In the month of June- July one of the most wanted person in Mumbai, amongst students is Mubarak Kapdi an eminent career counselor.
In the narrow streets of Bhendi Bazaar, in south Mumbai, stands a one-storey house which declares ‘National Education Movement (NEM)’. Seated inside are a dozen people glued to a television set watching a motivational talk. Such talks can be very boring, but Mubarak Kapdi, the founder of NEM, makes it interesting.
Mubarak Kapdi, is famous for his brainstorming lectures on education and career guidance. Starting as a career expert and guiding the students on how to study and score good marks in HSC and SSC board exams, Mubarak Kapdi today is traveling all across the country to create awareness about education among the Muslim masses in India . The renowned educationalist, as he is now being referred to as, has delivered almost 800 lectures since he started in 1984.
At a time when education has become a commodity and career counseling a lucrative industry, Mubarak Kapdi’s services are for free. Travelling to moffusil towns all over the country, he has stirred a revolution in Muslim education. Through education camps and workshops, Mubarak Kapdi guided students about education loans, options in engineering, medicine and management and fired countless dreams.
Mubarak Kapdi, who advocates modern education among Muslims especially among girls, does not believe that every educated girl needs to work.
Despite limited infrastructure and resources he has counselled more than eight lakh students, a significant number of them girls. “I wish I could do this full time,” says Mubarak Kapdi, who looks after his ad agency in the morning and runs the counselling centre in the evening.
Mubarak Kapdi takes extra pain to persuade Muslim parents to educate daughters. “I tell them that there’s no harm in getting their daughters educated. They tell me that once the daughter is educated, they won’t be able to find a groom good enough for her. I tell them marriages are made in heaven. And, God forbid, if anything happens to the groom, and your daughter is educated, she will be able to look after herself.”
“Then, there are parents who tell me that what is the point of educating the daughter when she will marry and spend her earnings in the other family. I tell them that she may not work at all. The point of education is not a job, but becoming a better individual.”
For Mubarak Kapdi, the turning point came on December 6, 1992, the day Babri Masjid was demolished. “On that day, we realised that there was no one in the bureaucracy and the government to speak for us. We needed our own IPS officers, IAS officers, engineers and doctors. The betterment of our community would come through higher education alone,” he says.
According to Mubarak Kapdi the root cause of many problems faced by the community is alarmingly low literacy levels among the Muslims in India . “It is a pity that we have failed in finding a remedy for this disease in sixty long years.”
Stating that Muslims are normally not certain about their career even after graduation, Mubarak Kapdi advised the students to plan for their career long before HSC and SSC. “Most of the time”, he said, “Due to financial problems that unfortunately are common in Muslim societies, our students are reluctant to plan their career at an early age. But there is no threat to his or her career if a student is good in exams. There are people today who can finance their education if they are good in studies.”
“Often the students do not get the active support and the required encouragement from their family and hence to prove their talent, they resort to short cuts. And when that results in failures, they are left with no option but to work on lower positions”, he said and added, “We should remember that our students have unprecedented talent within them. What they need is proper guidance, timely decisions and effective planning.”