By Kulsum Mustafa, TwoCircles.net,
Lucknow: Several State Conveners of Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) while describing the hurdles that came their way when they had to procure development sector data from government officials said the Right to Information (RTI) Act came to their rescue in face of official apathy.
“RTI has worked where everything failed,” said Ms Safiya Akhtar. Heading the Bhopal unit in Madhya Pradesh she was one of the over 1000 women from 15 states of India who participated in the third annual convention of the forum in the state capital on Sunday afternoon.
Almost all BMMA members said in their address that they had to run from pillar to post to get basic information on education, health and bank schemes. They said they had to encounter indifference, disinterest and many times inhospitable environment when they asked for “exclusive data on Muslims from hospitals, educational institutions and banks. Under the circumstances, when the state machinery failed to co-operate they said the only option left to them was to go for RTI query.
All the participants at the convention asked the government just one question in one voice, “When will we become full citizens?” They wanted to know why development is far away from the Muslim community even after 62 years of India’s Independence. They shared their experience of how Muslims are purposely as an ‘underserved community.” In most of the states the community members live in ghettos. Poverty, illiteracy, backwardness are their true companions.
BMMA is not a registered body but a mass movement of Muslim women. It has over 20,000 members and units spread over 15 states across India. BMMA aims at building up a women-lead people’s movement. BMMA demands social, economic, political, civil, legal and religious rights besides safety and security. BMMA works in solidarity with other secular organizations. While 70 per cent of its members are women, the rest 30 per cent comprise men, and those non-Muslim who support the cause and the mission.
At the day long deliberations of the forum guest speakers included renowned Shia cleric and vice-president of the All India Muslim Personal law Board, Dr Syed Kalbe Sadiq, Ms Sehba Farooqui of AIDWA and Dr Sabira Habib. BMMA state unit heads of many states presented the work reports. The focus of all presentations remained Sachar committee report.
The convention in its resolution called for full and comprehensive implementation of the committee recommendations.
“Give legal teeth to the report and implement the suggestions, we have had enough of deliberations,” said Ms Farooqui. She said that the fact that the report has been placed in public domain is in itself a historical move. She said it is a shame that over 13 crore Muslims have just been left to their fate in a democracy till Saccher showed the woeful picture to the countrymen.
Ms Farooqui said that despite an attempt to exclude the community from development the Muslims must ensure that they remain part of the mainstream and do not attempt to become an island- isolated and distanced.
“If we have the right to vote we also have the right to facilities. Nobody can take away these rights, they are ours by virtue of being Indian,” said Shabina who had come from Varanasi.
Naaz Raza, UP convener said that they have met all sections of people and urged early implementation of the recommendations.
“BMMA members held a meeting with Rahul Gandhi and urged him to monitor schemes for minorities on the pattern of NREGA,” said Naaz.
According to Nishat Hussain, BMMA convener from Rajasthan, Muslim welfare schemes need to be fully publicized so that the community gets a benefit of these schemes meant for them.
“Community ignorance and official apathy is taking a big toll on the development of the Muslims,” she said adding that while the earlier BJP government in Rajasthan did push back the Muslims, the situation has not improved in the last one year that Congress is back in the political saddle.
Rashida from Gujarat said the state of affairs in Gujarat for Muslims are not hidden from the world. “We are a state where rape cases of Muslim women are very high, illegally detention of our men; charges of us being anti-national are common. But we are learning to fight back, find a path of progress, no matter how narrow,” she said
In her address Ms Naish Hasan, founder member of BMMA said that while they all know that discrimination is there against Muslims in general and against Muslim women in particular it is important that we make strategic moves to fight it.
“We have to fight the battle with a political understanding,” she advised urging women to come forward and unitedly stand up against discrimination and injustice.
She said the Sacchar Report is not an eye-opener for the community but for the society. “We were aware of our plight, it is now all in the open and a slur on secularism and 62 year old democracy,” she said,
The convention highlight was the BMMA six point resolutions. It includes six simple demands and urges the government to ensure the minority gets these. They are equal rights as Indian citizens, right to education, right to jobs, right to personal safety and security, right to proper health care, immediate harassment from the police.