Reshma Jahangir Pathan, a 25-year-old contract sanitation worker with the Pune Municipal Corporation, has earned a degree in microbiology while balancing college during the day and night-shift work in the civic body’s sweeping department, according to a report by Sakal – Pune.
Pathan lives in Sainath Vasahat in Kothrud. Her father works as an autorickshaw driver, and the family’s financial condition made private coaching unaffordable. With constant noise in the settlement making it difficult to study, she chose the cremation ground near her home as a quiet place to prepare for her examinations.
“For people, a cremation ground may be a place associated with death, but for me it became an important place in my educational journey. Sitting there, I was able to study with concentration,” Pathan told Sakal – Pune.
She had worked for six years as a contract worker in the Pune Municipal Corporation’s sweeping department. She was assigned to the night shift at Swami Samarth Kothi in Jaibhavani Nagar, allowing her to attend college during the day and work at night. The arrangement, however, became difficult when regular college attendance was required for her higher education.
Pathan said she was removed from the job around three months ago after being told that women could not be assigned night work. She also said that managing night employment alongside regular college attendance had become difficult. The report does not provide details of the contractor, the employment order or the civic body’s response to her removal.
Her experience places education, sanitation work and public health in the same frame. As a municipal sanitation worker, Pathan has had direct experience of neighbourhood cleanliness and waste-related conditions. Her microbiology training has now led her to pursue higher education in public health at Savitribai Phule Pune University.
“I want to build a career in public health. I have closely experienced the health, sanitation and water-related problems in slum areas. Rather than limiting myself to book-based knowledge, I want to work on preventive measures using practical experience,” she said.
Pathan said she wants to use her education for the health of disadvantaged and needy communities. Her next step is her continuing public-health education, while the circumstances surrounding her discontinued contract employment remain unaddressed in the supplied report.
