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2-DAY WORKSHOP ON EMPOWERMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING OF
MUSLIM WOMEN,
6-7JUNE
2011, ST. PIUS COLLEGE CAMPUS, GOREGAON EAST, MUMBAI
(Funded by Ford
Foundation)
A 2-day workshop was organised by the CSSS on 6th
and 7th June 2011 at St. Pius College campus at Goregaon
East, Mumbai in collaboration with Bharatiya Muslim
 Mahila
Andolan, Mumbai. The workshop was meant to educate
Muslim women on their rights not only under the Quran
but also on their civic rights as citizens of India; the
importance of secular education so as to make the girls
of the community capable of availing the opportunities
and the facilities available to them, especially under
the New 15-Point Programme of the Prime Minister. The
workshop was the first of a series of such events
proposed to be organised under the grant from Ford
Foundation.
Concept
The Muslim community in India, by and large, is
backward in terms of educational achievements and
economic status. Within the community, women are the
most oppressed, as they are neither allowed to enjoy the
rights granted under Quran in full measure nor the civic
rights to which they are entitled under the
Constitution, by the patriarchal character of the Muslim
society and religious leadership. If poverty is one of
the reasons of the community’s inability to get their
children educated and make them eligible to compete for
jobs either in the government or private sector, girls
face additional restrictions in accessing secular
education.
The benefits offered to the minorities under the Prime
Minister’s new 15-point programme has helped in changing
the scenario. The parents of a large number of Muslim
girls now seem to support their girls taking up higher
education even in co-educational institutions. The
workshop was meant to remind Muslim women of the rights
granted to them under Quran (of which the right to
education is one) so that they will fight for their
rights and also apprise them of the measures introduced
by the Government of India under the Prime Minister’s
New 15-point programme for helping the Minorities, bring
to their notice case studies from some of the other
States and sensitise them into making efforts to avail
the facilities available. The workshop was also intended
to make them aware of the importance of secular
education in today’s world; a necessary tool for
socio-economic upliftment of the community, and to
ascertain the reasons for their educational
backwardness, if any, besides poverty.
Participants
As many as 30 Muslim women affiliated to various NGOs in
Mumbai participated in the workshop.
Resource
Persons
The participants were addressed by the following
resource persons:
Dr Asghar Ali Engineer, Chairman, CSSS
2.
Ms. Noorjehan Safia Niaz, Founder Member, BMMA,
Mumbai
3.
Mr. Shaikh Nemat, Asst. Manager, Maulana Azad
Minority Financial Dev. Corp.,
Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai.
4.
Dr Vasundhara Mohan, Executive Director, CSSS
Proceedings
of the workshop
Dr Vasundhara Mohan, Executive Director, CSSS explained
to the participants the context of the workshop. She
said that though the Muslim community in India is
 socio-economically
backward, besides poverty the community is educationally
backward compared to other communities. While poverty
cuts across all religions, the community is often found
to deny itself the opportunities available for its
economic upliftment by denying itself the benefits of
secular education. They should know the opportunities
available and the benefits extended by the Government
and try to avail them. This workshop was intended to
create awareness among the Muslim women on these
aspects. She said Mr Shaikh Nemat, Asst. Manger of
Maulana Azad Minorities Financial Development
Corporation of Government of Maharashtra had kindly
consented to participate in the workshop to provide
detailed information of the schemes meant to benefit the
minorities and asked the participants to get their
doubts clarified.
Dr Asghar Ali Engineer, Chairman of the CSSS brought
home to the participants the rights granted to women
under Quran. He exhorted them to fight for their rights,
including the right to education, which cannot be denied
at the instance of self-styled religious leaders.
 Ms.
Noorjehan spoke about the problems faced by Muslim women
in the domestic sphere, especially in matters relating
to marriage, divorce, inheritance, maintenance etc., She
said that efforts were being made to codify the personal
laws with a view to making the practices unambiguous.
Although there were forces objecting to the codification
of Muslim personal law, such objections will be overcome
soon.
Mr. Shaikh Nemat explained the benefits available to the
Muslim community and other minorities under the new
15-point programme. He, however, regretted that in spite
of his urging the community to bring to his notice if
they faced any problems, the response was not
encouraging and very few or none has met him in this
context. He asked the participants to let him know what
kind of problems they were facing in availing the
benefits. He found that some of the problems raised by
the participants were not genuine and were the result of
not following the correct procedures or half-hearted
attempts to pursue their applications. He solved the
problems of some of the participants on the spot by
talking to the officers concerned. He once again urged
the community to make efforts to avail the benefits of
the various schemes, including micro-finance, and he
would be glad to help them.
 In
her presentation on education and employment, Dr Mohan
gave a background of the status of education and
employment of the Muslim community, which is way behind
other communities in India. She referred to the various
studies conducted on this aspect and the report of the
Sachar Committee. She said that part of the blame for
the socio-economic backwardness of the community could
be pinned on the community itself and its religious
leaders, whose fatwas were affecting the education and
employment opportunities of Muslim girls to some extent.
With a view to improving the socio-economic status of
the community, especially after the release of Sachar
Committee Report, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had
issued a new 15-point programme for assisting the
minorities. She said that the programme offered a number
of schemes for the benefit of minorities, including
Muslims and cited examples of the actions taken by
States like Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. She urged
the Muslims to fight for their share of the benefits
emerging from the 15-point programme, with the help of
NGOs and other individuals and by approaching the
officials responsible for implementation of the schemes.
Feed back
The participants were unanimous in saying that they were
returning from the workshop an enlightened lot. They
were unaware of several aspects, including their rights
under Quran. Of particular interest to the participants
was the various types of assistance available under the
various programmes of the government. However, they
complained that they hardly receive any help from the
bureaucracy when they approach them seeking assistance.
Some women narrated that their children were either
refused or discouraged seeking admission in secular
schools; for the simple reason that they were Muslim
children. As stated above, such complaints were looked
into by Mr. Shaikh Nemat and solved on the spot.
In concluding, Dr Mohan asked the participating women
not to lose heart and keep fighting for their rights
with the help of NGOs and officials like Mr. Shaikh
Nemat. She said that it is a fallacy that Muslims are
discriminated against in the matter of education and
employment. Even if there is an occasional case of such
discrimination, the community, especially women, should
keep fighting for their rights, both religious and
civic, which, once again, calls for education so that
they should know what to fight for and with whom they
should take up their issues.
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