By Zain Zaman, via UN Volunteers
Shahida Parveen:
from Sanitary worker to right activists
Having been born in the
slums of Pakistan, in a poor
Christian family, a challenging fate awaited me. Being
the eldest among my siblings, I was expected to work and contribute to the family
income as my father, who was a cleaner at district hospital, was the sole
breadwinner and we were a big family.
Every morning before the sunrise I set out along with
father, to go to the hospital where I would start helping my
father in cleaning offices, wards and even washrooms before the staff could arrive. I was not
born with a silver spoon
in my mouth nor was my childhood any was
pleasant.
When I reached
adolescense, I was feeling ashamed of our status in society. I was
taunted countless times for being a member of a family which mainly does the
cleaning and sanitation work. Christians account for around 2% of the almost
180 million population
in Pakistan. However, representation of
Christians in the occupation of cleaning and sweeping is extremely high.
As I grew up I realized that the problem is not about
being a member of the Christian community, who are
mainly sanitary workers.
The real problem is that we don't
have a proper platform to convey our message to society that
we should have the same rights which other communities are enjoying in
Pakistan. That was the time I decided to become a right activist.
Regardless,
my family had different plans for me. I married my cousin, who was
also a sweeper, moved to his city and settled there. The situation of Christian community
was not good there either.
We were facing innumerable challenges and the
the biggest of them was that we did
not even have our own graveyard
to bury our dead - we used to go to other cities with dead
bodies to bury our community members. I decide to knock the door of court, after my
extensive campain the court decision came in our favor and few years later we
had our own graveyard.
I got a job in Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA)
as a cleaner. There were no government jobs except cleaner for us as
we did not have the basic education. I was sure that our fate was not going
to change unless we sent our children to schools, and so,
I went door to door asking women to send their children to school. I took the
lead by sending my children to school.
The next task ahead me was to have our political
representation at Tehsil level (Tehsil is an administrative sub-division of
district in Pakistan), I decided to contest the local bodes election of
Pakistan which were held in 2005.
Thanks to my community and my vigorous campaigning I
won with ease. For next five years I represented my community in Tehsil council
as minority Tehsil consular, I conveyed the grievances of my community in each
and every meeting of the council.
On the other hand I kept balance between my family and
professional life, today four of my
sons
are doing jobs in governmental
departments since my priority was to give them at least basic education which
they got.
Now as the local bodies elections are scheduled on
December 05, 2015 in Punjab province of Pakistan I am dreaming to unite my
community to elect our representative unanimously for Tehsil council so we can
pursue our shared goal of acquiring a church for Christians community in our
city.
I faced innumerable challenges in my life, there was I
time when I was working in Tehsil
Municipal Administration (TMA) as sanitary worker, all while taking care of my
nine children, representing Christians in Tehsil Council and hearing queries
from the dweller of my constituency
simultaneously.
My story goes to show that life is the name of continuous
struggle, one should not give up to stereotypes of society rather dare to guide
his own fate, It's in one’s own hand to steer his life. I was not educated nor
did my family have any political background - all I had was hunger for my cause
of become a Rights Activist and contribute to change the living standards of my
community which I did and will continue to do so.
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