Community Round-Up

Indian Haj pilgrims going through the private tour operators will have to spend a little more. They have to pay at least Rs 7,000 more, with the Saudi government deciding to auction land at Mina.About 42,000 Indian pilgrims will be affected by the new measure. Saudi government’s decision to auction the land at Mina at very high Price would be offset on the pilgrims going through the private operators. However, those going through the Central Haj Committee will not be affected by this decision. The All-India Haj Umrah Tour Organisers Association, has lodged a protest to the Saudi government in this regard. The Government of Saudi Arabia has notified that only registered Private Tour Operators (PTO) involved in Haj Pilgrimage with the Government of India will be eligible for grant of (Group) Haj visas subject to fulfillment of other conditions that may be laid down by the concerned Saudi authorities. Non-registered PTOs will not be eligible for applying for the Group Haj Visas.


The Ministry of External Affairs has invited applications for registration of the well-established and reputed PTOs involved in Haj pilgrimage. The applications can be made either directly or through one of the following three Associations which are being registered by the Ministry separately:


*All India Haj Umrah Tour Organisers Association, Post Box No. 17377, 2nd Floor, Halima Manzil, 4th Gavathan Lane, P.O. Andheri (West), Mumbai-400058 Tel:022- 26204892

* All India Haj & Umrah Tour Operators Association, GL 7/IInd, Ashoka Estate, 24, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi-110001, Tel: 23716202, 23350486, Fax: 23350146

* Karnataka State Haj Organiser’s Association, No. 17, 1st Floor, Dispensary Road, Bangalore-560001, Tel: 080-25596696, Fax: 25582337

Every year, Zameer Vahanvaty and his mother Gazala Vahanvaty rent out Cache Art Gallery on Waterfield Road, in western suburb of Mumbai free of cost to an NGO.


This year, the goodwill is multiplied four times, as they have invited four NGOs to display the work that stands for their cause. Says Zameer, “We like to use our gallery to give NGOs an opportunity to showcase their work. We have been doing this for years and this time we decided to work with four NGOs - Kherwadi Social Welfare Association, Helen Keller Institute of Deaf and Blind, Committed Communities Development Trust (CCDT) and Aured.” The small art gallery came alive on the opening day on June 13, as NGO volunteers, art patrons and passers-by were all present to appreciate the work displayed at the gallery. Says Beroz Vach, director of Helen Keller Institute of Deaf and Blind, “The idea of such an exhibition is to promote an image of physically challenged people who are capable of overcoming their disabilities.Our talented students have displayed their paintings here and they have got a great response. The earnings will go directly to the person who has done the painting”, says, Sara D’Mello, director of CCDT which works with underprivileged women and children. Mrinalini Kher, honorary secretary of Kherwadi, says, “We train young people from low-income families in different vocations.” She adds, “Our children have displayed their paintings at the exhibition.”

The BJP government in Rajasthan has decided to separate Madrsas from the mosques. Currently, 1720 madrasas have been registered with the Rajasthan government, out of these, 725 are running inside the mosques. The Rajasthan Madrasa Board feels that madrasas within the mosque disturb the prayers, and also affect the education of children. The Board also indicated that women teachers in the madrasas found it cumbersome to teach within the mosques as they preferred privacy.


New buildings for the madrasas will be planned or they will be shifted to some rented houses.

The Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, S.Jaipal Reddy has announced that the Prasar Bharati will launch Urdu Channel on Doordarshan from 1st January,2006, which will broadcast news, cultural and entertainment programmes. He said that initially Rs 60 to 70 crore is being allotted for this channel with seven hours of telecast time. Reddy also announced that a National Heritage Site Commission will be set up. He added that this Commission will prepare a guideline for the protection of monuments throughout the country apart from 3600 monuments, being maintained by the Archeological Survey of India. The Minister said that Urdu is one of the important national languages and is being read by 100 million people and it has a rich and vast legacy.

The Maharastra State Minorities Commission has initiated a slew of steps to train Muslim students for the Maharashtra State Public Service Commission (MPSC), UPSC and IAS.


Arif Shaikh’s family had a tough time understanding why he quit his tech job at HCL Technology in Pune to study for the civil services exam. A year later, Shaikh’s decision has paid off: the 25-year-old ranked 94th in the exam and will probably go on to serve in the Indian Police Service (IPS). His family, especially his father, Senior Police Inspector H. N Shaikh from Pune, couldn’t be happier. Like Shaikh, the others quit well-paying careers to study eight hours a day to take a crack at the civil services.


The Maharastra State Minorities Commission has initiated a slew of steps to train Muslim students for the Maharastra State Public Service Commission (MPSC), Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and IAS examination.


The purpose of the new training centre is to increase representation of minorities in government services. The state has allocated Rs 36 lakh for the scheme, which will include training classes that the commission started earlier this year for aspiring police constables. At five centres across the state-Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Jalgaon and Nagpur-students from minority communities are being prepared for the highly competitive exams.


Rizwan Baig quit his tech job with Wipro Technology, foregoing a promise to go abroad because he had ‘’no satisfaction’’. Rizwan said he wanted another shot at the civils because he wanted to become an ‘’IAS official’’. “I think I can make a change in the system,’’ he said.


That is a sentiment echoed by Dr Javid Shaikh, son of a carpenter. “Some people may be wrong, but the system is right. As an assistant superintendent of police or as a sub-divisional magistrate, one has more power and space to make a difference to society than just being a doctor,.’’ Said Javid. K. S. Syed, officer on special duty with the State Minorities Commission takes personal interest in the managing of Regional centres across the state coaching MPSC, UPSC aspirants from minority communities.


“This is a significant step in the direction of giving minorities better opportunities,’’ said K S Syed. “Unless the minorities have adequate representation in government cadre, the mainstreaming of minorities is not possible.’’ The Mumbai Centre at Akbar Peerbhoy college has nearly 100 students in its first batch-some coming all the way from Thane, Navi Mumbai and the western suburbs five days a week.


But, though the numbers are encouraging, Principal Mohiuddin Hashimi feels they could have been better. “The commission has to advertise and market this course well if it is to take off and be a success,’’ said Hashimi.


“These jobs are our right,’’ declared Durrulain Mirza, a 25-year-old MPSC aspirant daughter of an administrative officer from a co-operative bank. Mirza holds a Commercial Arts degree, but wants to be a government servant to help people prosper.


The challenge before these students now is to ignore discouraging talk of discrimination against minorities within the system. “Some Muslims do believe they won’t get in,’’ said Fuwad Ahmed (24), an aspiring policeman. ‘’But now that we are here, we know that religion does not matter. It’s only merit.’’


“I have never experienced any prejudice or bias in my career. The apprehension that the government is prejudiced against minorities is not right. The difference is in the attitude of people and institutes,’’ said K.S. Syed, who cleared the MPSC exam in 1965.

Muslims acquitted from the POTA charges in 2002 get back to normal life.

POTA Court acquitted eight people who were blamed for planting a bomb in a bus in Mumbai in 2002 that killed two and injured 50.The accused, all Muslims, were acquitted by judge A.P. Bhangale of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) who said, the prosecution had failed to prove the charges.


Police had sought to build a case that the accused planned the December 2002 bus blast outside the railway station in Ghatkopar suburb to avenge the deaths of hundreds of Muslims who died in Hindu-Muslim riots in February 2002 in neighbouring Gujarat state. They were forensic expert, Abdul Mateen, software engineer Khwaja Yunus, Jameel Ahmed, Toufiq Ahmed, Imran Rehman Khan, Altaf Mohamed Ismail, Arif Panwalla, Haroon Rashid Lohar and Rashid Ansari. The case took a curious turn in 2003 when Yunus allegedly escaped from police custody while being taken to the Aurangabad jail for questioning. He was never found. Younus’ family claims he was killed during interrogation. Dr Abdul Mateen was the face of the December 2002 Ghatkopar bus blast. The script echoed in the court for 30 months, as Dr Mateen took centre stage, first as the architect of the blast and in a much more interesting role later, as the witness to the death-in -custody of his friend and co-accused, Khwaja Yonus.


Dr Mateen, who must have performed thousands of post mortems as a doctor, (he specialised in Forensic Medicine and Toxicology), gave a graphic account of what he saw of Yunus before he breathed his last, while in custody.


Now out of the jail and free of the charges, Dr Mateen, is back in his house, in Aurangabad Times Colony, but he is no more as vocal on his ordeal as he was while in custody. He wants to share none of his horrors. Thousands of people have thronged his house to greet him, bringing along garlands, flowers, sweets, but the adulation has not gone to his head. Have the last thirty months changed him? “No,” he says, “I see the change in the people around me, my relatives, and friends, not me. I remain very much the same individual.’’ . Future plans include getting his job with the government medical college back. Another accused, Imran Rehman Khan cleared of all charges, says he wants to leave those memories behind, looks to start life afresh. ‘’It was dark and lonely, but the case files and the Quran kept me sane,.’’ he said.


A day after a Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) court acquitted him and seven others, Imran Rehman Khan shudders while discussing the two-and-a-half years he spent inside a high-security cell in Thane Central Jail. ‘’I was working in Riyadh and was in Dubai on my way to India when the Dubai police arrested and deported me,’’ says the Chennai-born Khan, who owns a stationery and telecommunication shop.


Back home in his new 500-sq ft apartment in Vasai, a largely cosmopolitan northern suburb, Khan is relieved to be with his family,wife Amina (33), two daughters and sons “I am innocent and believe in the judiciary,’’ smiles a soft-spoken Khan, looking at Amina for reassurance. ‘’After his long stay in prison, he has forgotten how to use a cellphone or the TV remote,’’ says Amina, a Marwari-Jain convert. ‘’I’m so happy he’s back. Life can be normal now.’’


‘’We were made scapegoats. There must have been some political pressure. But I want to leave it all behind now,’’ says Khan, as he prepares to check business for the day at his store.


“The verdict has not come as a surprise to us. We were expecting this all along. Justice has finally been done to the innocent people who were framed in the case. We have always been saying that the prosecution has played a fraud on all the accused. All confessional statements were fabricated,” said defence lawyer Pervez Memon.

Thanks to the efforts of Aishabai Trust, the Municipal schools of Mumbai are doing yeomen service to the community.


In Mumbai, nearly 40 Municipal schools and majority Urdu medium, today in Muslim majority areas not only survived the closure threat because of the drop- out problem, but also have shown tremendous improvement in enrolment and imparting of quality education.


Thanks to the efforts of Aishabai Trust supported by one of the largest export house, these Municipal schools of Mumbai today are doing yeomen service to the community. Aishabai Trust is also associated with schools run by other institutions and is interested in enhancing the quality of education and schools that cater to the poorer sections of our society. The Trust is in the process of working out programmes of Computer Aided Learning in schools in collaboration with Azim Premji Foundation, Bangalore and Education and Technology division of IL&FS Mumbai. The focus of both these organisations is to use the new technology in enhancing learning in the schools.


Both the organizations have developed their services and products such as educational CDs based on the syllabus with the approval of the state governments.


In Karnataka, 84,000 rural children in 225 Computer-Assisted Learning Centre (CALC) are already exploring the exciting possibilities that the wonder machine can offer them. The CALC is one of the three programmes conceived and initiated by the Azim Premji Foundation (APF), a not-for-profit organisation based in Bangalore.


Says Dileep Ranjekar, CEO, APF, "We are working in partnership with the Governments of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and in terms of the guidance, co-operation and execution, the support that we have received from the governments, has been a dream experience." The Foundation, a personal initiative by Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Ltd, is working towards making a difference to the country through a concept called the `Universalisation of Elementary Education.'


Currently, there are three programmes running under the initiative: Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP), Learning Guarantee Programme (LGP) and CALCs. The Foundation has implemented the first two programmes in rural schools in North-East Karnataka. That's because a survey of out-of-school children showed that more than 6 lakh children in the age group of 6-14 years were out of school in the State. And out of these more than three lakh children came from the districts of Gulbarga, Raichur, Bellary, Koppal, Bidar, Bijapur and Bagalkot. Says S. Giridhar, Head - Advocacy and Research, APF, "We want to develop a proof of concept, convert it into programmes and implement them in a few areas before scaling up or spreading it to other parts of the country."
"The ALP and the CALC are directed towards improving the learning abilities of the children, while LGP helps in the training and development of teachers, community members and education functionaries so that `they deliver learning improvement in an ongoing manner," says Ranjekar.


There are three aspects to the APF's mission of Universalisation of Elementary Education: Enrolment, Attendance and Learning. And the 70,000 children in the State that are under the ALP are learning to attend classes more regularly and develop competencies seen among their peers.


The Foundation employs around 75 people apart from paying salaries to the volunteers. Ranjekar says, "Remember we are only giving the content. The Government provides the actual infrastructure and hardware. And whatever work we are doing is miniscule compared to what the Government is doing." In cities like Mumbai, Municipal schools in the locality are not abundant enough to categorically absorb the supply of students from the community. Although the government schools are there but the educational standards are not only very low but also very lacklustre which makes it boring for the students. The experiment by Aishabai Trust,Azim Premji Foundation, Bangalore and Education and Technology division of IL&FS Mumbai shows the way for the community. Instead of investing millions in creating infrastructure, it make sense in imparting quality education in the existing municipal schools which caters to the most deprived sections of the community.