A cop by profession, an altruist by nature
MUMBAI: For the last four months, police constable Mahinur Khatun, 37, has been going beyond her call of duty to serve her community in West Bengal’s East Burdwan district. She grew up in the neighbourhood of Khagragarh in Burdwan and hers is a rare success story. Most of her neighbours are daily wagers, rickshaw pullers, housemaids or street vendors. Khatun’s mother sold paper bags to shops; her father was a truck driver.
During the lockdown, as Khatun did her rounds to enforce the government’s stay-at-home rules and social distancing norms, she saw first-hand the economic devastation in her neighbourhood.
“People were going door-todoor asking each other for potatoes or rice. In all my 12 years of patrolling, I had never seen things being so bad. Until recently, they had jobs and incomes,” Khatun said. “It broke my heart. When everyone is poor in a neighbourhood, who will take care of whom?”
Khatun supports herself, her parents and her 19-year old son on a salary of ₹40,000. She had been saving up for cardiac bypass surgery for her father, Masud Choudhury, 70. “In April, with things in Khagragarh were getting worse, I asked my father if we could use that money to help people. He agreed,” Khatun said.
The policewoman began to put together ration packages of oil, rice, flour, lentils, onions and potatoes, which she distributed with the help of her family, weekly or fortnightly.By April 20, she had spent most of the ₹2 lakh that she had saved. But by then word had spread; others began to donate, and the crowdfunding platform Milaap got in touch, asking if they could help her launch a campaign.
“When we heard about her father, we offered to help raise funds for his treatment. She, however, insisted that the collective need of these families was much bigger than her own,” says Mayukh Choudhury, CEO and co-founder of Milaap.
By April 24, the ‘Support Mahinoor’ campaign — which uses a different spelling of Khatun’s name —had raised ₹6 lakh. By the start of this month, Khatun has distributed over 10,000 packages. When Amphan hit on May 20, she began to hand out basic medical supplies too.“We’ve been out of work for three months, and no one else stepped up to help,” says Ishrat Bibi, 35, a daily wage earner who lives with a family of seven. “We would have been left to die if not for Mahinur Didi.”
Every week, Khatun continues to put together her food packages, usually with her parents’ help. “What will I take with me when I go? My treatment can wait. I’m happy the money was put to good use,” says her father.
Meanwhile, she has started saving again.“Whatever I do now is out of my monthly salary,” says Khatun. “I’m running out of money, so I can only afford to buy rations for three or four families a week at the most, earlier I was able to help over 500 families a month,” she said.
Her good work will surely be rewarded, said Bhaskar Mukherjee, superintendent of police in East Burdwan. “We are always proud of her exemplary efforts.”