“LSE became the turning point of my life” – Pinky (Case Study)

Dedication. Perseverance. Will Power. There is no alternative to these three if we want to turn our fates according to our will. And Pinky Bagul, a remarkable young lady of Mumbai, who has been a part of our Life Skills Empowerment batches, first as a student and now as a Change Agent for the younger batches, proves just that.

25 years ago, as an infant, Pinky arrived in Mumbai in the arms of her parents, in search of a viable treatment for her disabled left leg. With bare minimum available resources, the financial burden on the parents increased a lot considering the sky-rocketing cost of living in this City of Dreams. Unfortunately, the doctors gave up on Pinky’s leg. But with hopes of a decent education and life, Pinky’s family of five (now including her two brothers) decided to settle in Mumbai. As fate would have it, Pinky lost her father 12 years ago and soon after Pinky had to discontinue with her studies after her 10^th Std. examinations, and her brother started working in a courier company to look after the family.

Then a few years ago, the Life Skills Empowerment (LSE) project’s animator, Prafullata started mobilizing our project communities to talk to young girls about the classes of LSE and its importance and benefit and that is when Pinky enrolled herself in these classes. “And LSE became the turning point of my life!” exclaims Pinky.

“I had initially joined LSE for time pass since I didn’t have much to do at home anyway, except for a bit of cooking and cleaning. But as the sessions advanced, especially ones on health, communication skills and the exposure visits, I started understanding the importance of education and becoming financially independent. I could feel the changes in myself; I started feeling the increase in my confidence level and the desire to do something on my own. I started understanding the importance of taking care of myself and keeping a check of my own and family’s health. My myths about different health issues, the superstitions I had seen and learnt since my childhood and the inferiority complex which I earlier had because of my disabled leg, all started vanishing completely! Also, with the street plays and other functions in the communities, as part of Mumbai Smiles, I noticed myself getting better at Public Speaking skills too! I realized that there is nothing we cannot achieve if we truly want it and work hard for it!” remembers Pinky about her LSE sessions.

Continuing, Pinky tells us about how she started her first job, “I started with my education again and managed to complete my SYBA (Second Year of Bachelor in Arts) and on one of the LSE exposure visits to a hospital, I got inspired to find some work in medicine and so I enrolled myself for a Medical Hospitality course and landed my first job (part-time) as a compounder in a dispensary nearby.”

Pinky used her first salary for renovating her house. Today, Pinky is standing tall and confident at the age of 25, proudly shouldering the responsibility of her house, along with her brother, now with Rs.8000 as her monthly salary as a Cashier in Star Bazaar (a retail store). She says, “All my neighbours who thought of me as an insignificant cripple now give my example to their kids and ask me about the procedures at Banks, Post Offices and other work. And with Mumbai Smiles felicitating me as an Outstanding Achiever on Women’s Day this year with the beautiful trophy, they all keep coming to see my trophy and try to inspire their children to win trophies too”, she laughs.

Pinky being felicitated on Women’s Day 2017 by Jaume Sanllorente, the Founder & President of Mumbai Smiles Foundation

Pinky continues to be associated with the LSE program as a Change Agent and her strong beliefs make her a very good leader for her peers and younger batches of LSE, “Because of LSE, many social and health related misbeliefs are getting eliminated from the minds of the adolescents. And with the communication gap that exists among the children and parents, there is a noticeable lack of support and guidance for the children, especially in the slum communities where all the efforts go into making two ends meet. And this is where I and my fellow batch-mates come in as Change Agents for our communities, to help these young girls grow healthily, both mentally and physically.”

Truly an inspirational figure, we wish Pinky all the very best for her bright, bright future!