A 58-year-old Kishori Pednekar is Mumbai’s 77th Mayor; she is Shiv Sena leader and three-time corporator from Lower Parel in South Mumbai. She is known for her bunt talks and most of the time she attracts controversies because of her verbal spats. Her childhood has gone in the mills of Worli, struggling to survive, being a nurse and now the mayor, Kishori Pednekar is one of the most stubborn women out there. She takes chances and risks when trying to achieve her goals.
During COVID she was out and out visiting various hospitals and personally monitoring every development there. She is also one of the laud moths or one can call it a loose canon of Shiv Sena, attacking opposition or Shiv Sena critics is her favourite time pass.
Born in a mill worker’s house at Worli Naka, Kishori had started her career as a nurse. She worked at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust hospital as she required the money to support her family income. However, after getting married, she moved to Lower Parel with her husband Kishor Pednekar, and the couple suffered financial struggles. It was then that she took up a job as a full-time nurse in 1992 and was also given charge of her area by the Sena.
While she did not have too much support from her husband’s family, she does credit him with making it into the city of dreams. She had to literally multitask from one task to another while taking care of the patients in hospital and her husband’s ailing old grandmother, besides her two children. While doing all this she never ignored her political and social aspirations.
She joined Shiv Sena women’s wing in 1992. She was assigned to work in Raigad and Sindhudurg districts in Western Maharashtra. Soon after that she became a corporator in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in 2002 and was re-elected in 2012 and 2017. During the three terms, she held all key positions and one of them is serving as a member of the standing committee.
Pednekar’s safe water campaign was very famous and that brought her close to Mumbaikar. With a safe water appeal, she took her officials to task and ordered them to focus on roads without potholes. Her office doors were always kept open; probably she is the one such mayor who was always available for public and BMC officials.
She gave priority to Mumbai’s overall development. One of her initiatives is to demolish dangerous and dilapidated buildings. She has recently announced that there are 443 high-risk buildings in Mumbai. Out of these, 56 are owned by the municipality, 27 by the government, and 360 by the private sector. These isolated structures, often became a shelter for anti-social elements, not to mention crime such as rape. She is currently working on the list, gathering the building’s current status, reaching to work with their owners to get them demolished and securing them. The vacated structures need to be identified primarily at the administrative ward level. Therefore, Mayor Kishori started the programme from her own ward in the G-South ward (Worli and Lower Parel) and took it further to other wards.
During COVID when City came to halt and people were struggling to survive, Mayor Kishori was active on all fronts to ensure medical assistance and medicine supply. There were allegations that the major COVID centre tenders were given to her family and friends. There were also allegations that she indulged in huge corruption during COVID time, be it with medicine supply or infrastructural arrangements.
Besides these accusations, she was seen visiting hospitals and greeting health workers. As a former nurse herself, she donated her uniform to show her solidarity and volunteered to serve as a nurse.
Her hard work helped control the casualties during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mumbai. While monitoring the COVID situation, she made sure the vaccine drives went smoothly with an adequate supply of vaccinations. She planned a vaccine distribution strategy for around 40 per cent of the population in the ‘vulnerable groups.’ She made the real-time monitoring COVID-19 mobile application to regulate the vaccination process.
Establishing the first-ever Biodiversity Management Committee goes to her credit. This Committee regulates the admittance to natural resources and helps in the conservation and preservation of diversity. She is also often stressing on the need for green cover in the city to protect the environment. She urges the Mumbaikars to plant at least two trees on their birthday or any important day to add to the green cover and increase BEST (Bombay Electric Supply & Transport) use buses to reduce road congestion and pollution.
The issues of health, water and sanitation have been given personal special attention with the help of the ‘shakha pramukh’ and her subordinates. She promised good roads for the citizens but somewhere this promise of hers is yet to be fulfilled. But her efforts can’t be ignored; she was the most connected corporator on grounds and now the most available Mayor in Mumbai’s history.
Kishori Pednekar the Mayor of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation which is India’s richest municipal corporation. She was elected as Mayor without any opposition. She is a nurse by profession and that is the reason during the COVID pandemic she motivated many healthcare workers to deal with the situation. However, now that her term is coming to an end and when we asked various politicians about Kishori Pednekar’s performance most of them expressed their disappointment.
In the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) floor leaders meeting held on Sunday at Parliament, alliance partner National People’s Party demanded the Centre to repeal the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
The fifth edition of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) confirmed signs of a demographic shift in India. For the first time since the NFHS began in 1992, the proportion of women exceeded men: there were 1,020 women for 1,000 men. In the last edition of the survey in 2015-16, there were 991 women for every 1,000 men.
AAP leader Preeti Sharma Menon said, “It is heartening to note that after years of awareness campaigns, finally, the gender ratio in India has tilted towards women. Sadly this has not in any way reduced the crimes against women – 20 women are murdered daily for dowry, 77 are raped every day. Half the reason for the increase in women is that people keep producing a string of girls till finally the coveted son is born. We are nowhere close to changing the patriarchal mindset.”
Sujit Patker a Mumbai based Businessman said, “Both central and state governments have created awareness combined with incentives motivation and governance and empowerment by launching schemes like Manjhi Kanya Bhagyashree, Sukanya Samruddhi, Beto Bachao Beti Padhao, Sabla, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, Swader Greh, Balika Saridhhi Yojana, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, Ladli Scheme and the Kanya Kosh Scheme. National Scheme of Incentive for the Girls of Secondary Education. Ladli Laxmi Yojana, etc. The improved sex ratio and sex ratio at birth is also a significant achievement; even though the real picture will emerge from the census. However, incoming times balancing and equal empowerment within both genders will be the key to preserving values and culture in India.”
Zenobia Khodaiji, an astrologer said, “Let female population rise or fall, atrocities can not be controlled because there will be a lot of frustration in your guys reached to marriage age. This gap may invite more social anger towards girls. We need education and implementation of the law.”
Even as Maharashtra Transport Minister Anil Parab had given an ultimatum to the employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), who have been on a strike over their demands, to rejoin duty on Friday, only a section of workers resumed work this morning, officials said.