are distributing ration, it is very good for us, but no one is maintaining social distancing, so it is not good for us.”
She requested people did not come close to take the ration until social distancing was properly observed. After this, the crowd followed her instruction. Bahatum also coordinated and led her community members to make the proper social distance while collecting the ration.
Bahatum is 30 years old and a mother of three children. She joined Pollinate Group in November 2018. The community she lives in has almost 1,500 tents and most people do waste collection and segregation work.
People who worked in construction as daily wage earners lost their jobs have returned to their native village. However, waste workers are still in the city collecting waste and living in the informal settlements that we serve.
This is Bahatum’s story and we are so inspired by her leadership in this situation. She is truly an empowered woman using her confidence, and respected role in the community developed through her micro-business, to ensure the safety of her neighbours and help protect them.
This motivates all of us at Pollinate Group to continue bringing opportunities to women like Bahatum, creating more role models, more confidence and more change in the most neglected communities.
Read more about our impact model.