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Mr FARIDUDDIN CHAUDHARI has recently
retired from his long career as a civil engineer. A graduate of Aligarh
Muslim University in India, Mr Chaudhary has actively campaigned for Indian
Muslims for more then four decades by regularly writing articles in newspapers
and magazines. In this two part series, Mr Chaudahary examines the socio-economic
fabric and educational profile of North Indian Muslims, and suggests measures
of poverty alleviation and sustained development for the empowerment of
this highly disadvantaged community.
Alleviation of Poverty-I
The present understanding of ‘education’ – both of the
community and its leadership – is that of the model exemplified
by the Aligarh Movement of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. The concern of Sir Syed
was focused on the remnants of the Muslim ruling class and landed gentry
who had somehow escaped the death and destruction unleashed by the new
rulers of India, in the aftermath of the failed First War of Independence
in 1857. Those remnants had been turned into ‘personae non grata’
by them.
Nevertheless the new British rulers needed workers and officers who would be faithful to them as well as be knowledgeable about their new administrative and military systems. The concurrent reality, however, was that they were getting such men from the groups who had made their choice to side with them some decades ago and had stayed with them during the 1857 war as well.
Sir Syed saw all this. His sense of loss and helplessness can be gauged by what he once said: “The destruction of my community turned my hair white overnight!”
What Sir Syed did in order to pull up his community from the depths of degradation and deprivation is known to every student of modern Indian history. On one hand he wrote his famous book, Asbab e Baghawat e Hind (Causes of Indian Revolt) in which he tried to convince the new rulers that Muslims were not the only group responsible for 1857; they themselves were also to blame and that if they now adopted a large hearted conciliatory approach towards them, they would not be disappointed.
On the other hand he told the Muslims to turn away from their past attitudes and to single-mindedly devote themselves to ‘education’ – of a new kind too – so that they could become a part of the new system of administration set up by the British thus ensuring for themselves a semblance of acceptance and wellbeing in the new milieu.
Thirdly, Sir Syed made tremendous efforts to establish the Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh so that the Muslim community could obtain that kind of education which he considered essential as well as beneficial for it.
Sir Syed was eminently successful on all the three fronts.
Young Muslim men did begin to get accepted in the corridors of power in
British India once they had qualified from Anglo-Oriental College. This
acceptance reached a high water mark when the Indian National Congress
first began to ask for ‘Home Rule’ and later, under the passionate
influence of the Ali brothers, for ‘Total Independence’.
THE SCENARIO SINCE 1947
The challenge for the north Indian Muslim leadership after independence
in 1947, and more so today in 2010, was and is that the composition of
the Muslim community then and now is different from that in the aftermath
of 1857.
Members of the civil services, the defence services, the
business elite and the landed aristocracy of the North Indian Muslim community
largely left for Pakistan after independence. Those from among the last
named group who did not do so, were rendered a shadow of their former
selves as regards their economic and political clout, as a result of the
‘abolition of zamindari’. This is, of course, not to say that
the objectionable aspects of the relationship between the farmers and
their landlords could be condoned.
Today, the vast majority of North Indian Muslims are poor as they are
below the poverty line, and only marginally less poor even when they are
above that line. The problems of today’s Muslims are thus different
from those of the post-1857 Muslims.
Second, the post-independence leadership of the North Indian Muslims did not succeed in shielding itself and the community from being ‘solely’ blamed for partition. Third, it was not able to reach any such accommodation with any government of the day as would protect the Muslim masses from recurring riots on one hand, and allow the educated from among them to gain reasonable, if not proportional, representation in the civil, the police and the military services on the other.
SCHOOL EDUCATION
The Annual Reports of some of the good schools set up and run under the
patronage and management of well respected social and educational activists
showed till 2008 that about 60% of their students leave school between
5th. and 7th. standards and another 20% between 7th. and 9th. standards.
The result is that the buildings, the furniture, the laboratories, the
playgrounds and all other inputs provided for every hundred children entering
the school are used by a much lower number from 5th. standard onwards.
It is reliably learnt that the situation is generally the same in all
the Muslim schools of UP. It would be the same situation in other north
Indian states as well. This means that there is a wastage of back breaking
effort, precious time and costly resources invested by the community in
setting up these schools and yet, the education of an average of about
70% of the students stops at a level well below high school. These drop-outs
are the children then, who we see working in homes, eateries, cycle, auto
repair shops and factories in the cities and towns of North India.
It is a moot question as to how many of the remaining students who complete high school, do so with such proficiency as to aim or hope to enter the portals of institutions of higher education.
NEW STRATEGY NEEDED
The conclusion that before a poor North Indian Muslim family rises well
above its present level of poverty, its children have to leave school
and begin work to help their parents look after their families as soon
as they acquire enough bodily strength to do so, is there for all to see.Thus
the poverty of the family prevents acquisition of education by a child
of average intelligence up to any useful or enlightening level, thus imprisoning
the child for whole life in a state of little knowledge and even lesser
grooming.
The above scenario must have been repeating itself every year during the
last over six decades since 1947. Add to this the dislocation and destruction
caused by riots, floods and such other calamities strung in a thread of
punitive political and bureaucratic neglect. Further add to it the phenomenon
of ‘Hindutva’ (and its variant called by the quaint name of
‘soft Hindutva’) for the sake of its political dividends.
The North Indian Muslim leadership should have perhaps foreseen the contents
of the Sachar Committee Report.
Be that as it may, it is evident that both the North Indian Muslim community
and its leadership need to embark upon an entirely new strategy, different
from the Sir Syed model.
SMALL BUSINESS BY PARENTS
If the stress on ‘education’ has not worked for children belonging
to poor families and has not provided the solution to their poverty during
the last over six decades, is a new strategy of small business by the
parents of those children, worth trying?
Studies reveal that those who do even small business, preferably in a
cooperative matrix, do manage to escape grinding poverty. Studies also
reveal that one does not have to be highly educated for being a small
businessman. In fact, the highly educated rarely go the business way at
least from among the North Indian Muslims. And the crowning reality is
that even the highly educated, except the professionals like the doctors,
the engineers and the management experts, generally remain, at least for
a large part of their working years, in a ‘hand to mouth’
situation as long as they remain God fearing and honest.
Take, for example, the Bohra community in Mumbai. There
was a time when they were concentrating all their efforts on small businesses
operating from within a cooperative matrix binding the whole community,
rather than on education. After a reasonable period, they began to give
the same degree of attention to education. Today, they are fairly successful
in business, are not poor any more and are fairly educated.
This new strategy thus requires the parents from a typically poor family
to take up small business, preferably in a cooperative matrix. Provided
it is supported by the community, it will not take more than 15 years
for a below poverty line family to rise well above it. After this period,
these parents will be able not only to pay the fees for their children
to study at least till the higher secondary school level but also to lead
a reasonably decent, even if simple, life. In the interim period, the
children of these poor parents will have to do with whatever level of
education they and the community can manage for them.
Of course, not everyone is cut out to do business. Hence the stress on a cooperative framework should be taken seriously, for it will enable each member of the group to support the rest in the area of his own strength.
The case of the intelligent and hard working children has always been and must remain different: it being the responsibility of the whole community to help them to study up to their highest potential.
GOOD GROOMING
As mentioned above, small businessmen do not need to be highly educated.
It should be remembered, however, that even among them, only the well
groomed are truly successful beyond the ordinary level. Grooming is a
word with many facets of meanings:
If it includes God fearfulness, it also includes high manners. If it includes praying five times a day, it also includes very hard work. If it includes correctness of weights and measures, it also includes always speaking the truth. If it includes an oft smiling face, it also includes scrupulous keeping of promises. If it includes knowing one’s own rights, it also includes happily giving a little more than the rights to others. If it includes looking after one’s family and relations, it also includes being silently helpful to the unrelated needy.
This list could go on and on but suffice to say that if
one went on being obedient to God and His Prophet, one would become more
and more well-groomed as well as more and more successful in one’s
business as time passes.
COMBINING EDUCATION AND SKILL
During this interim period of poverty alleviation efforts, it will be
necessary to devise a strategy for the children who are going to school
but are likely to drop out or have dropped out already.
One alternative is that such boys be provided facilities for pursuing
their education at night schools while being allowed to work part time
during the day. Their parents will have to be paid the earnings lost by
these boys as a result of working part time. Apart from this, they should
also be granted free studentship at schools.
Another alternative is: boys be taught some readily marketable skills through 6-monthly, 12-monthly or 18-monthly courses .Time for these skill acquisition courses can be found by reducing the number of subjects in higher classes, to the bare minimum. One of the most successful institutions run on these lines is the more than 70 odd years old Mohammad Haji Saboo Siddik Technical High School of Anjuman-e-Islam of Mumbai.
It is of course good if these courses can be recognised by the state and central governments but emphasis should always be laid on the high quality of the course content, qualification of the teachers and instructors and the acceptability of those who have undergone these courses, by the employment market.
Another worth considering alternative is for those who have already dropped out of school and are learning some trade and craft through informal hands or on training under senior craftsmen. For such boys, the need will be to strengthen and add value to this arrangement with the teaching of the ‘theory’ behind the ‘practice’ as well as to teach them a bit of English.
Boys who cannot fit into one of the above alternatives for one reason or the other, can adopt the Open School route explained here in the context of girls’ education.
Girls cannot be sent to night schools. They will have to be encouraged to study at home and appear every year at the National Open School Board till they have studied to their potential. Girls too must be taught such skills that can be practised at homes and marketed nearby which will enable them to earn some monies to help their parents today and their families, after marriage.
All said and done, we must also strategise around the fact that facilities for distance education are available everywhere, both to boys and to girls, both at school and at home, both before marriage and thereafter, literally life long. One can enter the ‘education mode’ or the ‘employment or homemaking mode’ at one’s will or even carry on these activities together. In short, there is no need for any boy or girl to feel helpless at stoppage of education at any stage of his or her life: he or she can re-start the process any time as well as complete it at his or her pace.
Of course, it goes without saying that grooming as described
earlier, both of boys and girls, should always be a part of every process
of learning and skill acquisition.
Alleviation of Poverty-II
The Nobel Laureate Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh
founded his Grameen Bank in Dhaka some 40 years ago. This bank has helped
some 40 lakh very poor families to rise above the poverty line during
the last 40 years. Socio-economic activists the world over have been impressed
with its success and Grameen Banks have sprung up in many countries, including
the USA and South America. India has been late in following suit but has
reportedly opened such banks recently. Similar work is, however, being
done in India by social activists like Vikram Akula under the name of
‘Microfinancing’ on quite a large scale. His organisation
is working in Karnataka with an outlay of hundreds of crores of rupees.
Self Help Groups and Cooperative Credit Societies are two other vehicles
used in India for alleviation of poverty.
Prof. Yunus’ methodology: He gives loans only for small businesses. He gives loans only to a group of 8-10 women which submits a project to his bank and which the bank approves, if found feasible. He gives no more than 40,000 to 50,000 takas as loan per group. He does not ask for any mortgages in kind; instead he asks for each woman to keep herself, her house and her children clean, to educate, groom and bring them up as good human beings. He accepts this effort as her guarantee for her loan. Also, default by one woman results in the disqualification of her whole group from receiving any further loan. Result: the rate of return of loans to his bank is very high – at 98 per cent!
There is one negative aspect though: Both he and Vikram Akula have not been able to get rid of ‘interest’ and to the best of this scribe’s knowledge, the Grameen Bank does charge a high interest of around 24 %.
Interest is banned in Islam as well as in the pristine form of many other religions, for the reason that it is highly exploitative. In the four cornered ‘depositor – bank/lender – businessman / producer and provider of goods and services – consumer’ relationship, interest hits only the depositor, who is also the consumer of the goods produced by the businessman. On the other hand, the bank receives assured returns through accrual of interest on loans advanced by it while the businessman stands harmless as long as he is able to pass on the ‘interest’ to his customers.
Muslim social activists in India can follow the Grameen Bank methodology though they must find a solution as to how to eliminate interest.
While Prof. Yunus has found men to be unreliable as they did not return loans and did not spend their earnings on their families, another group, the Al Khair Cooperative Credit Society of Patna Ltd. (KCCSP), has not reported such problems. Going by this experience, the Indian Grameen Banks can give loans to groups of men as well.
In a recent issue of Radiance (8-14 March, 2009) a fairly
detailed interview with Mr. Arshad Ajmal, the Chairperson and CEO of the
above Society has been published. It presents a positive and encouraging
picture of this method of alleviation of poverty and is strongly recommended
for further study and adaptation.
CAPITAL FORMATION FOR SMALL BUSINESS LOANS
Sadaqaat or Returnable Deposits from the wealthy come to the mind almost
automatically but this scribe does look up to the religious leadership
of the Indian Muslim community to advise as to how to make it possible
that all the Nisaby (a word coined as an equivalent of ‘Sahib-e-Nisab’)
and the wealthy pay their money in a manner that the madrasas that currently
receive Zakat and Sadaqaat continue to receive these while capital becomes
available for new madrasas, new schools, adding trades and skills training
facilities to both existing and new madrasas and schools and finally,
as capital for lending to small businesses proposed above.
If all the Nisabies pay their Zakat, the annual sum for the whole of India will be about 10,500 crore rupees or about 2 billion dollars. One third or slightly more, say 4000 crore rupees out of this may be assumed to be from the North Indian Nisabies.
The amount available annually from Sadaqaat, Muslim Trusts etc. may be another 2000 to 3000 crores from North India.
It should of course be kept in mind that as far as capital for small businesses is concerned, it will be handed out as loans and will come back. The need for this capital is, therefore, not of a continuous or recurring nature.
On the other hand, we should give consideration to reducing expenditure on infrastructural facilities for both schools and madrasas. It is reasonable for a poor community like the North Indian Muslims to opt for cheaper buildings and facilities, designed to last for say 30 years, so that capital expenditure can be reduced and more funds can be made available for expenses such as better salaries for teachers, better teaching aids, skill training ‘add-ons’ etc.
Traditionally, an important part of the infrastructural facilities, especially of the madrasas, is the provision of free lodging and board for students coming from distant places. It needs to be studied in depth whether it is necessary to provide these facilities at all madrasas or should these be confined to the madrasas which are recognised for providing outstanding quality education and attract students from far and wide. The current practice relieves the wealthy from supporting the education of the children of their poor by transferring their responsibility to the wealthy living in bigger cities of the country, and even in other countries.
The approach of Mr. Arshad Ajmal of KCCSP based on his
experience on the ground during the last eight years is as follows. To
quote from his interview published in the above issue of Radiance:
‘....microfinance on the basis of local resources is possible....
For example, our Phulwari Sharif branch is working in an area that has
approximately 12,000 families but our reach till date has been up to only
3,000 families. The deposits we are getting from these 3,000 families
are more than 4 crore rupees per annum and we are lending solely on the
strength of these deposits.’
LEADERSHIP: INCLUSIVE AGENDA A MUST
Having said all the above, one of the most important challenges that the
North Indian Muslim community faces is that of a second line of leadership.
That may be of mature age, be God fearing, possess the necessary qualities
of head and heart and be able to learn from the collective wisdom of the
present leadership as well as from its past experiences, in order to tackle
the task of alleviation of poverty in the light of new realities.
The first line of leadership will need to focus its attention on creating that holistic framework which would allow the task of poverty alleviation to be done in a secure, peaceful environment. This is easier said than done but is absolutely imperative.
This scribe also humbly urges the leadership not to commit
the suicidal error of confining its concerns to Muslims alone but to follow
an inclusive agenda. We should work with even handed love and concern
for the Indian people in general and for the poor and the wretched in
particular.
This scribe knows that this article must present many opportunities
for corrective intervention by the readers. He also knows that he has
not touched on many important aspects of the process of poverty alleviation.
For these reasons, he humbly requests the readers to critically review
it and to kindly send their observations to him through moderator@ifer.org.au.
IFER is willing to cooperate with organisations
working to promote education and alleviate poverty amongst Indian Muslims.
At this stage we will promote such projects through IFER website. Once
we have more resources, we will inshallah actively engage in such pursuits.