Taniya Sanyal: An Indispensable Foot Soldier
Do you remember that old funny saying, ‘Women can be anything but a firefighter because they burn more and extinguish less.’ Well, today’s women are breaking all the old stereotypes and proving the world wrong. They have changed people’s mindset from ‘You can’t’ to ‘You can.’
This new saying for woman firefighters, ‘I do it because I can; I can because I want to; I want to because you said.’ has replaced the older one. Today’s post is about Taniya Sanyal, who has a big hand in changing this system. She is the first woman aviation firefighter in India. HatkeStory is feeling pleased to present her story through this platform. Let’s know more about her journey.
I’m Taniya Sanyal. I belong to Kolkata from a typical middle-class Bengali family.
I did my master’s in Botany. Currently, I’m working as an aviation firefighter. It’s a government job. Becoming a firefighter wasn’t a part of the plan. It came suddenly and unexpectedly.
One day, I was going through a newspaper advertisement, and I stopped at this ad. There was a vacancy in the aviation firefighter service—it kind of thrilled me. I didn’t know what got inside me, but I just thought maybe I could do this. It sounded very challenging and a new thing to me, so I applied for it. I gave the exam and cleared it.
My family was shocked after hearing this, but I come from a privileged background, so they didn’t make a fuss over it. They gave me the independence to choose what I wanted to do. My parents and everybody else in the family supported my decision. Taniya Sanyal was told to shift to Delhi to start her training period.
My training period was quite tricky. On the day of training, I realized that I was the only woman on the entire campus. The principal had said, ‘Do you know you are the first woman at our center?’ I was stunned after hearing his words. Then me being India’s first aviation firefighter was more surprising. For the first time, I felt weird, awkward, but proud at the same time. Taniya Sanyal gradually adapted to the situation and turned her focus to training.
It was five months of training and demanded a lot. The training started at 6 in the morning. There were parades, fire fighting equipment training, theory classes, and all. So it was like a full-day schedule.
Aviation fire fighting is different, so we were trained according to it only. Generally, there is a fire station at the airport. The firefighters are always ready with their vehicles or ambulances. If a plane catches fire, then we leave immediately. We work in seconds, not even minutes. So we have to calculate each second. It’s hazardous because there are too many things that we have to do at once. If a plane crashes, it hardly gets time, so it’s all about managing time. You have to fight with fire, and at the same time, you’ve to rescue the people stuck in there.
I remember waking early in the morning, going to the field, taking six rounds of the vast campus. It was too much for me to bear. Often, we were punished for not handling the task better, and I’d willingly become a part of those punishments. My trainers were a bit lenient on me. They would allow me to rest during my periods, but I wanted to be treated equally and roughly as other male candidates, so I never bent down or asked for gentle treatment.
The environment was perfect there. People working there were very disciplined—one thing I want to say is that there was no discrimination between men and women. Taniya Sanyal says, “A firefighter is a firefighter, and that was the best part of my job.”
My training ended, and I was posted in Kolkata. At present, I’m working in a training center and training new girls and boys. More women are taking up this profession. I am the first woman, so I’m giving training to new people, basically freshers.
Taniya Sanyal was felicitated at the Safety Professional Association of India (SPAI) under the government’s Suraksha Bharat Mission. “The theme of this event was women leadership in disaster management.” She received the Citizen Safety Award 2019. It was organized in Jaipur, and she represented West Bengal. Taniya Sanyal had also won an award from the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), Government of Delhi.
Taniya Sanyal was 25 when she got the job. Currently, she is focusing on her career. Her grandmother inspired her to be a government employee. “When I was giving exams for this job, I lost her. I could have told her that I achieved it, but I didn’t get this opportunity. That’s an unfortunate thing for me,” says Taniya Sanyal remembering her past.
In the end, “I want to say that nothing is impossible and don’t fear trying new things. I always believed that the word “Impossible” ’s hidden meaning is ‘I am possible’ with the same belief I applied for this role. So I think there is nothing that we can’t do. But getting into it is more important to dream and focus on your goal, put all your dedication and determination towards it. I want to encourage other girls. I believe that women’s empowerment is not just a battle, but it is an attempt. Women should walk ‘shoulder to shoulder – with men in their own right.”
Like us on FB, if you find our content interesting: https://www.facebook.com/hatkestoryofficial/
Do you have an interesting incident or experience to share with the world? Write to us, and together we can discuss how to weave your story and present it to the world. Would you mind sending us your story?
Comments are closed.