The Humanitarian Side of Actor Sheena Chohan

Actor, model and former Lakme Miss Kolkata and Miss India Universe, Sheena Chohan is an ambassador of Youth for Human Rights International and is committed to making human rights a reality.

“I may come across as an actor and presenter first, but I am also a humanitarian,” said Sheena Chohan in an interview with the Dhaka Tribune.

In the Bangladesh capital to host the fourth season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) annual cricket competition, the Kolkata native brought another dimension to her role as “BPL Girl” this year.

“I wish to raise awareness regarding the 30 basic human rights everyone is entitled to as declared by the U.N.,” she says. “More importantly, I wish to concentrate on stopping the violations of those rights because I believe that if the youth take on the responsibility in our own sphere and do our bit, we can create a lot of changes in society.”

Chohan, who was nominated as best actress at the 2014 Dubai and Shanghai Film Festivals for the award-winning Bangladeshi movie Ant Story (Pipra Bidya), believes in human rights education—that by providing youth with the knowledge that they were born free or that they are innocent until proven guilty, “that would empower them and contribute to making a fair and just society.”

An ardent supporter of Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI), on arriving in Dhaka, Chohan met with the YHRI Bangladesh chapter. “They are working in universities and at grassroots levels,” she says. To help them in their mission to counter human rights abuse by raising awareness of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, she decided to bring together actors, singers and performers to create a uniquely Bangladeshi human rights video.

“If we know our human rights, we can protect them and help others protect them,” says Chohan. “We can stop things like child labor, human trafficking, and gender inequality. A great many things in society can be improved. That’s the change I want to see.”

Youth for Human Rights International is one of the humanitarian programs supported by Scientologists and the Church of Scientology, inspired by the principles expressed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, who wrote, “It is vital that all thinking men urge upon their governments sweeping reforms in the field of human rights.”