New Delhi, Mar 14 (IANS): If people think that only men can become bouncers to tackle unwanted situations, then Mehrunisha Shaukat Ali is an iconoclast for this orthodox mentality. 34-year-old Mehrunisha works as a bouncer in a nightclub, and besides handling frequent quarrels she also keeps an eye on female customers.
No one can predict from Mehrunisha's politeness, which she adopts towards the customers, that a strict bouncer is hidden inside her. She has six siblings at home -- three brothers and three sisters. Interestingly, one of her sisters is also following her footsteps.
Mehrunisha hails from Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. She started working as a bouncer in 2004 when she was studying in Class 10. However, initially she was treated as a security guard instead of bouncer, which she opposed strictly.
Mehrunisha told IANS, "I am the first woman bouncer in the country, I fought a lot to get this status. I used to get very angry when I was called guard. But after bitter a struggle I got the status of the first woman bouncer in the country."
Although her father was unhappy with this work, he used to ask her to leave this job following taunts and comments from people. But the time has come when the same people say if there is a daughter, she should be like Mehrunisha. It's all because of her hard work and 'never-give-up' attitude.
However, Mehrunisha has no work at the moment, she lost her job due to the corona pandemic and as private events were not taking place, she has no part-time job as well.
She has responsibility of her family on her shoulders, but she cannot do anything as there are no jobs available in the market.
Mehrunisha has been felicitated with many awards so far. On the occasion of the International Women's Day, she was also honoured by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Not only this, a book is also being written on him.
Despite receiving so much accolades, she is not happy. She said that she could not get the thing that she deserves as per the kind of struggle she did in her life. And the situation is that she has no job at this moment.
Mehrunisha further said, "I faced a lot of trouble in the beginning, neither the family used to support me nor anybody else. I was overweight too, after that I joined NCC. I wanted to join police force or Army but father was not liking it."
"I also appeared for the police exam and succeeded. If my father would have said yes at that time, I might have been a Sub-Inspector by now," she regrets.
She further said, "There was so much struggle in my life that I could not even get married. After a road accident my sister's husband left her, after which the responsibility of their children came upon me. I received marriage proposals but nobody is ready to take the responsibility of children."