By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: He belongs to Minority Concentration District of Bahraich in UP which is among low literate districts in the country. Muslims are more backward here compared to others; especially Muslim women are worse in education than Dalit women. But this did not come in the way of Mr. Azim Khan of the district. He got higher education both in India and abroad, and now has come back to his home district to make it more literate.
Having LL.M. (Master of Laws) and Ph.D. degree in Human Rights from Aligarh Muslim University and a Master’s degree in Human Rights from the University of London, Khan has worked for education and human rights in various places in the country as well as abroad. But now is the time for him to do something especial to increase literacy rate of his community along with other marginalized communities in Bahraich with 34.83% Muslim population (Census 2001).
Azim Khan interacting with villagers
Azim Khan, who is currently working as Academic Director of SIT-USA in India, launched Taleemi Caravan last month with the goal to create awareness about education among the community and encourage them to build better future through education.
“It is a general thought among Muslims that they cannot get better jobs and, therefore, they are not engaged with education like others. Through Taleemi Caravan we want to end this perception and make them realize as to how much important education is in their lives for better future as well as personality development,” said Khan while talking to TwoCircles.net over phone.
“Our main focus is on reduction of dropout rate and increase enrollment of Muslims, Dalit and other marginalized communities with especial emphasis on girls. We cannot change the whole world but we believe we can change some lives surely. We hope the Caravan will bring revolutionary change in their mentality regarding education” he told adding “In fact Muslims are lagging behind in every spare of life because of discrimination and also their own mistakes but it is time to work for redressing those wounds by using their capacity and government schemes rather than to waste time in cursing anyone.”
The Taleemi Caravan in its initial step visited 100 villages of Chittaura and Risia blocks in the district where they held hundreds of meetings with local people, heads of local governing bodies and school teachers and urged them to play their roles for increase of school enrolment of the community’s children.
“During the visit we felt that common people are unaware of impotance of education and there is an urgent need to work among them in this regard. We also found that under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan almost every village has school or education centre but teachers either do not come to school regularly or do not teach properly and heads of local governing bodies such as Garam Sevak and Pardhan do not know their responsibility for social and educational upliftment of the people. We met them and talked to them and in next step we are going to hold separate meetings with them. We are also planning to give awards to five best teachers to encourage them to discharge their duties sincerely and eagerly”, he said.
About people response to this initiative he said: “We were welcomed by the people warmly. They were much excited about it and felt as it is their own movement for their betterment. Soon we will constitute a team of men and women separately in every village that will create awareness of education in their villages.”
About the way of work he said: “We have a coordination committee who meet before every step we take. We hold three meetings every day – two with men and one with women – and tell them that they must teach their daughter how to cook but must not forget to send them school. So far, no organizations is with us in this effort but local people are joining us and amount for this project is also funded by the community.”
Why did he select Bahraich for his work? “Because it is educationally one of the most backward districts and I am from this district. I see community youths are working hard but due to lack of education they do not get due fruits. So, I want to motivate them to go ahead in the field of education then they will find everything better around them,” he said promptly.
About Right To Education (RTE) Act he said:” In my opinion this is an historic and important step towards alleviation of educational backwardness. I think it will benefit all the people especially the poor from both rural and urban areas. But I have objection on some provision of RTE which runs contrary to the constitutional provision for minority institutions. For example, the Constitution allows minority to set up their institutions and run them. They can reserve 50% seats for their communities but RTE says that 75% of any institution will be controlled by parents. So, in case a minority institution has 75% students from other communities, minority will lose control over it.”
“We are preparing a draft suggesting amendment in the act to end the contradiction. We will send the draft to Union Minister for HRD Mr. Kapil Sibal and will request him to pass it in the coming session of the Parliament” he added.
Link
http://taleemicaravan.org/