The songs of Kohinoor Begum

“Whenever there is a celebration, I start composing songs.”

Kohinoor Begum is a one-woman band – she sets the music and plays the dhol. “My friends gather and join the chorus.”  Her feisty songs feature labour, farming, and the daily chores of everyday life.

An experienced labour rights activist, Kohinoor aapa (sister) as she is fondly known around Murshidabad district, is a mid-day meal cook at Janaki Nagar Prathamik Vidyalaya Primary School here in Beldanga-I block.

“I have seen hard days right from my early childhood. But hunger and extreme poverty did not break me,” says the 55-year-old who has gone to create a number of songs. Read: Beedi workers: songs of life and labour .

In Bengal’s Murshidabad district, a majority of women roll beedies to support their families. The long hours in cramped positions handling toxic material, causes severe and irreversible decline in their health. Herself a beedi roller, Kohinooor aapa is at the forefront of pushing for better working conditions and labour rights for these workers.  Read: Women beedi workers’ health: up in smoke

“I have no land. What I earn as a mid-day meal cook is better left unsaid – because it doesn’t even match what the lowest paid daily wage worker earns. My man [husband, Jamaluddin Sheikh] is a scrap collector. We have raised our three children [with difficulty],” she says, speaking to us at her home in Janaki Nagar.

Her face brightens when all of a sudden, an infant comes crawling up the stairs to the terrace where we are. It’s Kohinoor aapa’s year-old granddaughter. The baby jumps into her grandmother’s lap, bringing a big smile to her dadi’s (paternal grandmother’s) face.

“Life will have struggles. We must not be afraid. We have to fight for our dreams,” she says holding the tiny palm in her work-worn hands. “Even my baby knows this. Yes maa ?”

“What are your dreams, aapa ?” we ask.

She responds saying, “Listen to the geet [song] about my dreams.”