04th April, 2022

Author: Preeti Sharma (Content Writer)

Manjeet Kaur was born in the Chhattisgarh tribal district of Jashpur. Being from a farmer family Manjeet has a close bond to Mother Nature. Her father was a hostel warden at Government Engineering College in Bilaspur and always motivated Manjeet to participate in extracurricular activities. Manjeet is an activist who has been involved in social concerns and awareness programs in addition to her studies from childhood. She gets appreciated for her efforts in following the principles Mahatma Gandhi. Her family never objected and stopped her for participating in social issues. Manjeet has done Bsc and MBA and during this period she suffered with serious illness which lasted nearly four years, yet despite her illness she completed her education.

Manjeet enrolled in Jagdalpur Engineering College for work; the college's location was not ideal due to its tribal background. Her father, suggested Manjeet to join this institution because Jagdalpur was known for Naxalite activity at the time, due to which the teaching staff was quite less in college. After considering the situation, Manjeet decided to work here for three years as a part-time lecturer at higher this college. As a result of her efforts, things began to take shape with maximum placements of that time as she told to The HULAHUL Times.

In 2004, The World Bank Program selected Manjeet for Baster District. People were apprehensive to work in Baster because it was Naxalite territory, but Manjeet again decided to work here and her rural upbringing enabled her to be more communicative with the people in the community and get the results from the association. Manjeet focus towards the work has boosted her performance and she has been assigned to other districts where the situation was truly disastrous and with her robust efforts she obtained best employee awards for continuous two years. She worked on multiple initiatives based on community advancement, eradicating poverty and sustainability and projects related to rural development and project coordination for various panchayat from 2007 until 2013.

When Manjeet was a training Coordinator in 2013, she received complaints about a Panchayat Minister misbehaving with some of the females, when she discussed this matter with authorities, she was advised to drop her concerns because the Minister was a member of the ruling party. Manjeet, on the other hand, expressed her concerns about that Panchayat Minister and despite of warnings and threats about her own appointment and working she remained firm on her points and finally the court decision came in her favor that she has been found sincere and disciplined in her position, and the allegations against her have been proven false, and she is eligible to continue her service. The Supreme Court is now hearing the Panchayat Minister case. Her motivation for speaking out was simple; she wanted to make women aware of their rights and the importance of not accepting such events in their lives. Throughout these tough times, her father was always there for her, advising her to be firm in her statements.

Manjeet is a recognized personality' in Chhattisgarh for her contributions to snake conservation. She defends the animals by rescuing and teaches people how to handle snakes using everyday items like pipes and buckets, eventually changing their minds about the reptiles. She wants to educate people to know about how to avoid killing snakes and other creatures. A single woman handling the world's most lethal snakes, such as the cobra, would make headlines in any part of the world. In Raipur, it is equivalent to celebrity status. “There were numerous grasslands surrounding their home and my profession can't just be about preserving snakes” Manjeet adds. She wanted to teach people what a snake is; so that they can let it live and with these efforts Manjeet has proven herself in society.

Manjeet believes in working for those aspects that are critical but nothing or very little have been done on it and one such work is birding. She was interested in birds, but never attempted to recognize any. In October 2016, her brother gave her a camera, which was the first turning point in birding career. Her motive was not only up to birds but to make people aware of about a proper environment for birds and about their habitants. She meets Mohit Sahu to better her birding skills who inspired her environmentalist inclinations. He introduced Manjeet to E-Birding and assisted her in understanding the significance of birding and how it might aid in bird conservation worldwide. E-Birding is a kind of project in which she improved her birding techniques, understand the multifaceted approaches and analyze birding practices. Manjeet believes that "the experience of birding must be shared to others so that others might be started into this endeavor that offers you to contribute to the environmental preservation."

In Covid -19 outbreak, she along with government authorities managed the shelter home and rescued 1500 individuals. She used her personal finances to make the arrangements for the migrants and other facilities especially for children’s and pregnant womens reach to their destinations and later on received support from Azim Premji Foundation and from the government of Chhattisgarh in transportation of these migrants. In 2021, she was being assigned to call centre and control room to monitor the activities of hospitalization in Covid patients. Manjeet has always believed in learning and dedicating it to society, and therefore strives to make it as simple as possible so that anyone might just do it.