THARPARKAR – Kiran Sadhwani, a girl from drought-hit region of Thar, never thought of becoming the first woman engineer at a mega power project running under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) when she started studying engineering.
The 23-year-old, who studied at Mehran University of Engineering Technology, applied for the job when she learnt about vacancies for Thar Coal Power Project. With dreams of serving her community, she preferred the field-based job over working in offices in other big cities like Karachi.
“I was selected out of 4,000 candidates about eight months ago,” she said, adding that she passed every step for selection despite it being hectic.
“But my selection proves that a Thari girl is equally skilled despite facing the issues in the region,” the young engineer said.
Kiran is the only woman among those 25 candidates, who have been recruited for working at the site. She also faced restriction from her family as her father was not in favour of her stay at the site where many officers and labourers were living.
The engineer said she wanted to stay near the field, where she has been appointed, in order to visit the mining area with ease, adding, “I urged my father to allow me for staying there as I did not want to confine myself in comfort zone”.
However, Kiran’s father allowed her to stay there and now she goes to her home in Mithi every fortnight.
“I was so excited after being selected as it was an opportunity for me to prove myself,” she said, adding that she did not want to be like the other women in her area.
She also faced hardship for selection of the subject as her parents wanted her to select medical instead of engineering as they insisted it was a difficult profession for a girl. “But I successfully persuaded them for it and I joined the university to study engineering,” she said.
Kiran, who belongs to Thar’s Hindu community, is distinguished in her native village as she is the first girl who studied engineering or attended a university.
She had received early education in her hometown, Mithi, where she born into a middle class family.
Besides her work, she actively volunteers to motivate the women in several villages to apply for a dump truck driver job after the Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) launched its project for females.
Playing table tennis, reading books and listening music is the hobbies of the Thari girl, who desires to work for her community’s development.
