Krishna Kumari Kolhi
Senator
The Hope Brigade Karachi, 2021
It was my father’s dream to see me succeed beyond our means as poverty stricken bonded laborers. I turned his wish into my goal and never took my eyes off it till one day I found myself sitting in the Pakistani Parliament.
Krishna Kumari Kolhi belongs to the Kohli community from the remote village of Dhana Gam in Nagarparkar and was elected as senator in March 2018, after spending many years working for the rights of bonded labourers in Pakistan. She is the first Thari Hindu woman to be elected to the Pakistan senate. Kumari's endeavours to end bonded labour in Pakistan are fuelled by her own childhood experience of being forced to work with her family by a landlord in Umerkot for three years before being rescued in a police raid. After they were released from bonded labour, her parents encouraged her to study, supporting her from primary classes in Umerkot and Mirpurkhas to a postgraduate degree in Sociology from the University of Sindh, Jamshoro. She is known for her campaigns and workshops for human and women's rights and against bonded labour. In 2018, BBC named her one of the BBC's 100 most influential women.