Mumbai: City Mayor puts on nurse outfit to cheer up fraternity

Mumbai: City Mayor puts on nurse outfit to cheer up fraternity

Staff ReporterUpdated: Monday, April 27, 2020, 11:18 PM IST
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Twitter @KishoriPednekar

Mumbai: Years after she left the profession, Kishori Pednekar, the mayor of Mumbai, once again put on a nurse’s uniform and visited the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation-run BYL Nair Hospital at Mumbai Central on Monday morning. Pednekar paid it a visit to encourage and enthuse the staff nurse and nursing students, who are at the frontline to combat the CoVID-19 outbreak.

Pednekar, a former nurse, met with the hospital’s nursing staff and nursing students and enquired about the difficulties they are facing while dealing with the pandemic and shared some tips with the students. She even shared her personal mobile number with the nursing students and assured them that they can contact her whenever they face any issues.

Meanwhile, a senior BMC official said that Pednekar ensured social distancing norms were adhered to during her visit to the hospital. “I’ve worked as a nurse and I’m aware of the professional challenges that nurses have to face. Working for long hours risking their lives, all while keeping self and family behind, is not easy. I have put on a nurse uniform to convey a message to the nursing fraternity that I’m one them and I am with them during these challenging times. I interacted with the nursing staff and students to boost their morale and appreciate their efforts against the pandemic. We need to stand by each other to fight it together,” Pednekar told the Free Press Journal.

After visiting Nair hospital on Monday, Pednekar now plans to make a similar visit to the BMC-run Sion Hospital on Tuesday.

Born in 1962 into a poor mill worker's family in Worli, Kishori married Kishore Pednekar and shifted to nearby Lower Parel. In order to boost the family's resources, she took up a job as a nurse in 1992. She worked at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust Hospital in Uran, Raigad, before plunging into politics. Initially, she worked for the Shiv Sena in Raigad and Sindhudurg districts in western Maharashtra. She was elected as a BMC councillor in 2002 and has since been re-elected twice in 2012 and 2017.

Pednekar quarantined herself at her official residence in Byculla for a week after she came in contact with 53 Mumbai-based journalists who tested positive at a health camp organised by the BMC authorities.

Pednekar, who was present at the same health camp, had announced that she would quarantine herself for two weeks, but decided to get back to her public life after she was tested negative for the second consecutive time. “I stepped out only after both my swab samples tested negative. As the city's first citizen, I need to work for the Mumbaikars first. I cannot work from home during this time,” she added.

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