By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: On most weekdays, Hussain Rizvi works as an area in charge of Kent RO System Limited. The 27-year-old, who grew up in the city, has an MBA degree from L.N. Mishra Institute of Economic Development and Social Change. But that is not why we are talking about Rizvi. It is his commitment and relentless zeal in contributing towards local welfare and social development that make him stand out from most other people of his generation. Like most, he too wishes to have a secure and well-paying job and works hard for it, but from a young age, he has been involved, and well-known as a social worker in the region.
Growing up in a middle class family in the the Patthar ki Masjid locality in Patna, Rizvi could see and feel the sufferings of the society at an early stage in life. Filled with the urge to give back to the society and contribute to its development, he started to work on social issues in 2004 (when he was just 16) giving free education to Dalit students of his locality and motivating them to work for humanity.
Twelve years later, his efforts have won him numerous awards and achievements for various initiatives and programs – tree plantation, environment safety awareness, traffic safety awareness, disaster support relief, voter awareness, community mobilization for the weaker sections especially girls, empowering women, promoting communal harmony, counseling drug addicted youth and pollution control awareness.
“Since childhood my area of interest were aligned towards the social issues prevailing in the surrounding areas of my locality. During schooling time, I started taking initiatives to make people aware about the importance of education, youth development ,environment and problems related to environment through painting and small skits.”, Rizvi recounts the beginning of his long journey in social welfare.
In order to align with his inclination towards social service, he completed Masters in Social Work (MSW) before completing MBA. Talking about his study in MSW, he says, “I completed MSW only to get into some social organisation or government organisation where I can utilise my potential and energy to deliver better services to the society.”
After taking over social causes in early 2004, Rizvi got courage to come up with more innovative ideas for expressing his concern for environment protection and safety. He prepared a ‘Mobile Zoo model’ for public awareness purpose and displayed it in the State Level Science exhibition on November 14, 2004 and received second prize.
In 2005, Dainik Jagran invited him for an Awareness Programme on Traffic Safety and awarded him as the best volunteer. Gradually, his work received much more attention from the society and Bihar State Pollution Control Board called him in 2006 at a function of World Environment Day and gave him an appreciation letter for his work on Pollution Control and Environment Safety. He subsequently received similar appreciation from Principal Chief Forest Conservator, Bihar for his hard work on Environment Safety.
“Since then, I have never looked back and started to take up more and more social issues by organising awareness program on environment safety at nearby localities through rally of paintings and slogans”, he says displaying his resolve for the cause undertaken.
He then took up initiatives at a bigger platform and succeeded in getting support from youths and established his own group ‘Hussain’s Youth Federation’ in 2006. His team grew as many youth approached requesting him to include them in his team.
Talking about these youths who joined him, he says, “Interestingly, most of the youth who joined my team would earlier mock me for my social works but later they felt sorry and offered me assistance in carrying out social activities”.
Recognizing his commitments, he was next invited by Patna DM to join Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) as a National Youth Corp under the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs, Government of India.
BELGAU, an NGO that works for Health, Education and Environmental Safety honoured Rizvi in 2009 with Bravery award for saving a girl who was trying to commit suicide by jumping from the Mahatma Gandhi Bridge, Patna.
The city administration was full of compliments for his activities. He says, “Patna District administration always admired my work by issuing appreciation letters and awards for my work. This recognition helped me to attract more youth to contribute their ability in developing the society as I would tell them that they can also get such awards.”
He received ‘District Youth Award’ in 2010 for his work on Youth Development and Society Development. In 2012, the City SP Patna gave him certificate for Youth motivation, law and order maintenance and traffic management. He was also given ‘Communal Harmony Award’ in 2013 for cooperating the administration in maintaining law and order during different festivals.
This was not the end for his activities; rather it was the beginning that saw him embark on national and international level and therefore he started to gain international attention for his relentless work. In 2013 Brac University Global Model United Nations invited him in Bangladesh to speak on social issues.
He found his name at eighth position as an International Eco Hero – 2014 organized by Tunza Eco Generation and UNEP. In 2015, the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs Government of India selected him as a representative and sent him to China for International Youth Exchange Program 2015.
“The experiences that I gained while visiting small scale industries and innovative organizations in China added strength to my energy and when I came back I tried to start some skill development centers for poor youths”, he explains adding, “I am now motivating youth to function voluntarily for the society with a holistic approach to serve it irrespective of their area of specialisation”.
Recently, he was invited to attend World Youth to Youth Summit in April, 2016 and another Youth summit in August 2016 Washington DC USA to speak on Control Strategy to Reduce Deviation of Mind of Youth. He has also been nominated for the Queens International Youth Leader Award UK 2017.
“Voluntary work and selfless service to the society doesn’t require any recognition or coverage but a helping hand would definitely provide me a jack to conquer my dream of having an aware and developed society with healthy environment”, confident Rizvi says with strong determination.
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