Selina Begum, West Bengal's First Female Ambulance Driver, Rewarded For COVID-19 Duty

Selina Begum ambulance driver: 27-year-old Selina Begum is a city-based ambulance driver, serving COVID-19 patients for a year now. She has recently earned a reward of Rs 50,000 for work.

Initially, she only used to transport pregnant women to and from hospitals, however, since the start of the pandemic last year, Begum has been ferrying coronavirus patients in the North Dinajpur district of the state.

She has received the reward from Raiganj MLA Krishna Kalyani last week. This is the second cheque that she received from Kalyani who had also honoured her with the monetary reward last year for being a "corona warrior", News18 reported.

Begum proved to be a good Samaritan when many of the ambulance drivers in the city hesitated to help COVID-19 patients fearing infection. She dedicated her ambulance to those infected patients in need of medical help to the nearest medical facility. She holds a MA in Bengali.

Begum started driving an ambulance in 2016 after getting trained under a state government’s self-help program.

Selina Begum ambulance driver earns around Rs 7,000-8,000 a month to support her family.

In the last one year, she has become very popular, as she holds a great reputation of reaching with her ambulance soon after being dialled by families of the patients. However, knowing the dangers of her job, Begum decided to temporarily live in a small room at the Hemtabad Health Center, away from her own family.

“The way Selina is serving the people against Corona is unparalleled," Kalyani said while handing over the cheque. Rahul Biswas, a doctor at the Hemtabad Health Center, said the 27-year-old is the first female ambulance driver in the state. As per reports, Begum's father works in an agriculture firm and barely manages to run the family. She came forward to lend a helping hand with an earning around Rs 7,000-8,000 a month. She said to have spent the last reward on her father’s treatment.