Krishna Kohli


Krishna Kumari Kolhi, also known by the nickname Kishoo Bai, is a Pakistani politician who has been the member of the Senate of Pakistan since March 2018. She is the first Hindu Dalit woman and the second Hindu woman to hold this position. She is known for her campaigns for women's rights and against bonded labour.

Early life and education

Kolhi was born on 1 February 1979 to a poor family hailing from a village in Nagarparkar. When she was a child and a student of grade three, she and her family were held captive for three years as bonded labourers in a private jail allegedly owned by a landlord in Umerkot District. They were only released after a police raid on their employer's land. She received her early education initially from Umerkot district and then from Mirpurkhas District.
She got married at the age of 16 in 1994 while she was studying in grade nine. She continued her education after her marriage and in 2013 earned a master's degree in Sociology from the University of Sindh.
In 2007, she attended the third Mehergarh Human Rights Youth Leadership Training Camp in Islamabad in which she studied the government of Pakistan, international migration, strategic planning and learned about the tools that could be used to create social change.

Political career

Kolhi joined the Pakistan Peoples Party as a social activist to campaign for the rights of marginalised communities in the Thar region. She also campaigns for women's rights, against bonded labour, and against sexual harassment in the workplace. In 2018, she was elected to the Senate of Pakistan in the Pakistan Senate elections as a PPP candidate on a reserved seat for women from Sindh. She took oath as Senator on 12 March 2018. She became the first Hindu Dalit woman and the second Hindu woman elected to the Senate after Ratna Bhagwandas Chawla.
In 2018, BBC named her one of the BBC's 100 most influential women.