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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.

The question – Is woman a human?

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Happy Independence Day…

But the question is, Who is Independent?

The question – Is woman a human?

Is it the woman who clutches at her pepper spray and keys when walking back home?

Or is the woman who covers every inch of her body even in boiling heat when going to work?

Alas, they always have excuses don’t they?

“She was asking for it” she was an 83-year-old woman.

“She shouldn’t be out late at night” she was killed in broad daylight

“Her character must be the problem” she was a nun

“She must be out alone” she was with a male friend

“Her clothes must’ve been skimpy” she was in her hospital uniform

But they never run out of excuses…

They say we are a free and democratic country, our people have a voice, but when these people talk, their internet is shut down, they are hit…

We are a democratic country, but where is her justice? Why do her killers roam free? Why is the evidence tampered with? Why is she killed if she raises her voice?

We are a free country, but where is she safe? “At home” he barged in her house and crushed her face with a rock;

“With her parents” her father ruthlessly raped her for 2yrs;

“At work” 10 men ruthlessly raped her during her shift at her hospital;

“Maybe in presence of God”

She was raped during a religious procession.

Why is she never allowed to feel safe and secure? Why is her life at risk in every passing moment of her life?

Oh no! Wait, I forgot the biggest question, Does it matter? She is a woman, but is she human?

Of course not, she is an object of amusement, a victim to blame.

This country prides itself on its rich culture. We worship goddesses and “Mata” that is the Mother is holy in our tradition, but we don’t respect the woman in front of our eyes? We worship idols but we treat a woman in flesh and blood like an object. Our mythology mentions Mahabharata, a war waged because a woman was humiliated; it mentions Lanka Dahan, a kingdom burned to search for an abducted woman; but now we only hold candles in front of pictures of women, who have been victims of monstrosity. So tell me, What culture have we preserved? How true is our worship?

Is this the masculinity we talk about? Is this the “Strength” men pride themselves upon? Or is this just disguised cowardice?

Is this monstrosity in the name of patriarchy, really Power? Or is it just some insecure men trying to feel powerful?

You say, not all men, but what about those that are? They still keep her from leaving her house, they still keep her from raising her voice, what about those men?

But well, this is my democratic country, my blood runs colder as I type every word, fearing what will come next and what will become of me…

So, Happy Independence Day to all those who are free.

But to those who aren’t; well, I’ve nothing more left to say…

(The writer is a student of Saint Xaviars College, Mumbai. The views are personal.)

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