Jinsha Basheer discovered that an employee at a petrol pump was tampering with the quantity of petrol being filled in the vehicles and confronted him. She was shocked by the response: “The employee at the petrol pump told me that there is no need to make a fuss out of it and that this is the situation everywhere. He also added that this has been happening for years and that even public is aware of the same,” says Jinsha, who then decided to make a video citing the particular example and raising a question to the public as to why they are keeping mum on such issues and the necessity to react.
It was six months back when Jinsha, a software engineer from Alappuzha, first took a step forward in a direction to inform people regarding such happenings in society, which slowly made her a video blogger, bringing up videos regarding the various provisions available in the system that help common man deal with their day-to-day problems, persuading people to help the needy, giving information regarding various employment opportunities and about things that in one or the other way are helpful to public at large.
Jinsha receiving the Best Social Media Blogger Award 2018.
However, things were not that easy for Jinsha. Her entry into the world of video blogging was not accepted my many, especially by those from her community. “I believe in the religion that I follow, but I am not ready to blindly accept things that a community imposes on its people. No religion has ever preached that women need not raise their voices against the odds in society. It is the religious leaders and other people who twist the guidelines of the religion according to their wish. My father has taught me to give my opinions loud and clear anywhere I feel like and that is exactly what I am doing.”
“I am not a feminist, but I do not believe in the rules that ask a women to keep her mouth shut just because men feel that they only have the right to speak up,” she said, explaining the challenges that she had to face in her initial days. She says she was even isolated by her friends who would send her screenshots of abusive messages posted on her social media page and would force her to stop video blogging saying that it was her ‘celebrity mania’ that was driving her into such things. But Jinsha had made up her mind to continue doing what she felt is helping people in different ways. Sharing her thoughts on an incident that persuaded her to stick on to video blogging, Jinsha says, “The smile on the face of one-and-a-half-year old Aisha is priceless. Her family was able to raise '30 lakh rupees for her bone marrow replacement surgery through the video I had posted on my page. Aisha is a healthy child now. The Right to Information Act is one of the strongest tools in our system and if we make the proper use of it, the government servants will be forced to do their work on time. I want people to know about such things, which will be of use to them.”
Jinsha with one-a-half-year-old Aisha who had to go through bone marrow replacement.
As Jinsha is bringing in financial help to the needy through her messages, various trusts and NGOs have come forward expressing their willingness to collaborate with her. But she is not interested in partnering with anyone. “I do not believe in such systems because I strongly feel that somewhere down the line, at least some of these organisations do take a percentage of the benefits that should go to the person who is in need of it. I make sure that every penny directly reaches the person,” she adds. Jinsha makes sure that the requests she gets asking to pool in financial help are true to the core before she posts a video on the same.
Jinsha, who has 2.8 lakh followers on her social media page, is not longing for publicity and says that it is the reason why she does not talk about controversial topics like religion and politics. “I might get many likes and my followers would also increase in the blink of an eye but I do not want that kind of publicity. For me my ethics is what comes first,” she opines adding that she generates income by promotion and advertisement videos only. The young lady who quit her job for doing something for society in the most modern way is becoming an inspiration to many. The various accolades that she has received including the Best Social Media Blogger award 2018 is the testimony to the fact that she has been able to make a visible change through her actions.
