1.Tell us about yourself and your life?

I am Shaikh Tabinda Adil, a postgraduate student from Mumbai university, a 22 year old girl who is passionate about her work because I love what I do. I have a steady source of motivation that drives me to do my best. I’m a people person. I love meeting new people and learning about their lives and their backgrounds.

I love to travel, explore new things and be around my loved ones. Visiting old age homes, orphanages and meeting orphans gives me immense happiness. Elderly people are the treasure of knowledge and I love to sit with them and talk about life, their life and journey and it helps me gain the strength and motivation to be my best version. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and I am dedicatedly working on it. I can feel the dilemmas of others because I have been through a very difficult time, I have witnessed poverty, and I have gone through a huge financial crisis due to my father’s illness. There was a time when we didn’t have money to pay our school fees, food to eat and we even had to sell our house and shift to a shanty house in a slum area. There was no one to help, we were nearly starving but somehow my mother managed to pay our fees by tailoring. Witnessing poverty at an early age has made me an emotional and sentimental person.

2- What led you to social activism?

It all started from the CAA NRC protest. Police stormed into the University’s campus without permission and reportedly fired tear gas shells into the library. They baton charged students, even those who were not involved in the protest. This had me vexed and I was literally crying watching the terrible condition. One of my cousins staying near Jamia was continuously calling with an anxious voice to help them. The very next day we gathered in our university campus in solidarity with Jamia and Aligarh students. That day my life turned, it was the fight for my very own existence, for my identity. I was not a ‘hijabi’ girl but when our P.M said, “Kapdo se pehchano”, I started wearing a hijab with burkha because that’s my identity. I am unapologetically proud of my identity.

Then the lockdown was enforced suddenly so I turned my focus to serve the community. We had created a very strong network of people during the time of protest and all of them turned their focus on helping and assisting those in need. During the lockdown, I was stranded in Bihar with my father but my mother and siblings were in Mumbai. The covid situation left me in agony. I feared if I would ever be able to meet my family again.
But on the very next day one of my neighbours who is not privileged enough came to me with a worried face and said in utter helplessness , “Ye Kya Ho Gaya, ab kya hoga”. I felt I was privileged enough with a shelter over my head, food to eat, clothes to wear but what about the daily wagers? It was a matter of life and death for them. So I started crowdfunding locally and from my relatives to assist the needy. I think Social media plays a very important role in today’s era. And it cannot only spread hate but it can spread love too which has been proved in this pandemic. Most of the fundraising I did was from twitter and I got in touch with many NGOs and many philanthropists there.

I have worked with Sonu Sood sir, Ruben sir, co-founder of Khana Chahiye and many other dignitaries.
Since last year we have been able to help more than 10 thousand families with ration, medicine, migrant travel, oxygen cylinder, medical expenses, have helped a woman with delivery of her child, and have established a source of earning for many people. Farmers and laborers are the backbone of the country but the way migrants have been treated in this lockdown will always remain a matter of deep shame to the nation. I was in tears when I saw the condition of the migrants. It was painful to the core to see the condition of the migrants on the road when we used to go for food-donation drives.

It gives me immense displeasure to see how badly people of my own state have been treated in this lockdown. Metro cities are built on migrants’ sweat and efforts. So now I have planned to work on the development of my village as well. All problems have only one solution and that is ‘education’. I have started a free class for underprivileged children and after the reopening of schools, we will enroll them in schools. Health is as crucial as anything else so I am even working on the project of a hospital which is being built in my own village. There are no hospitals in and around our villages. People have to travel 17kms for any medical emergency. After the building of the hospital, it will be beneficial for our villages and surrounding villages too.

3- What is the one cause you deeply care about?

The causes which I deeply care are poverty, illiteracy, child labour and unemployment these are something which I have personally witnessed. Even today most of the people in our country find it very hard to make their ends meet with basic things like food, clothes and house. I would like to set up a school and a library in the rural places where children can get basic education and training centers for women to make them skilled workers so that they earn themselves and be self-dependent. This might make a huge difference in their lives and will also try to motivate people with privileges to help them.

4- If one wants to contribute and make a difference in social causes, how can one do it?

One can visit an orphanage or old-age homes and try to reach out to their needs. A single day spent with all those people who don’t have families makes their day nothing less than a festival. They will feel wholesome. Spending a little time with them and sharing happiness and sorrows will work like medicine. Just peek into yourself, write down on a piece of paper the problems you have faced in your life. Rate them according to the hardship faced by you and voila. Some of those problems are common to society, you’re aware of the hardship involved and the repercussions. Pledge to remove those hardships from the life of masses. One will achieve their target.

5- Who is your role model and why?

Parents make enormous sacrifices for us and often are our best teachers in life.
For me, my role model is my mother because of the way she has overcome all the difficulties and hardships which life has thrown at her. Her parents got separated when she was 3 years old, you can imagine the life of children of separated parents. I haven’t seen her childhood but I have listened to her depressing stories. Anyways, she got married to my father and life was going well until the problems knocked at her door yet again. My father got diagnosed with a brain tumor. This was a very difficult time for all of us. My father was the sole breadwinner of our family, he was unable to look at our business and this led to a huge financial crisis and downfall in our business. We had to sell our flats and shifted to a slum area. We were unable to pay our school fees.

My relatives were not supportive and persuaded us to shift back to the village . This advice didn’t go well with my mother and she decided to take over the business. A woman, who had barely studied till class 4th in a ‘madrasa’ living in a village, took over our business and educated her children. Her story really inspires me a lot. She is bold, courageous, and hardworking. She never gave up, instead she faced all the dilemmas and conquered them. Whatever I am today is because of her.

6- What are the issues and roadblocks you have faced in your journey?

We still live in a patriarchal society. Society always looks down upon women. People always talk about women empowerment, but society cannot stand the empowered women, they do not know how to treat an empowered female. Working on the ground in this patriarchal society was very tough, I had to deal with nasty comments. People need me and my assistance but still, they used to pass comments on me because I am a woman and was working in a gathering of men. I have gone through name-calling and slut-shaming but I always found my father and my brother standing by my side and encouraging and motivating me. The saddest part was women were passing comments more than men. My mother gets to hear things like “beti ko wapas Mumbai bula lo warna badnaam ho jayegi”, “shaadi nahi hogi”, “ladkiyo ko chulha chauki sikhna chahiye toh ye kya karwa rahe ho”, blah blah. At the time when the whole country was reeling under the massive crisis people of our village and relatives were concerned about these petty things.

7- Your opinion about social media activism?

Everything has its pros and cons. Social media activism works if one uses it correctly. It works if people fact-check the posts they share. To effectively and responsibly advocate for a movement online, one should take the time to learn and research the issues they’re talking about and develop a true devotion to their cause.
Last month when the government system collapsed and failed to save the lives of its citizens.

There’s no doubt that social media played a large part in raising awareness about the coronavirus and it became a life-saving medium. All the SOS tweets were shared on social media and all social activists and dignitaries were involved in amplifying the tweets and helping the citizens. We get to hear about the news of rape and lynchings from social media and we raise our voices for justice on that platform. it’s not that rape and lynching are happening today, it’s happening for a long time but due to social media, we get to know about every case. Hashtags help us to highlight the situation to the world. Because of the accessibility of social media and its participatory nature, the internet has become a powerhouse when it comes to raising awareness about political and social issues.

Written & Edited By – Team Shams Aalam