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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Maulana’s 'gullak' initiative touches 60K students

Read & Lead Foundation President Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza with daughter Mariyam Mirza. Mumbai/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In the new age controlled by smart-gadgets and social media, an academic from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has sparked a small, head-turning and successful - ‘savings and reading’ revolution among middle-school children. Launched in 2006, by Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza, the humble initiative turns 20 this year and witnessed over 60,000 free savings boxes (gullaks)...

Maulana’s 'gullak' initiative touches 60K students

Read & Lead Foundation President Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza with daughter Mariyam Mirza. Mumbai/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In the new age controlled by smart-gadgets and social media, an academic from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has sparked a small, head-turning and successful - ‘savings and reading’ revolution among middle-school children. Launched in 2006, by Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza, the humble initiative turns 20 this year and witnessed over 60,000 free savings boxes (gullaks) distributed to Class V-VIII students in 52 government and private schools. “The aim was to inculcate a love for ‘saving and reading’ among young children. We started by presenting small plastic ‘gullaks’ (savings boxes) at the Iqra Boys & Girls High School, and later to many other schools,” Mirza said with a tinge of satisfaction. Scoffed by sceptics, it soon caught the eyes of the schools and parents who loved the idea that kept the kids off mischief, but gave them the joy of quietly slipping Re. 1 or even Rs. 5 save from their daily pocket money into the ‘gullak’. “That tiny ‘gullak’ costing barely Rs 3-Rs 5, becomes almost like their personal tiny bank which they guard fiercely and nobody dares touch it. At the right time they spend the accumulated savings to buy books of their choice – with no questions asked. Isn’t it better than wasting it on toys or sweets or amusement,” chuckled Mirza. A childhood bookworm himself, Mirza, now 50, remembers how he dipped into his school’s ‘Book Box’ to avail books of his choice and read them along with the regular syllabus. “Reading became my passion, not shared by many then or even now… Sadly, in the current era, reading and saving are dying habits. I am trying to revive them for the good of the people and country,” Maulana Mirza told The Perfect Voice. After graduation, Mirza was jobless for sometime, and decided to make his passion as a profession – he took books in a barter deal from the renowned Nagpur philanthropist, Padma Bhushan Maulana Abdul Karim Parekh, lugged them on a bicycle to hawk outside mosques and dargahs. He not only sold the entire stock worth Rs 3000 quickly, but asked astonished Parekh for more – and that set the ball rolling in a big way, ultimately emboldening him to launch the NGO, ‘Read & Lead Foundation’ (2018). “However, despite severe resources and manpower crunch, we try to cater to the maximum number of students, even outside the district,” smiled Mirza. The RLF is also supported by his daughter Mariyam Mirza’s Covid-19 pandemic scheme, ‘Mohalla Library Movement’ that catapulted to global fame, and yesterday (Oct. 20), the BBC telecast a program featuring her. The father-daughter duo urged children to shun mobiles, video-games, television or social media and make ‘books as their best friends’, which would always help in life, as they aim to gift 1-lakh students with ‘gullaks’ in the next couple of years. At varied intervals Mirza organizes small school book fairs where the excited kids troop in, their pockets bulging with their own savings, and they proudly purchase books of their choice in Marathi, English, Hindi or Urdu to satiate their intellectual hunger. Fortunately, the teachers and parents support the kids’ ‘responsible spending’, for they no longer waste hours before screens but attentively flip pages of their favourite books, as Mirza and others solicit support for the cause from UNICEF, UNESCO, and global NGOs/Foundations. RLF’s real-life savers: Readers UNICEF’s Jharkhand District Coordinator and ex-TISS alumnus Abul Hasan Ali is full of gratitude for the ‘gullak’ habit he inculcated years ago, while Naregaon Municipal High School students Lakhan Devdas (Class 6) and Sania Youssef (Class 8) say they happily saved most of their pocket or festival money to splurge on their favourite books...! Zilla Parishad Girls Primary School (Aurangpura) teacher Jyoti Pawar said the RLF has proved to be a “simple, heartwarming yet effective way” to habituate kids to both reading and savings at a tender age, while a parent Krishna Shinde said it has “changed the whole attitude of children”. “We encourage books of general interest only, including inspiring stories of youth icons like Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai (28) and environmentalist Greta Thunberg (23) which fascinates our students, and other popular children’s literature,” smiled Mirza. The Maulana’s RLF, which has opened three dozen libraries in 7 years, acknowledges that every coin dropped into the small savings boxes begins a new chapter – and turns into an investment in knowledge that keeps growing.

Steely Resolve

In the face of mounting American pressure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has drawn a clear line by refusing to barter away India’s sovereignty or the livelihoods of its farmers, shopkeepers and small-scale producers. As Donald Trump unveiled plans to double tariffs on Indian goods to 50 percent, Modi has dismissed the move as unjustified and has vowed not to yield.

 

While Trump brandishes duties as a political weapon, pretending that punishing Indian exporters will somehow end the war in Ukraine, Modi has framed the standoff as a defence of ordinary Indians. India, he made clear, will not compromise its sovereignty for the sake of Washington’s theatrics.

 

The American president’s tariff threat is framed as punishment for India’s continued purchase of Russian crude oil. The logic is tenuous at best. As one of the world’s largest oil importers, India depends on discounted Russian supplies that have saved billions of dollars and kept domestic fuel prices stable. To demand an abrupt severance from this source is unrealistic. Instead of forcing Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, the new duties are likely to devastate Indian exporters of textiles, gems, jewellery and seafood - industries with thin margins that employ millions.

 

The hypocrisy is hard to ignore. Washington continues to trade with regimes it denounces, while financing its own wars abroad. Energy markets are global, fluid and impossible to police perfectly; oil always finds new buyers through intermediaries and rerouted tankers. Penalising Indian exporters has little to do with Ukraine and everything to do with Trump’s preference for tariffs as theatre.

 

However, Modi has turned the episode to his advantage. By invoking the livelihoods of farmers and artisans, he has reframed the dispute as a patriotic duty of resistance. Linking the struggle to Gandhi’s legacy of self-reliance, he has cast Trump’s tariffs not as an economic squeeze but as an affront to India’s sovereignty.

 

The strategic miscalculation in all this has been Washington’s. For years, American policymakers have pressed India to act as a democratic counterweight to China. That vision requires partnership and trust, not coercion. Treating India as a subordinate to be disciplined only risks pushing it further towards alternative trade and energy blocs, from Moscow to Beijing. Trust, once lost, is not easily regained.

 

India’s firmness throughout this affair has been pragmatic. New Delhi remains open to trade with America, but only on reciprocal and respectful terms. It will not be compelled into decisions that jeopardise energy security or impoverish its most vulnerable citizens. The tariffs may cause pain in the short term, but the longer-term cost will be borne by America’s credibility as a reliable partner.

 

Trump’s economic nationalism, dressed up as grand strategy, has always been bluster. Tariffs do not end wars. They disrupt supply chains, stoke inflation and alienate allies. Modi’s stand demonstrates steadiness and resolve. The unmistakable message is that India will not be strong-armed, whether the pressure comes from Moscow, Beijing or the White House.


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