Banner Advertiser

Saturday, January 2, 2010

[mukto-mona] An anatomy of the human bomb.



The post 9/11 world has resurrected an Islamic Dracula not from the fearful Romanian Transylvanian Mountains but from the deserts of Arabian Peninsula where Muhammad was born and preached peace and compassion. This new version of Dracula is more menacing because its domain is day and night both. It's deceptive and totally unreliable because its does its business in the name of Muhammad by sanctifying human flesh and blood as halal for the faithful. This new Islamic Dracula regenerates itself from the fertile fields of hatred and ignorance, raising its ugly head from every possible place. It has slaughtered compassion and concern for another human being in the name of Islamic compassion. It has discovered a new weapon of mass destruction with a lethal mixture of modern technology and a live human body. The new weapon is a suicide bomber. It's capable of destroying hundreds of lives by sacrificing one life. This weapon does not need any guidance from a satellite; it can think and walk into its targets by stealth. It does not need any huge and big ordnance factory. It can be manufactured in a home without any hired labour. Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen or any other piece of land on earth wherever a faithful lives. A billion dumb faithful who are so obsessed that they think it's pious to remain silent against the new Islamic weapon. Their hypocrisy is dastardly, their silence is deafening, their connivance is criminal and their progress towards darkness is frightening. For the last 1500 years they are being recycled in the same old factory from where they first came out. We few will beat our chest and wail for how long who knows?

 

Akbar Hussain




Get a great deal on Windows 7 and see how it works the way you want. See the Windows 7 offers now.

__._,_.___


****************************************************
Mukto Mona plans for a Grand Darwin Day Celebration: 
Call For Articles:

http://mukto-mona.com/wordpress/?p=68

http://mukto-mona.com/banga_blog/?p=585

****************************************************

VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/

****************************************************

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] Re: Investigation On Alleged Bribery Crime !



Mr. Syed Aslam:

Niether you nor I am acting as a judge in any court of law in the USA. As I don't have any authority to pre-judge on any alleged crime so as to you too. Perhaps, you have noticed US law makers (Senators, Congressmen, Congresswomen) always ask for investigations in this type of cases/matters even if they make or know the Laws, Acts, etc.

Are you in capacity to make laws like the law makers of this country (USA) or interpret laws like any judge of the court of law? You have rights to give opinion on "pick and choose" basis, but that's not final. USA runs on it's own laws and legal system. As a tax payer any citizen of the USA has rights to ask for any investigation and justice but not to obstruct justice in any form.

Thanks for understanding;

Anis Ahmed



---------- Original Message ----------
From: Syed Aslam <Syed.Aslam3@gmail.com>
To: khabor@yahoogroups.com, chottala@yahoogroups.com,  Sonar Bangladesh <SonarBangladesh@yahoogroups.com>,  notun Bangladesh <notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [khabor.com] Investigation On Alleged Bribery Crime !
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 01:04:50 -0500

 

 
 
Dear All
 
The US  Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) addresses
accounting transparency requirements and prohibits bribery of foreign 
officials by US companies and companies doing business in USA.
 
Chevron or any other US company can not bribe any official
anywhere as per US law . Recent Enron Scandal in India and
Seimens scandal world over revealed many facets of this FCPA.
 
US Federal auditing system will unearth any wrong doings and the
company concerned will have serious damage to its business and
probably have to pay hefty fines.
 
 The 2008 corruption scandal that has rocked Siemens world wide
revealed a payment of bribe received by Mr. Arafat Rahman Koko
from Siemens to the tune of the 11.66 crore taka now frozen by the
Singapore government at the iniitiation of US Federal court. The
money trail revealed the payments were made through US banks.
Siemens AG, agreeing to pay a US$ 1.6 billion fine to US and
German governments.
 
The Amardesh news on the alleged corruption by Taufique-e-Elahi 
and Sajeeb Wajed Joy seems to be out-and-out rumor mongering
with ulterior motives and insidious intents by the mastermind of Uttora
Copnspricy, Mr. Mahmudur Rahman,ex-energy advisor and current
editor of Amardesh.
 
Sent by:
 
Syed Aslam
 
Related:
 
Koko Kahini:
Uttora Conspricy:
'Secret' meet of admin big wigs at ex-energy adviser's office"
 
Also Read:
 
 
[prothom-alo-01.jpg] 
 [prothom-alo-02.jpg] 
 
 
 
On 12/31/09, anis.ahmed@netzero.com <anis.ahmed@netzero.com> wrote:
 

To All:

The best way to find out whether Mr. Sajeeb Wajed Joy, a US resident is innocent or not if his, his firms and financial accounts are investigated by the United States authorities, Internal Revenue Services, US Treasury Department, US Department of Justice, US Homeland Security Department (if possible) etc.

Mr. Joy may be a "Mighty Prince" in his home country (Bangladesh) but as a US residence he is not above the laws of the USA. A complete investigation by the US authorities will end discussions on alleged bribery crime against him.

Anis Ahmed



---------- Original Message ----------
From: "musasarkar" <m_musa92870@yahoo.com>
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Re: Sermon of BAL Chamcha Iqbal Subhan Chou ?????????????
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:29:18 -0000

 

Yeah, those Petrobangla employees were so courageous and patriotic that they had to use fake names! Only Mahmudur Rahman,
the mastremind of Uttara Conspircay, and Jatiyabadi Bush-Cheney type hardcore right-wing patriots know where they really exist.



Source: http://www.amadershomoy.com/content/2009/12/18/print0762.htm

--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Faruque Alamgir <faruquealamgir@...> wrote:
Friends

As we all know that the couregious Petrobangla employees have done a great job as patriot unveiling the clandestine corruption by the HRH Prince Joy n the hencemen of her mother.

The Amardesh has performed it's right ONUS informing the people about about what is going on underneath the sweet coated *DEMOCRAZY led by the only "dhan konnaya,Democrazy konnaya,newly born Begum Rokeya, highest P.hd holder in Bangladesh n the only legally/fairly elected PM in 38 years.This truth has struck the BAL n it's "paa chatta kutta jibis" as bomb shell as showered by the Israelis in ME.*They got perplexed by thinking that ghorer  kothat manushey janlo kemney" since it was inhouse dealing between the contractors n the owner of the country through their agents. This has stirred the duffers brain n on instruction from the boss netri the
sycophants forgot Nowa khowa n their ghum nidra made haram are "Chunga Fukaiiiing" about showering abusive slangs,threatening(only visible BAL's DEMOCRAZY) to kill n resorting to physiacl attack on the honest n cougious journalist who are risking their life hold on to the truth.
 Series of meetings(so-called protest) n TV talk are organised with great
lickers "Jibis" to try to distract(failed attempts) the people's attention
from the truth. So, this time one great paa chata joutnalist(??) name ikbal
subhan chou of observer who shameless licked BAL's ideology and expressed
his indignation on the false(????) allegation against of the great son of
the soil HRH Prince Joy.The laughing statement he gave that this would have credible had it been published in RWA Kantha,P.Alo,D.Star, agnbad, AjkerKagoj etc etc. Oh what great utterence that except these papers non others have credibility. Plus this eruditre,prudent n shameless journalist also aded that Mahmudur Rahaman has no qualification to be editor of a news since he does not have 15 years experience as journalist(may be he meant BAL allignd journalist) so he has no right to be editor of n news paper which is working for a particular party. My humble question to the erudite n prudent BAL chamcha that could you please tell how come messers Atikullah Khan Masud of RAW Kontha(who was a Mosquito coil producer), Babul of Jugantor who is a snatrashi n Balu bebshai, one retired colonel of Ajker Kagoj could become editors?????????????????? If these BAL sycopants could bcome editor n get credit n recognition from BAl than why not Mahmudur Rahman n others should not recognition n respect from the people not a coterie.Mr.Iqbal for god sake leave chamchami n stand on yr vanity n dignity n try to perform the right onus as a citizen of a free country brought by the ocean of blood of the martyrs else U will listed as a hikrito n ghreenito like Janwar Razakas(including hasinas beai Musharaf).
The nation can demand something better from your erudite people for a better future of our next generation.

BANGLADESH ZINDABAD

Faruque Alamgir


so



__._,_.___


[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.com




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

[mukto-mona] Muffled Voices: Socio-Cultural Impediments to Indian Muslim Women’s Struggles for Gender Justice




Muffled Voices: Socio-Cultural Impediments to Indian Muslim Women's Struggles for Gender Justice

Yoginder Singh Sikand

 

The numerous struggles of Indian women for gender justice have been well-documented by academics and scholar-activists. Several Indian women can be counted among key present-day feminist theoreticians, whose works are widely known and acknowledged internationally. Yet, broadly speaking, the women's movement in India, as in several other 'developing'; countries, remains, to a large extent, elitist. Almost all of its articulate spokeswomen are highly-educated 'high' caste Hindus, who form only a relatively small proportion of the Indian population.

This relatively elitist nature of India's women's movement explains, to a great extent, why women from the country's most deprived and marginalized communities, particularly the Dalits or so-called 'Untouchables', the Adivasis or Tribal, indigenous people, and Muslims, have been largely left out of its purview, and are hardly to be found in its leadership positions. On the whole, and barring a few exceptions, 'high' caste Hindu women's activists have evinced little or no interest in the particular concerns of women from these communities. There is no doubt that deeply-ingrained, and often unacknowledged, prejudice against these communities is a major reason for this. With regard to Muslim women, widespread anti-Muslim prejudice prevalent in the wider Indian society must be counted as one of the major factors for the perceived general lack of interest on the part of 'secular' women's groups in Muslim women's issues and problems. To add to this is the fear that taking up Muslim women's concerns might invite the opposition of conservative ulema or Muslim clerics and stoke inter-communal controversy. This sidelining by 'secular' women's groups of Muslim women's concerns has been compounded by the tendency, boosted by the state, conservative Muslim leaders and the Hindu Right, to perceive Muslims solely in religious terms. Because of this, often 'secular' women's groups interventions with regard to Muslim women focus simply on issues related to their religious identity (especially, certain aspects of Muslim Personal Law that are seen to militate against women), rather than on their manifold social, economic, and educational problems and concerns. On the other hand, it is also a fact that certain forms of feminism that are seen to demand complete equality (as opposed to gender justice) for women and men, and that are seen as anti-religion, have, understandably, not attracted many self-identified Muslim women (as opposed to a few highly-educated women of Muslim background whose 'Muslim-ness' is simply cultural or incidental and of no particular consequence or importance).

India's Muslims, officially estimated at almost 200 million, make up the world's largest population after Indonesia. Although numerous in absolute terms, they form only around 13 per cent of the total Indian population. Many Muslims, however, contest these figures, and claim that the census authorities have deliberately under-reported their population. Relatively little has been written about India's Muslim women and their struggles for gender justice. While considerable literature exists about the myriad economic and social, educational problems of Indian Muslim women, as also about the particular problems that they face arising out of Muslim Personal Law, little has been written about how the social and cultural context of the Indian Muslim community as a whole acts as a major constraint in efforts to mobilize them for their rights and for gender justice.

This paper seeks, in a modest way, to address this lacuna in our understanding of Indian Muslim women's efforts for gender justice. The paper uses the term 'gender justice' as distinct from 'gender equality', in that the latter implies sameness in status and roles between the genders, something that many Muslim (and other) women might not actually desire or see as religiously appropriate. The term 'justice' is more fluid, and can be construed in different ways to indicate different, often contrasting, notions of gender relations, status and roles, and need not necessarily imply sameness between the genders.

Indian Muslim women are routinely portrayed in the media as helpless creatures, as completely lacking agency, and as cruelly oppressed by their men and 'obscurantist', sternly 'patriarchal' male ulema. Ultimately, the source of their oppression is sought to be located in Islam itself, which is projected as an allegedly patriarchal religion, supposedly hostile to women's rights and gender-justice. In this reading, the socio-cultural context within which Muslim women live and operate, which heavily influences their ability to articulate their demands for justice, is totally ignored. The central argument of this paper is that, contrary to media claims, it is not Islam per se that is the cause for Indian Muslim women's overall marginalization and the visible lack of efforts to mobilize them for their rights. Rather, it argues, the cause must be located in the over-all socio-cultural context of the community (which also includes the presence and enormous influence of particular patriarchal interpretations of Islam). The paper also argues that gender-related oppression and marginalization of Indian Muslim women cannot be seen in isolation from the overall economic, political, and educational marginalistion of the Indian Muslim community, or large sections thereof. It cannot be seen as stemming simply from patriarchal interpretations of Islam or only due to patriarchal customs, practices and laws specific to the Indian Muslim community. In other words, the paper suggests, the struggle for gender justice for Indian Muslim women must necessarily be part of a wider struggle against the overall marginalization of the Indian Muslims as a whole.

The paper begins with a general over-view of the social conditions of the Muslims of India. It then goes on to examine how these conditions shape or produce particular impediments facing Muslim women that severely constrain efforts to mobilize for gender justice.

The Socio-Cultural Context of the Indian Muslim Community

 

Sectarian Affiliation and Differences

Despite being often projected as a monolith, India's Muslims are extremely heterogenous. Some 85% of them are Sunnis, the rest being Shias. In turn, the Sunnis are divided on the basis of allegiance to different schools of jurisprudence or fiqh, most being Hanafis, with a small minority of Shafis and Ahl-e Hadith, who do not abide by 'imitation' or taqlid of any fiqh school.. India's Hanafi Sunnis are also divided on the basis of school of thought or sect (maslak). Probably a slim majority follows traditions associated with various Sufi silsilahs or orders and saints and the cults centred on their shrines. These cults are often heavily influenced by local, or, for want of a better term, 'Hindu', beliefs and practices. Another large section among the Indian Sunni Hanafis are associated with the more scripturalist Deobandi tradition and the now global revivalist Tablighi Jama'at that is linked to the Deobandi tradition. The Deobandis do not oppose Sufism per se but only practices that are seen as 'un-Islamic' which are often associated with local Sufi cults. The Islamist Jama'at-e Islami, founded in 1941 by the well-known scholar- activist Syed Abul 'Ala Maududi, also has a considerable following among some sections of the Indian Sunni community.

India's Shias are divided into three major groups. By far the most numerous of these are the Ithna Ashari or Imami Shias, followers of a chain of twelve Imams. The other two major Shia groups in India are both Ismailis, followers of a chain of seven Imams—the Bohras, or the Mustalian Ismailis, and the Khojahs, or the Nizari Ismailis. The Bohras, in turn, are divided into five different sects, each of which follows its own spiritual leader or dai-e mutlaq.

Each of these various Indian Muslim groups operates as an independent community. They are, generally, endogamous, and have their own separate community organizations, including mosques and madrasas. Each of these groups claims to represent the sole 'authentic' understanding of Islam. Sectarian divisions continue to run very deep among the Indian Muslim community, and there has been no serious effort to seek to bring the different sects together on a common platform to address issues of common concern. This factor of the overall Indian Muslim community being so heavily fractured on the basis of fiqh and maslak acts a major hurdle not just for Muslim unity, but also for efforts to mobilize Indian Muslim women for gender equality transcending sectarian lines. Often the salience of sectarian divisions and differences causes gender issues to be silenced from public discourse.

Caste and Class Divisions

Although Islam does not countenance caste and caste-based divisions and discrimination, like all other communities in India the Indian Muslims are divided on the basis of caste. There are literally hundreds of Muslim castes (biraderi or zat) across India, each of which operates as an endogamous group. The vast majority of these castes are descendants of converts from 'low' caste Hindu groups. Despite their conversion to Islam, in some cases many centuries ago, their overall social and economic conditions have remained pathetic. Many of these caste-groups are extremely poor, having little or no land of their own. Their levels of literacy are among the lowest in the country as a whole..

On the other hand are some caste-like groups that claim foreign (Arab, Iranian and Central Asian) descent, such as the Syeds, Shaikhs, Pathans and Mughals. They form only a relatively small minority among the Indian Muslims. Generally, they see themselves as 'superior', based on their claims of being descendants of India's former Muslim rulers and feudal elites, and hence their title of Ashraf or 'noble (or, in Arabic, shurafa). They are heavily over-represented among the Muslim elites, far beyond what their numbers warrant. Most Muslim political and religious leaders are drawn from these castes. Typically, they are seen as taking little or no interest at all in the manifold problems of their 'low' caste co-religionists or in articulating their concerns. It is thus hardly surprising that the particular social, economic and educational problems of 'low' caste Muslim women (who form the vast majority of Indian Muslim women) are given little or no attention by the largely ashraf Muslim community leadership.

Caste and class continue to overlap in India even today. The vast majority of India's Muslims, being descendants of 'low' caste converts, continue to be characterized by extremely low-levels of literacy, endemic poverty, high rates of unemployment and poor living conditions. Their overall status is said to be even worse than that of the 'Hindu' 'low' castes. In addition to the general indifference and apathy of 'high' caste Muslims, they also face various forms of discrimination from the wider Hindu society and from agencies of the state. Typically, the localities where they live are starved of any form of state-funded facilities. Their womenfolk are characterized by abysmal levels of literacy. In some of these communities, the female literacy rate is less than even 5 per cent, with young girls (and boys) being compelled to work outside the home in order to help their families make their ends meet and barely survive. Understandably, therefore, for most of them, it is daily bread-and-butter issues of simple survival that are of primary concern, not gender justice within their own families.

In most struggles to mobilise women for gender justice across India (and elsewhere, too) middle-class, modern-educated women have taken a leading role. They have set up organizations and publications for this purpose, and have also provided these struggles with direction and theoretical focus. In this regard, the relative absence of major or noteworthy Indian Muslim women's struggles for gender justice can be related to the very small Muslim middle-class and intelligentsia in India as a whole, some regional variations notwithstanding.

A massive section of the Muslim middle-class, as well as feudal elites, especially in north India, where the bulk of the Indian Muslims are concentrated, migrated (either on their own volition or out of compulsion) to Pakistan when British India was divided into the new states of Pakistan and India in 1947. Several women among this middle-class had played a key role in Muslim women's struggles for education and economic uplift in the period leading to India's Partition. The loss of the bulk of the liberal middle-class in 1947 left the Indian Muslims, particularly in the north which was most affected by the Partition, leaderless. The majority of the north Indian Muslims who remained behind in India was from the 'low' castes. The place of the middle-class and feudal elites who had claimed to represent them prior to the Partition was now assumed largely by the religiously-conservative ulema, whose views on women and women's issues were hardly conducive to Muslim women's mobilization for their rights and for gender justice. The Indian state, too, saw it expedient to accept these ulema as the 'representatives' and spokesmen of the Muslim community as they made minimal demands on the state in terms of resource allocation to Muslims for their social and economic development—their major demands being symbolic or related to religious matters, such as patronizing the Urdu language (spoken by a large section of Indian Muslims), protecting Muslim Personal Law and providing facilities for Hajis.

In the years after 1947, a small modern-educated middle-class has emerged among Muslims in some parts of the country. Typically, however, they do not take any active interest in the problems of the poor Muslims, including their womenfolk. The quest for upward social mobility and material acquisition appear to be their primary concern. In these times of mounting Islamophobia, their neglect of the rest of the community, of largely poor, 'low' caste Muslims who live in slum ghettos in urban areas and in villages, and their reluctance to vocally champion Muslim interests or denounce anti-Muslim discrimination has also to do with the fear of being branded as 'communal' and 'fundamentalist' by the largely Hindu middle-classes whom they seek to bond, professionally and socially, with—efforts to articulate even legitimate Muslim demands and concerns being often dismissed as akin to supporting 'fundamentalism' by many non-Muslims in India today.

Priorities of Indian Muslim Community Organisations

It is estimated that more than 90 per cent of funds mobilized from within the Muslim community in the form of zakat and sadqah go to fund madrasas and mosques, which number in the tens of thousands across India. Partly because of the low levels of literacy in the Muslim community as a whole and the relatively small size of the liberal Muslim middle class, the number of Muslim community organizations engaged forms of community service (including those that focus on women's issues) other than strictly religious is relatively negligible. That the overwhelming majority of Muslim NGOs in India concern themselves almost wholly only with provision of religious education owes, among other factors, to the social influence of the ulema, the perceived lack of religious awareness among the Muslim masses and, as many Muslims see it, the perceived threats to Muslim faith and identity in India today. Admittedly, a few Muslim organizations are indeed engaged in providing education and vocational skills to Muslim women, but hardly any of these have taken up issues related to patriarchy within the Muslim community as a major focus. Not surprisingly, therefore, most of the few Muslim women's organizations whose particular focus is on interrogating patriarchal prejudices and practices have to rely almost entirely on funds from outside the community-such as from Indian and international NGOs. This inevitably opens them to the charge of being 'agents' of 'anti-Islamic' forces.

Issues related to Muslim women's economic and educational problems, rights and advancement do not form a priority at all in the agenda of almost all Muslim organizations that claim to speak for the Muslims of India, and whose claims are often accepted as such by the state and the media. The leadership of all these organizations is entirely male. Some of them, such as the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, do have a token women's membership, but, inevitably, these handpicked women remain silent and have no influence at all.

The silence of such Muslim organizations on issues of Muslim women owes not simply to deeply-rooted patriarchal biases—although this is a central reason. Equally important is the factor of mounting Islamophobia and anti-Muslim discrimination, violence directed against Muslims by Hindu chauvinist groups, often abetted by agencies of the state, and perceived threats to Muslim faith and identity. These are seen as such overwhelming problems and of such immediate priority that they have tended to overshadow other issues afflicting the community (and not just Muslim women's issues) as reflected in the discourse and demands of these Muslim organizations. The unenviable predicament of being a beleaguered minority that sees itself as a victim and as heavily discriminated against has, understandably, caused issues related to mere survival as well as those related to communal identity to take centre-stage in the Muslim community's discourses and demands. At the same time, some critics argue that these Muslim organizations and their leaders seem to have a vested interest in keeping Muslim discourses and demands made on the wider society and the state restricted to issues related to Muslim communal identity or those that involve conflict with the dominant Hindus for, mobilizing the community on these issues, they are able to maintain their position as leaders. It is argued that were these leaders and the organiations they are associated with to take up the myriad social and economic problems and concerns of the Muslim masses (including Muslim women) in place of 'communal', 'symbolic' or 'religious' issues, their own vested interests would be harmed. In other words, so the oft-heard allegation goes, these leaders have a vested interest in maintaining Muslim poverty, illiteracy and 'backwardness' (including that of Muslim women), for in their absence they would be unable to play on their religious sentiments and take advantage of their 'ignorance' in order to garner support for themselves in their role as putative leaders of the community. In addition, with a few very rare exceptions, elected Muslim politicians are seen as unable, indeed unwilling, to take up many Muslim concerns (including that of Muslim women) and to take an independent stand in this regard as they are generally members of Hindu-dominated political parties. They find themselves as more answerable to their political parties than to their Muslim voters. They also probably realize that being too vocal about the problems that Muslim women face from their own menfolk would cost them the loss of many Muslim votes as well as considerable opposition, which they do not wish to court.

The overwhelming concern of Muslim organizations in large parts of India with religious and identity-related issues (to the relative neglect of other issues, such as the problems of Muslim women) has much to do with widespread and mounting anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic sentiments fanned, among others, by viscerally anti-Muslim Hindu chauvinists and large sections of the Indian media. These forces are seen as having an interest in constantly provoking Muslims by seeking to embroil them in controversies over perceived threats to their identity or that involve conflicts with Hindus, for this inevitably diverts the Muslims' attention from issues of community reform and development or from making substantive demands on the state, thus reinforcing Muslim marginalisation and subjugation. At the same time, constantly raking up controversies that inevitably involve conflict between Hindus and Muslims serves as the principal means for the Hindu Right to garner Hindu support.

In other words, therefore, both the anti-Muslim Hindu Right as well as sections of the Muslim leadership are seen as being jointly complicit in forcing issues related to the economic, political, social and educational marginalization of Muslims (including Muslim women) to be overshadowed by religious and identity-related issues and controversies that involve Hindu-Muslim conflict. This has created a climate which has made it even more difficult for Muslim women to stress their concerns and problems and to struggle for equality and justice.

State Policies vis-à-vis Muslims

As even numerous official reports, commissioned by the state, the Indian Muslims continue to suffer considerable deprivation, indeed discrimination, at the hands of agencies of the state. This is reflected, for instance, in the very low levels of state-funded provision in Muslim-dominated localities and regions. The benefits of most of the very few programmes that the state has instituted for Muslims have been cornered by a small class of elites, and has not benefited the masses. The state has instituted no specific provision for Muslim-women. The attitude of the state must be seen as a major factor in shaping the context which Indian Muslim women face that limits their educational and employment prospects and that severely constrains their ability to have their voices and concerns heard.

Patriarchy and the Ulema

Patriarchy and patriarchal prejudices, needless to stress, are a phenomenon common to all the communities of India, and not specific to the Indian Muslims alone. Among numerous Muslim groups across India, certain anti-women practices are a result of the influence of the overwhelming Hindu presence and of Hindu practices and beliefs that continue to remain deeply-rooted despite their conversion to Islam. These include prohibition of widow remarriage, denial of women's right to inheritance (despite this being provided for in Muslim Personal Law as it exists in India today), harassment of brides for dowries and even, in some cases, dowry-related murders.

Muslim-specific expressions of patriarchy are reflected in the existing, officially-recognised Muslim Personal Law statutes and in the discourse of the conservative (male) ulema. According to the Muslim Personal Law, as implemented by the Indian courts, Muslim males have the right to marry up to four women at a time without needing to seek the permission of their existing spouses. Sunni (though not Shia) husbands can also divorce their wives at will—simply by uttering the word talaq in one sitting, without needing any witnesses or having to go through any sort of process of arbitration. A few vocal Muslim women's groups have critiqued these laws, but this has inevitably caused them to be accused by the conservative ulema and many Muslim organisations of being allegedly in league with the 'enemies of Islam', of being 'irreligious', 'Westernised' and 'anti-Islamic' and 'anti-shariah', of seeking to do away with Muslim Personal Law altogether and of plotting to 'divide Muslims'.

At a time when many Muslims feel themselves under siege from various quarters, such allegations receive wide support and currency and have certainly dampened efforts by a few Muslim women's groups to demand for a change in these laws. In part because of these fears, many Indian Muslim and secular women's groups today are demanding not an abolition of Muslim Personal Law or the introduction of a Common Civil Code applicable to all Indian citizens, but, rather, a reformed Muslim Personal Law that is in line with their vision or version of the shariah that reflects a more gender-friendly understanding of Islam. Some such groups have come out with draft proposals for a gender-egalitarian Muslim Personal Law to replace the existing code and with a model nikah namah or marriage contract agreement that does away with what are seen as anti-women provisions of the existing Muslim Personal Law. Influenced, in part, by feminist or women-friendly interpretations of Islam produced by Muslim women's activists in other countries, they are seeking to promote legal reforms by operating within an Islamic framework and using Islamic arguments.

These efforts to reform Muslim Personal Law from within by these women's groups have met with no practical success. With the exception of some, most ulema probably believe that these women (who are mostly educated in secular institutions and lack classical Islamic training) do not have the capacity or the right to interpret Islam on their own. They are also seen as seeking to challenge the authority of the ulema. Most traditional ulema are wedded to the doctrine of taqlid or strict adherence to the opinions of the classical fuqaha or jurists. Muslim women's efforts to engage in their own ijtihad to provide more women-friendly understanding of fiqh and to challenge certain patriarchal practices (such as arbitrary divorce or denial of access to worship space in mosques) that are legitimized by the dominant Hanafi school of jurisprudence are seen as a deviation from, and a challenge to, the position of the classical jurists and are thus decried as unacceptable. Because of the powerful influence that the conservative ulema exercise and their political clout, the state has consistently refused to consider any changes in the existing Muslim Personal Law as suggested by these women's groups, which would inevitably be branded by sections of the ulema as 'interference in the shariah'.

The growing influence of numerous Islamic movements in different parts of India today is a major force shaping prospects for Muslim women's mobilization for their rights. Some of these are actively involved in promoting girls' education (seeing this as Islamically-mandated) and in social reforms, critiquing certain anti-women practices that they regard as un-Islamic. At the same time, however, several other such groups uphold an extremely conservative interpretation of Islam, insisting that Muslim women veil themselves completely, remain bound in their homes, be subservient to their husbands, restrict themselves only to religious education, and so on. Needless to say, this ongoing internal contestation over normative Islam and Islamic teachings about women will prove to be a determining factor in shaping the possibilities and spaces open to Indian Muslim women to mobilize for gender justice.

Conclusion

This paper has sought to provide a general overview of the overall socio-cultural context of the Indian Muslim community, focusing, in particular, on how this context shapes and limits the possibilities for Indian Muslim women's struggles for gender justice. It argues that, contrary to widely-held assumptions, it is not Islam per se but, rather this particular context (which includes the wide prevalence of certain patriarchal interpretations of Islam) that serves as the major hurdle to such struggles. In doing so, it suggests that the movement for Muslim women's equality cannot be reduced, as some have sought to, simply to articulating alternative or gender-friendly interpretations of Islam. Although this, too, is vital, it alone cannot suffice. Without addressing the particularly dismal social, economic and educational conditions of the Indian Muslim community as a whole, and the undeniable discrimination that many Indian Muslims suffer from agencies of the state and from the wider society, efforts for meaningful transformation in the lives of Muslim women will necessarily remain limited. Without equality and justice for the Indian Muslim community as a whole, equality and justice for Indian Muslim women will continue to remain elusive.

 

 

 

 


 
Allah, Farid, juhdi hamesha
Au Shaikh Farid, juhdi Allah Allah.

Acquiring Allah's grace is the aim of my jihad, 0 Farid!
Come Shaikh Farid! Allah, Allah's grace alone is ever the aim of my jihad
 
(Baba Guru Nanak Sahib to Baba Shaikh Farid Sahib)
 
PLEASE VISIT MY BLOGS:



__._,_.___


****************************************************
Mukto Mona plans for a Grand Darwin Day Celebration: 
Call For Articles:

http://mukto-mona.com/wordpress/?p=68

http://mukto-mona.com/banga_blog/?p=585

****************************************************

VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/

****************************************************

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

[mukto-mona] Jeevan Talim=Enhancing Acess to Education Among Rural Muslims in Kutch, Gujarat




 

 

Jeevan Talim=Enhancing Acess to Education Among Rural Muslims in Kutch, Gujarat
 
By Yoginder Sikand 

 

 

Background

The Jeevan Talim project in rural Kutch in northern Gujarat is a pioneering and

innovative effort to bring Muslim ulema or religious scholars to work along with

secular NGOs for the development of the Muslim community. A joint project of the

New Delhi based Jamiat Ulema-i Hind ('The Union of the Ulema of India',

henceforth referred to as Jamiat) and the Ahmedabad-based Janvikas, through its

initiative Udaan (a resource centre working on primary education), it started in

2004 with a grant from Misereor, a Germany-based Catholic relief and

development agency.

Established in 1919, the Jamiat is a leading body of Indian Deobandi ulema, with

branches in almost every state of the country. Hitherto, the Jamiat focused mainly

on providing religious education to Muslim children through a vast chain of

madrasas (Islamic seminaries) and maktabs (mosque-schools), and providing

relief in the event of natural disasters and communal violence. The Jamiat has a

fairly strong presence in Gujarat, where Deobandi ulema have set up a number of

madrasas. In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Kutch in 2001, the Jamiat

played a crucial role in relief and reconstruction efforts. This, says Ahmad Shaikh,

a senior Jamiat leader based in Ahmedabad, marked a significant change in its

policies and priorities, because its activities in the state had till then been

restricted largely to providing religious education and constructing and

maintaining mosques. It was for the first time, in the course of its relief work in

Kutch that the Jamiat had the chance

to work with some secular NGOs.

The last two decades have witnessed

a significant rise in identity politics

and growing marginalisation of some

communities pushing them to the

peripheries of survival. This

environment wherein the Muslims of

7

Gujarat were becoming increasingly alienated and disenchanted, especially after

witnessing the horrendous bouts of violence in 2002, provided the context for the

Jamiat to begin working on the issue of modern education among Muslims in the

state. Similarly, certain other Muslim groups in Gujarat that were earlier

concerned almost wholly with issues of religious education and identity now felt

the need to become more involved in practical efforts to address the dismal

educational, economic and social conditions of large sections of the Muslim

population of the state. This set the ground for collaboration between the Jamiat

and Janvikas to devise and launch the Jeevan Talim project.

Janvikas has been working with marginalized communities in Gujarat, including

Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims, for several years now, mainly on issues of

education, economic empowerment and human rights. In the wake of the

communal violence in Gujarat, it played an active role in relief work, highlighting

widespread human rights abuses and fighting legal cases on behalf of a number

of innocent Muslims victimized in 2002.

The rise of fundamentalist forces and the consequent ghettoisation of Muslims

across Gujarat was viewed by Janvikas members as a dangerous phenomenon that

urgently needed to be tackled on various fronts, including the education sector.

In many cases, Muslims were barred from studying in private Hindu-owned

schools and were facing

increased discrimination in

government schools. The

tendency of some Islamic

groups to promote insular

tendencies among the

community only exaggerated

this isolation. Hence, Janvikas

felt it imperative to work in

the field of education for

Muslim children and to

8

interact closely with traditional Muslim religious and other community leaders for

transformation of Muslim leadership that would address the community's

economic and educational needs and that would work with secular, forces on

issues of common concern, such as the struggle against communalism, and

mounting social and economic inequalities and exclusion.

Janvikas and the Jamiat decided to work together for the education of Muslim

children in the Kutch district in northern Gujarat, home to a sizeable and largely

poverty-stricken Muslim population characterized by very low literacy levels. This

pilot project, named Jeevan Talim or 'Life Education', was envisaged as a

community initiative of the Jamiat undertaken with assistance from Janvikas

through Udaan, which the local community would eventually manage on its own

and sustain in the long run in cooperation with the Jamiat.

Udaan- A Resource Center working on primary education had operationalised

interventions on education in areas affected by communal violence in Panchmahal

district of Gujarat. It brought in its curriculum, pedagogy and teachers training

techniques to support Jeevan Talim. The role of Udaan in the project was related

to project conceptualization, project execution and management as well as

provision of secretariat support, including assistance in selecting and training

instructors.

The project was to be handled by the Jamiat, and it was expected that through its

experience in the Jeevan Talim project it would be able to equip itself with the

necessary skills in order to engage in similar educational work in the future

through its network of maktabs in selected parts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan

that have a significant Muslim presence.

9

Aim and Structure of the Project

The aim of the project was to provide access to remedial, pluralistic and inclusive

education and equip Muslim children in the age group of 4-10 years with basic

numerical and literacy skills, in selected parts of Kutch where no governmentfunded

educational facilities exist. The intent was to enable children to get

admission in a government school in the fourth or fifth grade levels. The project

entailed using the Jamiat's existing network of maktabs- Quranic schools

attached to mosques that impart basic Islamic education as well as literacy in

Arabic and Urdu to children. The Jeevan Talim classes would be organised in the

maktab precincts, or, in the porch of the local mosque in villages and hamlets that

did not have maktabs, with the timings suitably adjusted so that the children's

Islamic education would not be interrupted or disturbed. In this way, the project

was perceived as helping to expand the scope of maktab education. Where

possible, the maulvi or Islamic scholar teaching in the maktab would be engaged

to take the Jeevan Talim classes as well, for which he would be paid an additional

sum. If there was no maulvi available in the village or in the vicinity, then a local

youth, would be engaged for this. As the levels of education in rural Kutch,

particularly among Muslims, are extremely low, provision was also made for

providing suitable training to the maulvis and the local youth selected as

instructors in the Jeevan Talim centres.

The curriculum framed by Udaan along with team members of the Jamiat and

local instructors, was divided into two levels. The first, called Laghutam or 'Small',

was for children who were unfamiliar with the Gujarati alphabet and numbers. The

second, called Mahatam or 'Big', was for children who had already spent some

time in school as well as for those who would pass through the Laghutam course.

Subjects to be covered in the courses included basic literacy in Gujarati,

numerical skills, environmental awareness, as well as songs and theatre. It was

expected that after finishing the Mahatam course, children would be able to join

the nearest government school.

10

The first phase of the project entailed selecting the villages and hamlets where

the Jeevan Talim centres would be set up. These locations were selected jointly by

team members of the Jamiat, Udaan and a local partner organization, the Kutch

Mahila Vikas Sanghathan that had previous experience of working with some

Muslim communities in rural Kutch. Three talukas in Kutch district, each with a

significant rural Muslim population, were chosen for this: Bhuj, Anjar and

Nakhatrana. Centres were established in a number of selected villages in these

talukas. Before we get into details of the project, it is crucial to understand the

social, economic and political contexts of the Muslims of rural Kutch covered by

the project.

11

Muslims in Rural Kutch

Kutch, with an area of over 45,000 square kilometers, is the second largest

district in India. The administrative headquarter of the district is in Bhuj, which is

located roughly in the centre of the district. The district has 966 villages, and, in

addition, several small settlements (called vandhs), which are not classified in

official documents.

It is surrounded by the Arabian Sea in the west, the Gulf of Kutch in the south

and south-east, and the Rann of Kutch, a vast desert, in the north and north-east,

bordering the Thar Parkar district of Pakistan's Sindh province. In the east and

south are the districts of Rajkot, Surendranagar, Patan and Banaskantha, in

Gujarat and Barmer in Rajasthan. As per the 2001 census, the district's population

was 1,526,331, of which around a third were Muslims.

Kutch's rural Muslim population is concentrated mainly in the northern part of the

district, close to the border with Pakistan. This desert area consists of flat, stony

12

and sandy plains broken by small rocky outcrops and is dotted with thorny, bushy

shrubs. Most of this land is is not amenable to agriculture, including the desolate

Rann of Kutch, where few people live. The area also faces regular spells of

drought and occasional fierce flash floods. Being an extremely arid zone that

generally receives little rainfall, it can afford only one crop a year, if at all.

Communication links in this part of Kutch are extremely limited. Most settlements

are remote, separated from each other by several kilometers of sand and rocky

wasteland. There are few paved roads, and those that exist are in bad shape. Most

hamlets are located several miles from the nearest road. There are bus services to

only a few settlements here. Most other settlements can be reached only by camel

or, increasingly today, by small vans, called chhakaras, that take passengers on

hire, but they are few and irregular and not everyone can afford to use them. Dust

storms often wipe off the tracks in the desert that connect one settlement to

another. In the monsoons,

large numbers of settlements

are rendered marooned as

the desert becomes a vast

lake. In the scorching

summers of Kutch, wells and

ponds dry up, forcing people

in many settlements that have

no government-provided

sources of water to buy water

for themselves and their

animals.

The majority of the Muslims

in this part of Kutch live

below the officially

recognized poverty line.

Practically no family in the

villages where the Jeevan

13

Talim project operates has a pakka house; their homes are generally made of

twigs plastered together with mud. Most villages are without electricity, piped

water and government schools. There is not a single health centre in any of these

villages. Although most of the Muslim castes which live here are classified as

among the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), they have not benefited in any visible

way from state-funded programmes for the OBCs. Only a small number of

children get scholarships from the state meant for OBCs, but the sum is paltry—

Rs.75-100 per month. No village seems to have benefited from any governmentfunded

development scheme. Families in several settlements where the Jeevan

Talim project functions do not even own the land on which their huts stand; this

land technically being government-owned simtad zamin or wasteland and jungle.

Despite petitioning with the relevant authorities for up to two decades, they have

not been able to receive titles to the land. Since their land is not gramtad zamin

(land that is officially part of a settled village and is recognized in government

records), they do not benefit from any government scheme. Many complain that

because of this, they are also harassed by their neighbours for grazing their

cattle in the common pastures and for consuming water from village wells and

ponds, water being a rare commodity in the desert. Large numbers of these

families are migrants from drought-hit parts of Kutch. Their names are on the

voters' lists in their original villages, which they rarely visit.

As they cannot vote in their present places of habitation, the local elected

officials, from the panchayat level upwards, ignore them, showing little concern

about their problems.

14

Landholdings in the region are small, and hardly yield enough for families to

make their ends meet. Most families supplement their meagre incomes by rearing

livestock, including camels, goats and buffaloes. Yet, as the pasture lands are

limited, and because of the prohibitive cost of fodder in the market, most families

have only small herds of animals. The rapid cutting down of the relatively few

trees that exist for fuel, in addition to over-grazing is now posing major problems

for the environment, besides making livestock rearing a less remunerative source

of income. As a result of these pressures, increasing numbers of rural Kutchi

Muslim men take up seasonal employment in the rural areas of southern Kutch, in

fields owned mainly by the rich Hindu Patel community, or as daily manual

labourers in factories in towns in Kutch and beyond. . There are almost no

government employees from these Muslim communities, even in low-paid and

low-ranking services. In recent years a new source of income has appeared for

many families in the area—that is, cutting of bushes to make charcoal, which is

sold through middlemen who regularly visit the villages.

The Muslims of Kutch are divided into a number of endogamous caste-like

groups, also known as zat or biraderi. Unlike in the Hindu case, however, they are

not ranked hierarchically, and are considered to be roughly of the same social

status. Besides, they are also roughly equal in terms of economic status as well,

being for the most part, at or below the officially declared poverty line. The richer

and more educated Muslim castes in Kutch, such as the Memons, Bohras and

Khojahs, live mainly in the towns, and have little or nothing to do with the Muslim

communities living in the rural areas.

There are estimated to be almost eighty different Muslim castes in Kutch. Of

these, the principal communities in the area where the Jeevan Talim project

operates are Baluchis, Bhattis, Changal Girasias, Faqirs, Halepotras, Hajjams,

Hingorjas, Jaths, Jiyejas, Junejas, Korars, Kumbhars, Langas, Lunais, Miyanas,

Mughals, Muthuas, Narejas, Nodeys, Notiyas, Raimas, Raisis, Samejas, Sammas,

Sarkis, Shaikhs, Siddis, Sodhas, Sumras, Suna Girasias, Syeds, Thakurais, Thebas

15

and Thudiyas. The mother-tongue of most of these castes is Kutchi, a language

quite distinct from Gujarati, the official language of Gujarat, and closer to Sindhi.

There are also sub-dialects of Kutchi that are spoken in different parts of the

district, and in some places different Muslim castes have their own particular ways

of speaking Kutchi, distinct from the others. Some Muslim groups in this area

claim Sindhi as their mother tongue.

16

Status of education in Kutch

Literacy levels among the Muslims of rural Kutch are among the lowest in the

whole of India. It is estimated to be less than 20%, and that of rural Muslim Kutchi

women, less than three percent. Numerous small settlements in those parts of

Kutch where the Jeevan Talim project functions are located in the interiors of the

desert and have no government schools. Other Muslim settlements, usually

inhabited by families who have escaped from drought conditions and have taken

up residence near villages located in less inhospitable terrain, are not recognized

by the government and the settlers, despite having lived there for decades. Since

these people do not have title deeds to the lands on which their huts stand, they

are not considered eligible to receive any assistance from the state, including

access to education in the government schools.

Even in the few villages in the area where there are government schools, classes

are generally not held regularly. Drop-out rates are extremely high. One reason is

that children above the age of ten are needed to help their parents graze their

animals, fetch water and cut firewood. Further, in most cases these children are

first-generation learners. Since their communities do not have a culture of

literacy, parents often do not pay much attention to their children's education.

Almost all the teachers appointed in the government schools in this region are

from outside Kutch. Most of them live in the closest town, which may be several

dozens of kilometers away. This is because most of these villages lack almost all

basic amenities associated with urban life, including electricity. Many teachers

spend most of their time at home and on the few days that they come to the

village to teach they are present for hardly two or three hours. . The fact that

transportation links are extremely limited does not help at all. And in the fierce

heat of summer and in the monsoon season when most of this part of Kutch is

often flooded, few teachers can muster up the enthusiasm to commute long

17

distances to come to their schools to teach. Consequently, levels of teacher and

student attendance in almost all these villages are pathetically low.

This problem is further compounded by the fact that the medium of instruction in

the government schools in Kutch, as elsewhere in Gujarat, is Gujarati, which, for

many rural Kutchi Muslims, has little in common with their own language. This

poses major problems for children in the villages where the project operates who

are denied the Constitutional right to receive primary education in their mother

tongue. Further, the textbooks used in the schools have little or no resonance

with their own environment, history, culture and traditions, and are thus often

seen as alien and alienating.

Even in those schools that do function, standards are very low. Often students are

given a passing grade by their teachers simply in order that the teachers

themselves are spared the blame for low standards of teaching. It is common even

for students who have officially passed the sixth or seventh grade not to know

how to read or write anything other than just their names. Such children are

officially recorded as 'literate', although, for all practical purposes they are not.

18

Initial Stages of the Jeevan Talim Project

To begin with, a total of 14 villages and vandhs, which had no access to

government schools in or near the settlement were selected for the project. The

selected settlements included those that had no government school, those that

had schools but no teachers, those that officially had schools and teachers, but

where the teachers did not come to teach or rarely did so, and those where

children went only to the local maktab. In the case of the latter, the sectarian

affiliation of the maktab was generally ignored. As a result, villages where

maktabs were run independently of the Jamiat, by the villagers themselves or else

affiliated with another Islamic sect, in most cases the Ahl-e Hadith, were also

chosen. Most of these villages and vandhs were wholly Muslim. Two villages had

Hindu and Dalit inhabitants also, including one where the students who attended

the Jeevan Talim centres were all Dalits.

The next stage of the project consisted

of selecting and training the

instructors. It was felt that in order to

regularize teaching in the centres , the

instructors should be selected from the

villages. This was also considered

essential as teachers should ideally

understand and be comfortable with

the local cultural milieu and also because it would aid ownership of the project

from the local community. In many cases, this posed a major challenge as there

were hardly any educated men or women locally. In some settlements, the most

educated person had studied only till the third or fourth grade. In others, the only

person educated was the maulvi who had received only religious education.

After the arduous process of selecting the would-be instructors was complete, an

initial two-day training programme for them was held in October 2004 along

19

with Udaan and KMVS, in which Jamiat personnel also participated. In the course

of the programme, issues such as the curriculum , innovative pedagogical

techniques involving song, dance, theatre, painting and other activities, use of

local resources as teaching aids and classroom management were discussed.

A second two-day training programme was held in January 2005. This was

followed by some more such programmes, including a three-month programme

organised by the Dalit Shakti Kendra, Ahmedabad, in which three would-be Jeevan

Talim instructors from selected villages in Kutch participated. Periodic refresher

training workshops were held for educators at the Jamiat's premises in Anjar and

the Jamiat's Children's Village in Bhuj.

Once the would-be educators had received their first round of training, the Jeevan

Talim centres began functioning. Parents and maulvis teaching in the local

maktabs were motivated by Jamiat and Udaan team members to send children to

the centres. Soon, however, many centres closed down, necessitating the

selection of new villages. Today, the project runs 32 centres in different parts of

rural Kutch, with a total of some 900 children, boys and girls, studying in them .

Of these centres, only six are among those that were set up in the initial stage of

the project.

The rapid closure of some centres was due to several factors. Many instructors

found the monthly remuneration of a thousand rupees for teaching two hours a

day for six days a week too little. Some of them preferred to take up other

sources of employment, such as working as drivers and cleaners in trucks

carrying lignite from the coal mines in Lakhpat, whereby they could earn up to

five or six times what they would have as instructors. Others felt that making

charcoal would be a more lucrative career. In the case of some instructors, the

fact that they had received only a very basic education, till between the third and

fifth grade, and that, therefore, teaching was not a career that they actually

20

wanted to pursue, was another reason for discontinuing teaching. Even after

undergoing training and attending workshops they found it difficult to deal with

basic subjects.

Despite this major problem of the rapid turnover of instructors, the closure of

centres in several villages and vandhs, and various other challenges, the Jeevan

Talim project has been able to make considerable headway, although obviously

not as much as was envisaged when the project was formulated. The number of

centres has expanded, and a team of four supervisors and one coordinator

regularly visits the centres, monitors and evaluates them, and, along with the

instructors, sets periodic examinations for the children. The development of the

curriculum remains

an on-going project,

and this is discussed

at the monthly

meetings of teachers

and Udaan team at

the Jamiat's office in

Bhuj. In addition,

instructors' training

and refresher

programmes are

organised every

three months, where

teachers also share their experiences and the problems that they and the children

face.

21

Case studies of a few centres

In order to get a better understanding of the successes and limitations of the

Jeevan Talim project, a brief look at the actual functioning of the centres in

selected villages and vandhs and the social, economic and educational conditions

of the inhabitants of these settlements is in order, as given below. Material for

this section of this report was gathered in the course of a ten-day visit to these

settlements in late February/early March 2008 and hence represents the situation

as it prevailed then. These villages and vandhs account for most of the

settlements where Jeevan Talim centres run.

22

Noorani Nagar is a small settlement about ten kilometers from Anjar town. The

thirty families there belong to the Muslim Nodey caste. They are desperately poor,

owning no agricultural land of their own. They survive mainly by rearing buffaloes

and selling milk, by cutting and selling wood and by engaging in daily-wage

labour. There is no government school in the village, the nearest being some five

kilometers away, making it impossible for children to go there to study.

Maulvi Abdul Muqsid is the Imam of the local mosque. He has received a

traditional Islamic education, till the fazilat or advanced level. In the maktab

attached to the mosque he teaches about 30 children, with about 20 girls, to read

the Quran and recite their prayers for two hours in the mornings and an hour and

a half in the evenings. The maktab was set up by the village community some

thirty years ago. He also leads the congregational prayers in the mosque five

times a day. Half his salary is paid by the Jamiat, and the remainder by the

villagers themselves.

The Jeevan Talim centre in Noori Nagar started in 2004. It was not possible to

select a local teacher

because the most

educated person in

the village had

studied only till the

fourth standard. A

few months after the

centre started in the

village it had to

close down because

the appointed

teacher left abruptly.

A month ago, Maulvi

Umar Raima was

appointed to teach in the centre. Like Maulvi Abdul Muqsid, he, too, received a

traditional Islamic education in a madrasa, but he also knows Gujarati and

23

Mathematics, which he teaches to the students in the centre, all of whom also

attend religious classes in the maktab.

Maulvi Umar takes classes at the centre for two hours a day in the morning.

Before he comes to Noorani Nagar, he teaches at the Jeevan Talim centre at the

village of Rambagh, seven kilometers away. After he finishes teaching at the

centre in Noorani Nagar he cycles back to Rambagh to teach religious studies in

the maktab there. Rambagh has a population of around 150 people, all of whom

belong to the Muslim Hingorja caste and are mainly cattle-grazers. The Jeevan

Talim classes here are held on the ground under a tree adjacent to the mosque as

the villagers cannot afford the cost of constructing a separate room for the

purpose. There is no electricity or piped water supply in the village. The villagers

do not own even the land on which their very modest huts, made of wooden

boards nailed together, stand on. The person with the highest level of education

in the village has studied only till the fifth grade. The vast majority of the

inhabitants of the village are illiterate.

When we dropped in at the centre,

Maulana Umar was sitting with a circle

of children around him—two girls and

fourteen boys—helping them to write

Gujarati letters with flowers and stones.

He asks the children to recite some

Kutchi and Gujarati songs—about the

environment, the importance of girls'

education and hygiene—which he

himself learned during the training

programme for Jeevan Talim educators.

The children do so with gusto. Maulana

Umar explains that although there are

twenty-five children on the rolls of the

centre, only sixteen come regularly. The

24

low rates of enrolment, he says, are mainly a result of crushing poverty, which

forces children to work at home or tend to the family's buffaloes, and the apathy

and indifference of many parents, who feel that even if their children get some

education it will not benefit them as they would only continue with their ancestral

occupation for want of any other alternative.

Not far from Rambagh is the village of Meghpur. This is also an entirely Muslim

village, and its inhabitants belong to the Shaikh, Raima, Faqir, Siddi, Korar, Theba

and Sameja castes. Several of the forty houses in the village were badly affected in

the 2001 earthquake, and these have been reconstructed with financial assistance

from the Jamiat. None of the affected families received any compensation or

financial assistance from the government. Most families in the village are recent

migrants, from Bhojada in the Banni region, near the Rann of Kutch, a very barren

and relatively inaccessible area. Despite having repeatedly requested the state

authorities to grant them titles to the land which they have occupied or to be

allowed to purchase these plots they have received no reply.. "This is why",

explains Salim Sumra, a village youth, "we lack even basic facilities. We cannot

even get loans from government banks". And, like almost all other Muslim

settlements in the area, Meghpur has not benefited from any government-funded

developmental programme.

This village has no electricity, despite the fact that two Hindu temples on either

side of the village, whose priests the villagers enjoy cordial relations with, have

electric connections. The villagers complain that since 1991 they have been

sending applications to the relevant government authorities to provide them with

electricity but nothing has come of this. Several families paid a sum of five

hundred rupees each, a big amount for them, to someone who claimed that he

would arrange for the electric lines to be extended to their village, but he soon

absconded with the money.

Many families in the village are deep in debt. They need to sometimes borrow

money for buying food, for themselves as well as for their animals. Debts have

risen considerably in recent years, says village elder Mohammad Sohail Raima.

"We manage to gather fodder for the animals for only around six months a year,

25

and the animals give milk for only that period. For the rest of the year, we need to

buy fodder, which is becoming increasingly expensive, from the market", he says.

"We generally take loans from moneylenders. We are all illiterate, so we do not

know what the documents that we need to put our thumb-prints on say. They

charge a hefty rate of interest, and if we fail to pay up we are often harassed by

goons", he says.

The village has a small maktab, where Maulvi Shafi Muhammad teaches about

thirty children, mostly girls, in two shifts, one early in the morning and the other

in the afternoon. The maktab is located in a small room, adjacent to the village

mosque, which is a one-room structure made of logs put together. Although

almost all the inhabitants of the village belong to the Ahl-e Hadith sect. The

maktab was set up some eleven years ago by the Jamiat, which, till recently, used

to pay half of the maulvi's salary. Now, however, the inhabitants of the village

pool in their own money to pay the maulvi. Several maulvis have taught at the

maktab till date, but few have spent much time here as they found the conditions

in the village too harsh and the salary of two thousand rupees a month too low.

The closest government school is six kilometers away, so no children go there.

The maktab and the Jeevan Talim centre are the only available avenues for the

education of the village children.

The Jeevan Talim centre here, which has been running for the last two years, has

two teachers and twenty-five children, with roughly equal numbers of girls and

boys. In contrast to Rambagh, the centre

here is housed in a well-maintained,

cheerful-looking one-room building made

of wooden boards with a steel sheet roof.

Its inner walls display bright paintings and

mathematical and alphabetical charts

created by the children and the centre's

educator Irfan. It has a blackboard, tables,

chairs and carpets on the floor.

26

Given that they have not been learning regularly, the progress that they have

made in a short span of time is quite a bit. Many of them can now recognize all

the letters of the Gujarati alphabet and also perform simple mathematical

calculations. However, none of them have been able to enroll in a government

school, although that was one of the aims of the Jeevan Talim project. On the

other hand, Irfan says, five of his students have now enrolled in a higher-level

madrasa in Bhuj, where they are training to become ulema or religious specialists,

where they are also studying subjects such as Gujarati, Mathematics, General

Science and History.

Sonapuri Madtapar is a settlement on the outskirts of

Bhuj town, home to seventeen families, all from the

Muslim Sameja caste, whose primary occupation like

almost all the other Muslim castes in the area, is

cattle-grazing. These families are migrants from the

Banni area near the Sindh border, having shifted here

some two decades ago at the height of a severe

drought. None of them own any agricultural land

here. The village has a small mosque, and Maulana

Irfan is hardly twenty, and he is an enthusiastic teacher. At his beckoning, and after they

have overcome their initial shyness, the children enact a drama, and spell out some Gujarati

words, after which they sing songs that they have learnt from their parents. "We love

coming here, because our teacher never beats us, and he really makes learning fun for us",

says eight year-old Saima.

Irfan, who has studied till the tenth grade, also teaches at another Jeevan Talim centre in the

nearby village of Adipur Gulai. He has been associated with the Jeevan Talim programme for

the last year and a half. Before this, he used to work as a mechanic in a garage. He says that

he loves his present work. "Our people are very poor and because they are illiterate and

unaware, they are easily cheated. That's why I want to continue working to promote

education among them", he says. He informs me of how difficult it was initially to convince

the village folk of the necessity of the centre and of how they are now eager to help out,

including the local maulvi.

27

Noor Muhammad Samma is its Imam. He leads the prayers in the mosque and

teaches in the adjacent maktab, which also serves as the Jeevan Talim centre.

Thirty-six children—twenty boys and sixteen girls—study in both the maktab and

the centre.

The Jeevan Talim centre in the village was started a year ago, but it has seen a

high turnover of teachers. Shahana, a Muslim woman from Bhuj in her early 20s,

is the fifth teacher to be appointed at the centre. "No child from this village has

ever attended school", she explains. "So, even though the centre here has suffered

from the fact that so many teachers have left since it started, at least some

children can do basic mathematical calculations and read Gujarati letters".

Commuting to the village daily is a major challenge, Shahana says—she has to

take a rickshaw from Bhuj, which is 18 kilometers from the village, and then walk

around three kilometers to get to the centre. Like many other Jeevan Talim

instructors, she is not paid for her travel expenses. This means that her small

income from teaching is further reduced. This is an issue that many instructors

suggest needs to be addressed.

Tal, a village in the Nakhatrana taluka, some twenty kilometers from Nakhatrana

town, is located on the fringe of the Rann of Kutch. There is no approach road

leading to the village as it is located in the desert. Besides two families who

belong to the Dalit Koli caste, the 100-odd

families in the village are Muslim Jaths,

whose main profession is cattle-grazing.

Like most other Muslim families in the area,

they have recently taken to making charcoal

as well. Although there is a government

middle school in the vicinity, because of

parents' lack of enthusiasm and because the

teachers rarely come to the school, it rarely

opens.

28

The village has a small maktab, which is partly funded by the Jamiat. Maulana

Muhammad Arif, who is a local, has been teaching in the maktab for the last

seven years after completing the alimiyat course from a madrasa in Bharuch

district. The maktab operates two shifts, one for boys and the other for girls.

Roughly thirty boys and twenty-five girls study in the maktab. Classes are held in

Urdu, but the maulvi also explains the lessons in Sindhi, the childrens' mothertongue.

Some twenty children who have finished studying in this maktab,

including ten who had studied in the local government school as well, have

enrolled in the Jamiat Arabia Ulum ul-Islamia, a large Deobandi madrasa in Bhuj,

whose secretary, Noor Muhammad Raima (who is also the secretary of the Jamiat's

Gujarat unit) plays a key role in the Jeevan Talim project.

29

"What's the use of spending so much time studying?", asks 80 year-old Din

Muhammad Jath. "I know of only two government servants from our community—

one is a postman and the other a bus driver—in the whole of Kutch. Even if our

children study they won't get jobs, so I don't see the value of school", he adds.

But his son Rahmat Jath disagrees. He tells me enthusiastically about the Jeevan

Talim centre in the village. The centre, he says, was started fours years ago, and

so far it has seen four teachers come and go in quick succession. "They found the

salary too low" Rahmat explains. "About 15 children go to the centre daily, and

the teacher is also regular, but if you ask parents if their own children attend the

centre they probably would not know or even care", he rues. Referring to his

father's diatribe against the centre, he says, "Of course, education is important,

but many of us Jaths do not take any interest in it. Most of us want to live as our

ancestors did".

But things have indeed changed for the Jaths, and they cannot continue the same

life-style of their forefathers, despite what Din Muhammad Jath says. "Till three

decades ago, we Jaths were nomads. We used to roam the desert with our

animals. And so we could not send our children to school. Nor did we feel the

need to do so", Rahmat muses. "But now since we have settled down we have to,

because now we have dealings with people in the towns, with government officials

and departments, and if we remain illiterate we cannot progress".

The Jeevan Talim centre in the village is housed in a well-maintained one-room

structure, which is decorated with art work done by the students and their

teacher, Abdul Karim, who also teaches in the Jeevan Talim centre in the village of

Paiya, located seven kilometers away. There are around twenty children in this

centre, thirteen boys and seven girls. "Most of these children are below ten years.

After ten, they usually have no time for studies as they help their parents in

grazing animals and making charcoal", Abdul Karim explains. Having studied till

the ninth grade, he is among the most educated people in his village. "None of

the children from this centre have, of yet, gone on to take admission in the

government school, although four children from the village have joined the Jamiat

Arabia Ulum ul-Islamia madrasa in Bhuj", he reveals..

30

Also in the Nakhatrana taluka, near the Rann of Kutch, is the isolated Jath vandh

of Vazira, home to around seventy families. There is no maktab in the vandh, but

a local madrasa graduate, Maulana Ali Ahmad, began teaching the Quran and the

Arabic alphabet to the children two months ago. He is paid by the local

community and is not associated with the Jamiat. About thirty children study in

the Jeevan Talim centre in the vandh, including six from the Siju or Meghwal Dalit

caste. The instructor of the centre, Maulana Shamusuddin, has been teaching here

ever since the centre started three years ago. There is a government middle

school in the vandh with three teachers, but only around thirty-five children study

in it. Around three or four children from the vandh have studied till the seventh

grade, but yet they are unable to read and write.

Yet another vandh in the arid, semi-desert Nakhatrana taluka is Luna, inhabited

by some sixty Jath families, besides eight households from the Meghwal Dalit

caste. Like almost all other Muslim settlements in this part of Kutch, Luna is

desperately poor. As elsewhere in this area, people here survive by making

charcoal and selling milk, and, if the rains are good, manage one harvest of

lentils, wheat and maize a year. The village is marooned for three months almost

every year in the rainy season, forcing the inhabitants to take shelter near the

shrine of the Sufi saint Haji Pir, located several kilometers away till the waters

subside.

31

The vandh has a maktab, which is supported by the village community and has no

formal relation with the Jamiat. Maulvi Muhammad Hashim, who has studied till

the ninth standard and has also completed two years of study at a madrasa in

Banni, teaches in the maktab, which has thirty students, half of whom are girls. He

also teaches in the local Jeevan Talim centre, which operates in the same oneroom

structure of the maktab.

Bhambhara vandh, also in Nakhatrana taluka, is located in the flat, dry and stony

plains on the fringes of the desert, near the famous shrine of the Sufi saint Haji

Pir. This settlement of 35 Jath families was established twenty years ago. Before

this, its inhabitants lived four kilometers away, which they left due to regular

flooding during the monsoons. There is no school in the village, and no children

from here go to the nearest government school to study.

The village had a maktab, where about forty children used to study, but three

months ago it was shut down since the maulvi lived far away, making it difficult

for him to commute and also because he felt that the seventeen hundred rupees

he was paid every month by the villagers was too little for him. Despite the fact

that the village had a maktab, only three people in the village can read Urdu, and

two can read Gujarati. The maulvi used to run the Jeevan Talim centre also for the

last two years, but since he left and as there is no person in the village to take

charge of it, the centre has shut down as well.

Ludbai is another Jath settlement in the Nakhatrana taluka, and has around a

hundred houses. It is one of the few Jath settlements in the region to have a

government school, with classes till the seventh grade. Villagers, however,

complain that the two teachers appointed here are very irregular because they do

not take their work seriously and being from outside Kutch and unwilling to stay

in the village, they have taken up accommodation in Desalpar, a small qasba

about twenty-five kilometers from the village. The bus service from there to the

village is very irregular. The only bus to the village arrives at 11.30 a.m., and

returns to Desalpar at 2 p.m., so the teachers can hardly spend any time in the

school, if they come there at all.

32

The neighbouring qasba of Desalpar is one of the only settlements selected for

the Jeevan Talim project that has a proper road. It is located thirty kilometers

from Haji Pir and some eighty kilometers from Bhuj. It is a multi-caste settlement

of around four hundred families, most of who are Muslim. The Muslim castes here

include Hingorjas, Jiyejas, Kumbhars, Langas, Narejas, Sarkis and Thudiyas. The

Hindus include Jadejas, Koli, Meghwals and Thakkars.

Desalpar has two government

schools, one till the seventh

standard and the other from the

eighth to the tenth standard. Two

hundred children, Muslims,

Hindus and Dalits, attend the two

government schools. About

twenty Muslim children, six girls

and fourteen boys, none of whom

go to the government school,

attend the local Jeevan Talim

centre. There are ten graduates in

the qasba, including some

women, and all but two of them

are Hindus. One Muslim graduate

17 year-old Abdul Jabbar, who has studied till the seventh grade, is the instructor of

the local Jeevan Talim centre, which has been running for the last three years. He

supplements his income by making and selling charcoal. "Here we use all the five

senses and that makes it fun for the children, not drab as it is in the government

school. We teach them to touch things, make things, even smell things, while in

government schools, teaching is limited just to the blackboard. So, here they learn

much faster and also retain what they've learnt", he explains. He excitedly tells me

about how much progress his students—twenty-two girls and four boys, all below the

age of seven—have made. He asks them to string letters to make words and to enact a

short play, which they do with great enthusiasm.

33

works as a truck driver, and the other has a job with a company in Bhuj.

The Jeevan Talim centre in Desalpar began three years ago, and 19 year-old

Qasim has been teaching here for the last two years. He proudly says that seven

of his students, all girls, can now write Gujarati, and the rest can at least identify

the letters of the Gujarati alphabet. "I wish parents would take greater interest in

their children's' studies", he says. "They hardly ever ask me how their children are

doing or what new things they are learning".

34

The maulvi of the adjacent maktab has received his Islamic education from the

famed Nadwat ul-Ulema madrasa in Lucknow. Thereafter, he completed his

graduation, after which he taught for three years in an Urdu school in Mumbai and

then in a madrasa in Palanpur. He joined the maktab to teach last month and is

paid jointly by the Jamiat and the villagers. His wife is also a trained Islamic

scholar or alima, who studied in a girls' madrasa in Bharuch, where she also learnt

secular subjects and computers. He says that she will soon start teaching the

older girls and women in the village and might also train them in tailoring. Of his

58 students, 35 girls and 23 boys, 12 boys also study in the government school.

Five students who studied in the maktab have now taken admission in the Jamiataffiliated

Jamiat Arabia Ulum ul-Islamia madrasa in Bhuj. Only three Muslim girls

above the age of ten study in the government schools.

"We are not opposed to girls' education", the maulvi explains. "We want them to

study in schools as well, but, after a certain age, boys and girls should study

separately. If the government could provide us with separate girls' schools for

older girls or if some Muslim organization could set up girls' schools that

combine secular and religious education, the villagers will have no problem in

"Boys and girls in the villages generally do not interact together", Qasim says, "but in the

centre that is not the case. All of us, including myself, clean the centre's premises every day.

I sometimes sit with some village elders and the local maulvi and discuss the problems of the

children. In that way, we encourage the villagers to feel that the centre is theirs, that it

belongs to them".

35

sending them there", he explains. However, here, as elsewhere in this part of

Kutch, he points out, there are no government girls' schools, because of which

few girls above the age of ten can continue their studies. He also points out, and

this is an argument made by many other village folk, that if the local schools and

the Jeevan Talim centres could teach children Kutchi and use books in that

language they would learn faster and more enthusiastically.

"My own daughter, who used to study in a government school, was told that she

could not wear a dupatta while in school. That, and not any opposition from my

part to her education, forced me to withdraw her from school", the maulvi relates.

He cites a case that occurred in a neighbouring village some years ago, involving

three girls who were punished by the headmaster of the school by having to place

their slippers on their heads. "Obviously, such attitudes and incidents make

people wary of sending their girl children to school", he says. "In the maktab and

in the Jeevan Talim centre they may not learn much about the world, but at least

they are allowed to dress and behave in an Islamic fashion", he adds.

Qasim, the instructor at the Jeevan Talim centre in Desalpar, also teaches in the

Jeevan Talim centre in the nearby Jath vandh of Kandai. The inhabitants of this

vandh are newcomers, having shifted here from Banni seventeen years ago at the

time of a severe drought. Their houses reveal their stark poverty, being made of

sticks tied together with twine and plastered with mud. The closest government

school is in Desalpar, but owing to difficulty in transportation, no children from

this vandh study there. The centre here started two years ago, but it has no room

or building. Classes are held under a thorny tree, and children sit on a torn and

dusty mat.

Close to Kandai is the settlement of Dhora, home to about sixty families. Most of

them are Muthua and Nautiyar Muslims, the rest being Hindus from the Ahir

caste. Maulvi Shamsuddin, who has been teaching in the village maktab for the

last ten years, also runs the local Jeevan Talim centre. He is paid for his teaching

in the maktab by the villagers, while the Jamiat pays him for teaching in the

centre.

36

Although there is a government middle school in the village, teachers hardly

attend. Saleem, a village youth, says, "In any case, they speak only Gujarati, and

our children can hardly understand them. Earlier", he goes on, "the government

had a policy of selecting teachers for schools from within the same district, but

now selection and appointment is done on a state-level basis. So, one hardly finds

any Kutchi-speaking teachers in this part of rural Kutch, and certainly no Muslim

Kutchis. Most of the teachers are Gujarati-speakers, mainly from Sabarkantha and

Mehsana districts. They cannot understand or speak our language and they find

our culture alien. Hence, they hardly take any interest in teaching our children."

The Jeevan Talim centre in the village was set up three years ago and Maulvi

Shamsuddin has been teaching there right since its inception. He received his

Islamic training from the Jamia Muhammadiyya Salafia, a madrasa associated with

the Ahl-e Hadith sect, in Varnora in Bhuj district. The ten-year course that he

completed there consisted of the traditional Islamic subjects along with Gujarati,

English and Mathematics.

"Those who have been regularly attending the centre for the last three years can

now read, and also write a bit", Maulvi Shamsuddin says. "However there is a high

rate of absenteeism, and several children have even stopped coming. Their

parents take little interest in their studies. I find that girls are more serious about

their studies, in the maktab and in the centre. Boys tend to spend more time

playing. Girls generally listen to what

I say or ask them to do and are much

more punctual."

Dedhiya is a village of Sindhispeaking

Soomra and Nodey Muslim

cattle-grazers, located in the desert

in Banni, in northern Kutch. The 55

families there survive by grazing

buffaloes and selling their milk. As in

most of the other villages where the

Jeevan Talim project has its centres,

37

the local government veterinary doctor rarely visits the village, although he

receives a regular salary. The nearest health centre is located at a distance of

twenty kilometers, but since the facilities there are minimal, most patients prefer

to go to private doctors in Bhuj town, sixty kilometers away, where they have to

pay much higher fees. There is no government school in the village, the nearest

being about eight kilometres away. Consequently, none of the children go to

school. Recently, a one-room government school building was set up in the

village, but no teacher has been appointed as yet. In addition, an anganwadi

building was constructed in the village five years ago, funded by UNICEF, but

despite several requests, the authorities have not appointed a worker to run it.

The Jeevan Talim centre here, set up a year ago, is run by Maulvi Jan Muhammad,

who has taken up this responsibility, as well as that of teaching in the village

maktab, a month ago. He studied till the sixth standard in a school in Patan and

then spent six years studying in a madrasa in Palanpur, where he also memorized

the entire Quran. As in many other villages in the area, several maulvis from

outside came to teach in the village but

left soon after, finding the salaries too

low and the living conditions too

harsh. Consequently, says the maulvi,

few villagers can read the Quran,

although the village maktab has been

in existence for the last four years. In

addition, almost no one in the village

can read and write Gujarati. To write

and read letters and notices, the

villagers generally approach the

maulvi. They also sometimes consult

him on issues related to religious

rituals he says, but never for religious

guidance on social or economic issues,

although Islam also has its own views

about these.

38

Also located in the arid, desert-like Banni region of the Bhuj taluka is Umrani

vandh, a settlement of Nodey Muslims. The twenty-five families here used to

maintain large herds of buffaloes, but owing to years of drought and lack of

sufficient fodder and water their herds have rapidly dwindled. Now, most of them

eke out an existence by making charcoal. The Jeevan Talim centre here was

established eight months ago. The first teacher left because he felt the salary was

too low. The present teacher, Ayub, also teaches in the Jeevan Talim centre in the

neighboring village of Meghrani. Before this, he worked as a cleaner and cook in a

restaurant in Bhuj and then with an NGO working for the physically challenged, he

himself being unable to walk properly due to a problem in his right foot.

Barasar, on the outskirts of Mankuva town near

Bhuj, is a Muslim slum, located just behind a

plush 'upper' caste Hindu colony, many of the

houses of which are owned by Non-Resident

Indians. The Muslims here belong to the

Samma, Sumra and Khalifa or Hajjam castes.

Nearby is a Jath Muslim settlement, inhabited

by of sixty-odd families, who live in miserable

huts, bereft of piped water and electricity. Even

the mosque here has no water connection,

despite the inhabitants having repeatedly

requested the panchayat authorities for this for

several years now. The Jeevan Talim centre

here functions in the same one-room structure

He had initial hesitations about the pedagogy of the Jeevan Talim project, especially since it also

involved painting, song and dance, quite in contrast to the system of education in the madrasa

where he had studied. "Now", he says, "I realize that education should not mean imprisoning

children and being stern with them. The best way for them to learn is by actually enjoying what they

are doing".

39

as the local maktab. 22 year-old Abdul Razzak Theba, who has studied till the

ninth standard, teaches in the centre. He supplements what he earns from the

centre by making and selling charcoal.

Abdul Razzak also teaches in the neighbouring vandh of Sangrai, which is

inhabited by sixty families from the Muslim Samma community, who, like many

other Muslims in the area, belong to the Ahl-e Hadith sect. Here, too, the

inhabitants of the vandh survive mainly by making and selling charcoal and by

working in the fields of the Patel landlords. They own no land of their own, not

even the tiny plots where their tiny huts stand. The settlement lacks electricity and

water supply, as technically, the Sammas do not have title deeds to the land where

they live. Only three boys from this settlement attend the government school in a

neighbouring village. On the other hand, sixteen girls and six boys attend the

local Jeevan Talim centre.

Not far from Sangrai is the settlement of Ram Badi, inhabited entirely by Dalits

from the Meghwal or Siju caste and whose profession by caste is weaving. The

eighteen families in this settlement shifted here from the neighboring village of

Pirwari, six kilometers away, in the aftermath of the deadly 2001 earthquake,

when their houses were completely destroyed. Their houses and work sheds for

their looms in their new habitation were

built with the financial help of an external

NGO. The land where their houses stand

belonged to the government, but in 2003

these people received land titles.

However, they own no agricultural land of

their own; almost all such land in the

vicinity being owned by the Patels, in

whose fields some of them work as daily

wage agricultural labourers.

There is no government school in the settlement, but an NGO has constructed a

large three-room school building here. A government-paid teacher takes classes

daily there, teaching about twenty children. These same children also attend the

40

local Jeevan Talim centre, which started around a year ago. Saleem Traiya, the

instructor of the centre, explains that the children study in the centre, in addition

to the other school, because it serves as a revision/tuition for them.

The Jeevan Talim project has another centre in the Muslim locality of Mufat Nagar,

on the outskirts of the township of Kodki, eleven kilometers from Bhuj town. The

Muslims here belong to the Samma, Raima, Traiya and Khalifa castes, and are

characterized by widespread poverty and landlessness. They earn their livelihood

mainly by working as labourers in the fields of the Patels, the largest landlords

here, or by doing construction work in sites in Bhuj. Saleem, the instructor in the

centre in Ram Badi, teaches here, too. He used his own money to build a small,

well-kept one-room structure adjacent to his house in which he conducts classes.

The twenty-five students in the centre include three boys and six girls from the

Dalit Meghwal community. The closest government school is just half a kilometre

away, but only ten Muslim children, all boys, study there, and they also attend the

classes in the centre.

Madhapar Matiya is a colony in Junawas, a

squalid slum located in the suburbs of Bhuj

town. It is home to thirty-five Muslim families,

from the Juneja, Samma and Nodey castes. Most

of them follow the Ahl-e Hadith school of

thought. They are originally from Kharwa in

Banni, and migrated here in 1980 in the wake of

a severe famine. Only ten children from the

colony go to the nearby government school. All

of them are boys, except for two girls who study

in the second standard.

Madhu Behen, a Hindu Kutchi woman, recently

began teaching in the Jeevan Talim centre here. She is one of the few women

instructors in the entire Jeevan Talim project. She complains that the students are

irregular. One reason for this, she says, is economic. Businessmen from other

parts of Gujarat regularly come to the colony and take men, women and children

41

above the age of ten in trucks to interior villages in Kutch to do hammali work—

loading trucks with charcoal. Because of this, the number of children going to

school and to the centre is small.

Shakur vandh is located just off the main road, ten kilometres from Bhuj town.

The forty Samma Muslim families here were originally from Khavra, in the Banni

area, and migrated here fifteen years ago due to a severe drought. Although they

have requested the government authorities to grant them titles to the land on

which they have set up their huts, this permission has not been granted. The

nearest government school is four kilometres away and no children from the

vandh go there to study. Many men and women from the vandh work in the

ceramic factories near the settlement which are owned by 'upper' caste Hindus.

Working conditions there are poor, and workers have to breathe clouds of dust all

day. Almost everyone in the vandh is illiterate and the most that some—four or

five men—can read

and write is their

own name.

The Jeevan Talim

centre here has been

functioning very

irregularly because

of a high turnover of

teachers. The first

teacher taught for a

month, and the next

for three days, after

which the centre remained closed for five months. A new teacher began visiting

the centre ten days ago, but because he comes daily by cycle from his home,

twenty kilometres away, the villagers are not hopeful that he will continue for

long. Efforts to find an instructor living closer to the centre have failed. The centre

itself presents a picture of woeful neglect. Classes are held under a torn sheet

strung across four wooden poles. Animal droppings ring the threadbare mat on

42

which the children sit. The nearest government school is located two kilometres

away and the nearest maktab is at a distance of four kilometres. No children from

this settlement study in either of them.

Sumra vandh, near Madhapar, not far from Bhuj town, is, as its name suggests, a

settlement of Sumra Muslims. They are recent migrants from Banni, where they

used to tend livestock. When many of their animals perished in a famine twenty

years ago, they shifted here and took to agricultural labour in the fields of Patel

landlords and working on construction sites to eke out a living. The most

educated person in the vandh has studied till only the third grade and, like most

other adult males here, he now works as a daily-wage labourer. The Jeevan Talim

centre in the vandh started two months ago, and now twenty children attend it.

No children attend the nearby maktab, located a kilometre away. "The reason",

says elderly Noor Muhammad, "is that the other children there beat them".

43

The situation in neighbouring Bhujodi is equally distressing. The thirty Sumra

families here, originally from the Banni area, work mainly as labourers in the

nearby porcelain factories and in the Patels' fields, although some have buffaloes

and sell their milk, which fetches them thirteen rupees a litre. "Earlier", says

Salma, a middle-aged woman, "grazing lands were plenty here, but now much of

the land has been bought up by rich people for constructing houses. Because of

this, we are now often forced to buy expensive fodder from shops, which few of

us can afford. As a result, the number of our buffaloes has fallen and so have

their milk yields".

The nearest government school is only a kilometre from the settlement, but yet

only four children from the settlement, all of them boys, attend it. The Jeevan

Talim centre here opened just a month ago. The instructor, Bhavna Behen, a

Hindu woman from Bhuj town who has studied till the ninth grade and who is

teaching for the first time, says that she is surprised by the children's enthusiasm

to learn but is at the same time, deeply aware of the great hurdles that they have

to face in this regard.

Tanka vandh is located on the outskirts of Mirzapur, a township five kilometres

from Bhuj. The twenty Nodey Muslim families who live here are originally from the

Banni area, having shifted some thirty years ago. The Jeevan Talim centre here

started a year ago, but functioned for just eight months, when the instructor

resigned. It has been re-started recently by Maulana Safiullah, who also teaches in

the local maktab. He studied till the eighth standard in a school in Radhanpur,

after which he completed the alimiyat degree from a Deobandi madrasa in Patan.

He says that because the centre remained closed for several months, many

children have forgotten most of what they had previously learnt, a problem

common to many other Jeevan Talim centres that have had a very high turnover of

teachers. This is also the problem, he says, with the local maktab, which, since it

was established ten years ago has seen some twelve maulvis come and leave in

quick succession, this having a seriously negative impact on the students'

education.

44

Not far from Bhuj town, on the outskirts of Adipur, is the settlement of Sinai. In

addition to some Ahir, Meghwal and Rabari households, some thirty Muslim

families live here. They are from the Sodha, Mughal, Changal-Girasia and Syed

communities. They earn their livelihood by cutting firewood and selling it in the

nearby towns. Only around ten Muslim children study in the nearby government

school. These include seven girls, who are allowed to go to school by their

parents because the school is close by. The local maktab is housed in the

compound of the dargah or tomb-shrine of a Sufi saint, Syed Pir Saheb, who is

revered by not just the Muslims but also by many local Hindus. It has about

twenty students, more than half of them girls. A Jeevan Talim centre functioned

here for around half a year, but then closed down after the instructor left.

Consequently, very few children who had attended the centre remember what they

had learned there. That was the same fate in the case of the Jeevan Talim centre

in nearby Adipur Eidgah Jhopadpati, where, after the Jeevan talim centre shut

down, only ten children now study in the government school and roughly the

same number in the local maktab.

45

Assessing the Achievements of the Jeevan Talim

Project

The Jeevan Talim project is now in its fourth year, a long enough period to be able

to access its successes and limitations. Given the extremely harsh terrain in which

the Jeevan Talim project functions, the pathetic economic conditions of the

people, their lack of a culture of literacy, the poor communications, the inability

to get trained teachers, the rapid turnover of teachers and so on, the project has

been able to at least help galvanise people's interest in educating their children.

The fact that literally hundreds of children, whose families do not know how to

read and write at all, are now able to recognize letters and write them and solve

basic mathematical calculations, as a result of the project, is no mean

achievement.

The project has also

had a positive impact

on people's attitudes

towards education. As

Saleem, a resident of

Umrani vandh, puts it,

"Now only very few

people, especially the

elderly, will say that

there is no use

educating our children

giving reasons that

they will not get a government job or that they will, like their ancestors, grow to

become cattle-grazers. Even the poorest families are now aware of the need for

education, and in this the Jeevan Talim project has played a central role. It has

made us feel that the centre and its work are our own, that through the centre the

children can receive education joyfully".

46

Another positive outcome of the project has been to undermine the process that

was leading to the enforced ghettoisation of Muslim education, a result primarily

of discrimination practised by the state and large sections of the Hindu

community. Although the vast majority of the children, teachers and supervisors

associated with the project are Muslims, a substantial number of Hindus and

Dalits are also closely involved in the project in different capacities, including as

teachers, students and project support staff.

This gives the children, their parents and the ulema of the maktabs as well as

Jamiat leaders opportunities to interact with people of other faiths in the course of

the work of the Jeevan Talim centres, a process that helps undermine prejudices

on both sides. As Maulana Hakimuddin Qasmi, in-charge of the Jamiat's

Children's Village in Anjar, and closely involved in the Jeevan Talim project, says,

"In the Quran, Allah

says that we should

help each other in

good deeds. This

also means that

people of goodwill

of all faiths should

work together for

serving the needy.

That's what the

Jeevan Talim

project is all about.

Likewise, the Jamiat

has built houses for

some needy Hindus, whose houses were destroyed in the riots.."

"Some people might ask us why we are working with non-Muslims for educating

our children", he goes on. "My reply to them is that after the Battle of Badr, the

Prophet Muhammad agreed to release the prisoners of war if they would teach a

certain number of Muslims to read and write. So, if he could ask the enemies of

47

the Muslims to educate his people, why cannot we seek the help of those non-

Muslims who are certainly not our enemies, but people like the Udaan staff who

are our friends, to help us educate our children? We all can, and must, learn from

each other".

Maulana Hakimuddin also explains that although the Jamiat is associated with the

Deobandi school of thought, several villages where the Jeevan Talim centres are

located are associated with another sect, the Ahl-e Hadith, and one centre is

located in a Dalit settlement. "As this illustrates, true religion means that one

should work for the welfare of all needy people, irrespective of caste and religion",

he insists.

The Jeevan Talim project has also had an impact on several Jamiat leaders in

terms of the vision that they have set for their organisation. "Experiments like the

Jamiat's Children School and the Jeevan Talim project have convinced us of the

need for more ulema and ulema-led organizations to work on issues related to

modern education, including for girls and economic empowerment, in addition to

religious education", says Maulana Hakimuddin. He reveals that the Jamiat now

plans to set up two colleges in Kutch, having already launched some training

courses for women at its centre in Bhuj. "All these years", he notes, "because of

persistent anti-Muslim violence and threats to the Muslim identity, Muslim

organizations have been forced to focus almost wholly on relief and rehabilitation

and provision of religious education. But now we must expand the scope of our

work."

"We need to get more professional. As of now, we can run only madrasas

properly, and so we recognize the continuing need for working with NGOs like

Udaan for the educational projects that we have in mind. I think that there is a lot

of good that can come about if non-Muslim or secular NGOs work together with

Muslim organizations, including those led by ulema, for the benefit of the

marginalized. The ulema and other Muslim leaders must give this more serious

thought", he stresses.

48

Likewise, the impact of the project on local understanding of appropriate genderrelated

behaviour and notions concerning gender-relations cannot be discounted.

For many families, their girl children are able to study for the first time because

the centres are located in the village itself and because the instructors are from

the local community. Besides, the female instructors in some villages and the

female members of the Udaan support staff who regularly visit the various centres

have, through their very presence, impacted local people's ideas about the roles

of girls and women in a positive manner. The same is true in the case of the

ulema whom these women interact with, including both the maktab teachers as

well as the maulvis of the Jamiat.

For instance, Maulvi Ghulam Muhammad Qasmi, rector of the Jamiat Arabia Ulum

ul-Islamia, the large Deobandi madrasa in Bhuj which is associated with the

Jamiat, who is also associated, through the Jamiat, with the Jeevan Talim project,

says, "Initially, we did have some hesitations and misconceptions about working

with a non-Muslim NGO, especially since many of its activists with whom we had

to interact are women. But after several meetings with Udaan activists all our fears

were put to rest. I have observed these girls, they are so respectful. They are now

like my own children. Now, we regularly meet them and give them whatever help

they want because we trust them. We believe that the work must be done

properly, no matter by whom."

49

One of the aims of the Jeevan Talim project was to facilitate children, including

school drop-outs, to rejoin government schools in the villages where these exist.

On this count, the project has not been successful as hardly any children who

have attended the centres have taken admission in government schools. On the

other hand, however, a number of children, all boys, from several villages have,

after spending some time in the centres, joined the Jamiat Arabia Ulum ul-Islamia,

the Jamiat-associated Deobandi madrasa in Bhuj, where they study both

traditional Islamic as well as secular subjects.

When the project was conceived, it was hoped that it would soon become selfsustainable

and that the Jamiat would take over its overall functioning, while

Udaan would gradually phase out. It was expected that the Jamiat staff would gain

sufficient experience and confidence to manage the project on its own, and that,

following this, the Jamiat would be able to start similar Jeevan Talim centres in

selected parts of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, working, for this purpose, through

its extensive network of madrasas there. This, however, has not really happened.

The team of Jeevan Talim teachers and supervisors is now able to conduct

workshops and educators' trainings and monitor and evaluate the functioning of

the centres to a great extent, but it is still unable to function without the

intervention of Udaan, says Udaan Director, Deepika Singh. Top Jamiat leaders in

Kutch, Ahmedabad and Delhi, she says, listen to the advice given by Udaan staff,

but actual implementation is not affected because of gaps in communication and

a lack of staff in Jamiat. The Jamiat, she notes, has a strong presence in the

villages but lacks the full-time staff needed to handle the project. It also lacks a

second-level of leadership that can be directly involved in the day-to-day

functioning of the Jeevan Talim centres. Because of this, she says, Udaan is still

compelled to handle administrative tasks and accounts for the project and to deal

with funding agencies, which is actually the responsibility of the Jamiat, that of

Udaan technically being only programmatic. Given this, Deepika feels that it would

be premature for Udaan to withdraw from the project at this stage, for it might

then collapse. At the same time, she feels that, considering the budgetary

constraints of Udaan and shortage of staff, plans of extending the project to

Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh with the help of Udaan might not be realistic. "We

50

want to continue working with the Jamiat, but I think we need a different kind of

relationship, one which would enable the Jamiat to fully take over the project and

run it on its own in a professional and sustainable manner", she remarks.

Some of the teachers have their own suggestions to make to enable the project to

be more meaningful. More stress, they suggest, should be given to promoting

awareness of the children's immediate environment as well as crucial social

issues; Jeevan Talim centres should be equipped with material for games and

music and could have a mid-day meal scheme, as in government schools, to

attract more children; hostels could be built for each cluster of five or six villages

so that children can spend more time with the educators; and the Jeevan Talim

programme could be supplemented with skill development classes or some sort

of employment generation programmes for the children's parents so that the

children are relieved of the burden of working outside the home to supplement

the family's meager income.

The teachers and the villagers recognize the fact that the work that the Jeevan

Talim project aims to do is actually the responsibility of the government, which is

bound by the Constitution of the country to provide free and accessible education

to every child. Thus, Hakim Bhai, a village elder from Tanka vandh remarks, "Our

conditions can only change if the government is pressurized to do something. Till

then", he grimly adds, "the efforts of groups like the Jamiat and Udaan are

welcome, but of course they can hardly suffice on their own."

51

Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind

No. 1, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg,

New Delhi – 110002 INDIA

Ph: 91 11 23311455, 23317729s

Fax: 91 11 23316173

Email: jamiat@vsnl.com

Web: www.jamiatulama.org, www.jamiatulamaihind.net

C-105, Royal Chinmay,

Off. Judges Bung;ow Roads,

Bodakdev, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad 380054

Phone: 079-26854248, 26857745

website: www.udaanedu.net

email: udaan_erc@yahoo.com

52



--
Allah, Farid, juhdi hamesha
Au Shaikh Farid, juhdi Allah Allah.
Acquiring Allah's grace is the aim of my jihad, 0 Farid!
Come Shaikh Farid! Allah, Allah's grace alone is ever the aim of my jihad
(Baba Guru Nanak Sahib to Baba Shaikh Farid Sahib)

Check out my blogs: www.madrasareforms.blogspot.com
www.islampeaceandjustice.blogspot.com

 
Allah, Farid, juhdi hamesha
Au Shaikh Farid, juhdi Allah Allah.

Acquiring Allah's grace is the aim of my jihad, 0 Farid!
Come Shaikh Farid! Allah, Allah's grace alone is ever the aim of my jihad
 
(Baba Guru Nanak Sahib to Baba Shaikh Farid Sahib)
 
PLEASE VISIT MY BLOGS:



__._,_.___


****************************************************
Mukto Mona plans for a Grand Darwin Day Celebration: 
Call For Articles:

http://mukto-mona.com/wordpress/?p=68

http://mukto-mona.com/banga_blog/?p=585

****************************************************

VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/

****************************************************

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___