Bulandshahr: For 19 years, Noorjahan’s home was doomed in darkness, surrounded by the glow and light of all the homes in Bulandshahr’s Khedi village in Uttar Pradesh. It was the only house to not get an electricity connection—until one day a police officer knocked on her door.
It took IPS officer Anukriti Sharma three days to succeed where everyone else had failed. And it began with a 23 June visit to Khedi and under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s ‘Mission Shakti Abhiyan’ to empower women at the ground level. After meeting 70-year-old Noorjahan, Assistant Superintendent of Police Anukriti Sharma jumped into action. She and her team spoke to officers in the electricity department, followed up with them, and got the tin-roofed house onto the grid.
On 26 June, the police team marched back to Noorjahan’s house. As curious villagers gathered around them, Sharma asked Noorjahan to flick the switch. The lone lightbulb in the one-room house flickered to life, and everyone cheered.
It was a ‘let there be light’ moment in Noorjahan’s life. Local police opened two bottles of Pepsi and distributed sweets.
“I took a sip too,” said Noorjahan with a grin. “All the villagers had gathered outside my house. My whole life has been spent in sorrow, now I have got some relief.” The police team gifted her a pedestal fan, which whirred to life as well.
“All the intersections of vulnerability are there in Noorjahan’s life. It was a small task for us. We did not want to disappoint her by saying that this is the work of the electricity department,” said Sharma.
Noorjahan’s immediate neighbour, Farzana, who has been helping her through the years, was delighted. “Amma ab to 5-10 saal umar badh gyi h tumhari (Amma, now your age has increased by 5-10 years.),” she joked.
Clips of an elderly Noorjahan patting the IPS officer’s back evoked memories of the 2004 Shah Rukh Khan hit movie, Swades.
“Swades moment of my life… Getting electricity connection to Noorjahan aunty’s house literally felt lyk bringing light into her life,” Sharma tweeted while thanking SHO of Agauta police station, Jitendra kumar Saxena and her team.
Even before the luminous moment, she had spread the word among her friends earlier that day. “I told my friends, today is going to be a Swades moment of my life.”
This small victory reinforced Sharma’s conviction that turning her back on a PhD programme at Rice University in Texas and returning to India was the right decision.
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The Mission
The Bulandshahr’s ASP’s mission to make a difference is far from over. She and her team visited villages in the district and sought out women under the third phase of the Mission Shakti Abhiyan from 12 to 26 June.
As part of the mission, police officers travel from village to village to make women aware of their rights and help them solve their day-to-day problems. Sharma wants to build trust through dialogue and her actions, and walks the talk herself. She put out her phone number and appealed to people to come to her with their complaints.
“There were many dalaal (brokers) here, so I made my number public.”
While maintaining law and order and cracking down on criminals is the job of the police, Sharma sees such interactions as a way to prevent crime, and highlight the human side of the police department. This incident can also be seen from the point of view of crime, she said.
“There is darkness in a woman’s house, and she is old. What would we do if something had happened at her house? Crime prevention is also the job of the police.”
A career in India was not part of Sharma’s plan initially. After graduating from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, in 2012, she enrolled in Rice University in the United States for a Phd where volcanoes were her focus area. But something was missing from her life.
“My husband and I were thinking that time, our work is not directly affecting the people. A time came when the desire to return to the country grew so much that we decided to come back,” said Sharma, who is from Rajasthan.
She returned to India within a year and started preparing for the UPSC. In her third attempt she got selected for IRS, but she gave the competitive exam again, secured a 138th rank and became an IPS officer in 2020.
This is Sharma’s first full posting as ASP in Bulandshahr and she wants to use the opportunity to improve the image of the police. But she’s bemused by the publicity she and her team have got from their work in Khedi village.
“I don’t know how this thing got highlighted, but our department is helping people every day,” she said. The same day Noorjahan got an electricity connection, Sharma and her team helped a little girl from Dariapur village of Bulandshahar Kotwali rural area get admission at the local primary school. Her admission had been pending for several months because of paperwork and no Aadhaar card. Sharma had met the family during a chaupal for women and girls at Dariapur village.
The IPS officer also runs a campaign called ‘Police My Friend’ in Bulandshahr where she visits police stations in her jurisdiction every month to meet with people directly. July is a busy month for them with six meetings in different police stations.
“I have done this continuously since my undertraining period,” she said. Before this, Sharma was posted in Lucknow as a trainee officer.
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No light to limelight
At the Jat-dominated Khedi, villagers are basking in their newfound celebrity status after Sharma’s Twitter post went viral with over 16 lakh views so far. Over the last fortnight, reporters, camera crew and photographers have all sought out Noorjahan and her newly lit house.
“Amma has taken over the entire news,” said then neighbour Farzana gleefully. And the LED and the stand fan have become a ‘tourist site’ even among villagers.
“The village has been blessed. I can’t express happiness in words,” said Kavindra Singh, the village head. That everyone is talking about his little village, which relies on sugarcane farming to sustain itself, is surreal.
The IAS-IPS fraternity is also praising Sharma. Awanish Sharan, IAS of Chhattisgarh cadre wrote, “This is awesome Anukriti. Keep it up.”
Thank you so much sir 🙏🏻
— Anukriti Sharma, IPS 🇮🇳 (@ipsanukriti14) June 27, 2023
Noorjahan’s village received electricity 19 years ago in 2004, but because she lived alone and could not read or write, she hadn’t applied for a connection.
SHO Saxena, who did the groundwork and coordinated with the electricity department, has promised to pay her electricity bills for the duration of his posting.
“Noorjahan is financially weak. She lost her husband, and there was no one with her at home to help her,” he said.
And caught up in the moment, Singh too has offered the village’s financial help. He claimed she didn’t want to get the electricity connection because of the expenses she would incur with monthly bills.
Similar heartwarming stories have been emerging from the heartlands of Uttar Pradesh under the Shakti mission which Yogi had launched in 2020. In Banda district, two young girls were made SHO for a day. They listened to the problems of the people, found solutions and issued orders for immediate action to be taken. In September last year, a day’s proceedings at UP Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad were dedicated to women legislators.
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A bright Eid
Noorjahan was in the dark about Shakti Abhiyan until Sharma came to the village and held a meeting with everyone. Her husband passed away 30 years ago, and her two daughters, now married, live in Delhi and Punjab.
But Khedi is her home and she will not leave her house with its leaky tin roof and mud floor.
“I don’t feel good living in a big city. I came here after getting married, now I want to take my final breath here,” she said. A few years ago, she got her own bathroom under the Prime Minister’s Toilet Scheme.
“When there was no electricity, I had to sleep on the verandah at night because it was very hot. Now I sleep comfortably under the fan,” said Noorjahan, enjoying the novelty of turning off the light at night. “Who will keep the lights on at night? Can’t sleep in the light.”
Noorjahan’s living expenses run on one thousand rupees received under the widow’s pension. The people living in the neighborhood take care of her. Neighbours feed her sometimes and also help her with money. She gets ration under government scheme.
“It was the villagers who helped in the marriages of their daughters. There was never a light in her house. Earlier, she used to work with candles and dibiya (caskets),” said Farzana.
The timing of the electricity connection just before Eid was serendipitous. For the first time in her life, Noor Jahan celebrated Eid under the light of her own house. She made kheer to mark the occasion.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)