Tag Archives: Marwar Muslim Educational & Welfare Society-MMEWS-Jodhpur-Rajasthan

Minorities Research Chair Set Up In First Private University Established By Muslims In Rajasthan’s Jodhpur

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Jodhpur, RAJASTHAN:

Jodhpur:

In a major initiative set to generate new avenues, the Jodhpur-based Maulana Azad University, which is the first private university established by the Muslim community in Rajasthan, has set up a Minorities Research Chair for conducting targeted studies and research on the issues, problems and challenges confronting the minority communities in the state. The research chair will make important recommendations after its studies.

The Minorities Affairs Department of the Congress government in Rajasthan has sanctioned Rs. 2 crores as financial assistance for the research chair. The university was established by the Marwar Muslim Educational & Welfare Society (MMEWS) at Bujhawar village on the outskirts of Jodhpur in 2013. The institution of higher education is now imparting education to more than 15,000 students belonging to Muslim and other less privileged communities in multiple disciplines of studies.

The Minorities Research Chair will function under Maulana Azad University’s Centre of Excellence and Research, for which Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had granted Rs. 15 crores in 2022. The research chair, which is expected to make a meaningful intervention for the development of Muslims and other minorities, is the brainchild of noted educationist Mohammed Atique, who is the MMEWS Chief Executive Officer and the Founder-Chancellor of Maulana Azad University.

The research chair was inaugurated at a grand function organized on the university premises in the presence of Rajasthan Minorities Affairs Minister Saleh Mohammed, Rajasthan Madrasa Board Chairman M.D. Chopdar, several MLAs, public representatives, government officers, educationists, distinguished citizens, journalists and social activists on August 16. The university is already running M.Phil and Ph.D. programmes in various streams.

In his address, Saleh Mohammed said the Maulana Azad University, which had made consistent progress during the last 10 years, was another name for high-quality scientific education in the future. The Minorities Research Chair would prove to be extremely beneficial for research and education in the areas crucial for the development of minority communities, he said.

After the research chair’s inauguration, the Central Equipment Room of the university’s Faculty of Pharmacy, and the classroom furniture and virtual smart classes of Crescent Public School and Maulana Azad Upper Primary School run by MMEWS were dedicated to the students. A poster of the foreign language training programme under the Chief Minister’s Minority Language Proficiency and Communication Skills Development Scheme was also released on the occasion.

Mr Atique said the Maulana Azad University was making sincere efforts to achieve the goal of “education for all” with a clear objective that no child from the weaker sections of any community should be deprived of education because of the lack of basic facilities. University president Jameel Kazmi said the research chair would review the progress of the government’s schemes for the development of minority communities and evaluate their achievements and success, besides identifying the obstacles in their implementation.

Presiding over the function, M.D. Chopdar described Atique as “Sir Syed” of the modern era while pointing out that the initiatives taken under his leadership in Jodhpur had made a record of sorts. He said the Madrasa Board was taking steps for the modernization and development of madrasas, for which the MMEWS was rendering full cooperation to it. Chopdar also flagged off a vehicle carrying the furniture supplied by the Madrasa Board to various schools in the city.

Luni MLA Mahendra Singh Bishnoi, Jodhpur City MLA Manisha Panwar and Congress leader from Soorsagar Assembly constituency, Ayub Khan, were special guests at the function. All of them praised the stellar role played by the MMEWS and Maulana Azad University in improving the educational standard of the Muslim community in Jodhpur. A large number of distinguished citizens from Barmer, Jaisalmer, Pokhran and Phalodi in western Rajasthan also came to attend the function.

The MMEWS, established in 1929 during the pre-Independence era, runs as many as 330 educational, health and social institutions. Atique has been instrumental in easing the lives of more than 45,000 youths through these institutions working in varied fields of education, health care, community development, rural development, waste-to-wealth initiatives and skill development programmes during the last four decades.

The then ruler of Jodhpur princely state, Maharaja Umaid Singh, was the patron of MMEWS and had gifted a school named ‘Durbar Muslim School’ to the Society in 1936. The Rajasthan government allotted five acres of land to the MMEWS in 1978, on which the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Muslim Senior Secondary School was constructed.

Since then, the MMEWS has established several institutions, including the Industrial Training Institute, Nursing College, Pharmacy College, B.Ed. College, Mai Khadija Hospital, Rahmatul-Lil-Alameen Blood Bank, Marwar Adarsh Gaushala and Bujhawar Veterinary Hospital.

The MMEWS established the university in 2013 with the intention of providing higher education to the most deprived and marginalized sections of society.

The first president (Vice-Chancellor) of Maulana Azad University was the noted Islamic scholar from New Delhi, Akhtarul Wasey. The current president, Jameel Kazmi, hailing from Jaipur, has taken steps for interdisciplinary studies while maintaining the indigenous ethos and the spirit of plurality in the university’s functioning.

About 45,000 students have so far passed out from the MMEWS group of institutions and become doctors, engineers and business people and entered other professions as well. Some of them have also established nursing homes and clinics in remote rural areas, which are often ignored in the government’s development plans. Maulana Azad University has set the motto, “Gain Knowledge and Serve Mankind”, for itself.

source: http://www.indiatomorrow.net / India Tomorrow / Home> Education / by the India Tomorrow Correspondent / August 25th, 2023

Book on ‘Muslim Vayask Aur Media’ released

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Haridwar, UTTARAKHAND :

An alumnus of SMJN post graduate college in Haridwar has written a book “Muslim Vayask aur Media” which dwells of the views of the community members regarding their presentation in the media.

Dhanesh Dwivedi says that in his study, about 80 percent of adult Muslims in parts of Rajasthan, said that they felt as if media is not playing a positive role and at times is totally indifferent to them. This is based on an analysis of data from a 2014 survey conducted by research scholar Dwivedi.

A voracious writer, Dwivedi has worked as technician and interpretor of Russian language in Indian Air Force for almost 10 years. He conducted a survey of 600 Marwar Muslims, from the areas of western Rajasthan including Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Barmer and Uttarlai in Hindi and his research work got published by Maulana Azad foundation. His questionnaire of 50 points was distributed at various Madrasas and other Islamic institutions where adult Muslims could understand Hindi language.

“On the question if the world looks upon Muslims with a different outlook and whether propaganda was being aimed at defaming Islam, 52 per cent opined that the media was responsible for negative propaganda while 30 per cent said that media was totally indifferent with 18 per cent of the responders terming the media’s attitude as positive,” said Dwivedi.

On the question of whether Muslims were treated as votebanks by political parties, 66 per cent replied in affirmative and 15 per cent in the negative while 19 per cent said that they did not know.  Drawing conclusions from the study, Dwivedi says in his work that the heat is felt by Muslim community members, which is a matter of concern. The electronic media must rethink on how they can create a positive attitude towards the Muslim community members.

He told this correspondent that the adult Muslims he questioned in his study seemed to be much contented with the print media in comparison to the electronic media. Also, the young Muslim generation appears less interested in Urdu language and the print media can come forward to generate their interest in the language in some way, he added.

The secretary of Marwar Muslim Educational and Welfare Society, Mohammad Ateek opined,”In the past four years, the neglect factor towards the Muslim community has increased. The condition has worsened than what Dhanesh Dwivedi has highlighted in his book. It is pure vote bank politics being played with us.

source: http://www.dailypioneer.com / The Pioneer / Home> State Editions> Dehradun / by Radhika Nagrath, Haridwar in Dehradun / Monday – February 05th, 2018

Of cows, compassion and communal comity

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Jodhpur, RAJASTHAN :

MMEWS general secretary Mohammed Atique with the cows at the gaushala
MMEWS general secretary Mohammed Atique with the cows at the gaushala

A cattle shelter run by a Jodhpur-based Muslim educational and welfare society earns goodwill

Even as cow vigilante groups in the northern States are targeting people on the mere suspicion of eating beef or smuggling cattle, an adarsh gaushala (model cow shelter) established by a Muslim institution in Jodhpur is taking care of old and sick cows. It is also assisting dairy farmers in a dozen surrounding villages in looking after their animals, and earning goodwill for promoting communal amity.

Launched in 2004 by Jodhpur-based Marwar Muslim Educational and Welfare Society (MMEWS), the initiative has won mass appreciation, with hundreds of people handing over cows and bulls to the shelter.

Old, weak, sick, abandoned, and neglected cows are given priority at the sprawling gaushala located in Bujhawad village off the Jodhpur-Barmer highway, 12km from Jodhpur. The shelter claims to be the first gaushala to be wholly owned and managed by the Muslim community.

Situated on a large piece of land without any boundary wall, the shelter is currently home to 217 bovines tagged by the State government’s Animal Husbandry Department.

The shelter’s full-time caretaker Hakim Khan and his wife Allahrakhi are in charge of the bovines’ welfare. Dogs and wild animals intruding into the shelter is a major concern, but Mr. Khan says the job is worth it. “We are glad to receive appreciation from the majority community, which sees the gaushala as an enterprise promoting communal harmony,” he said.

A trained team brings the cows, mostly from nearby villages, to the gaushala in a specially-designed vehicle. The MMEWS currently spends a little over ₹1 lakh a month on the animals. It is planning to double the shelter’s capacity by taking over a part of the 56 acres of land allotted for the construction of the Maulana Azad University, the society’s general secretary, Mohammed Atique, told The Hindu.

“When we started the gaushala, some fringe elements objected to Muslims operating the shelter,” Mr. Atique said. “But over the years, the shelter has won people’s admiration and generated immense goodwill as villagers appreciate the selfless work.”

Most of the bovines in the shelter have come from villages such as Doli, Gangana, Bhandu, Narnadi, Khudala, Jhanwar and Rohila Kalan. The shelter also employs a team of veterinarians who not only attend to the animals but also visit the nearby villages to assist dairy farmers in taking care of their cattle. Filling gaps in the government’s veterinary infrastructure, the team runs vaccination and treatment camps for stray cows in the villages. “A mobile van visits these villages to treat cows, goats and buffaloes free of cost,” Mr. Atique said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Other States / by Mohammed Iqbal / Jodhpur – May 21st, 2017