Activities of the IOS Chapters

ALIGARH CHAPTER

Symposium on Health Awareness

Institute of Objective Studies, Aligarh Chapter observed the World Health Day on April 07, 2004 by organizing a symposium on “health awareness”. Prof. Azra J. Ahmad, former Chairperson, Department of Pediatrics, Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, AMU, Aligarh convened the programme.

Mr. Mohammad Muqim, Coordinator of the Chapter, welcomed the participants and the audience and said a few words about the importance of health problems, their causes and remedies. He then, requested Prof. Azra J. Ahmad to start the programme formally.

Prof. Azra J. Ahmad, congratulated the local Chapter for organizing a symposium on an issue which touches the concern of every individual right from his/her birth till death. She said that prevention is better than cure. She further said it was lack of awareness which creates health problems to many people. Hence it is a must for everybody to be aware and careful about his/her health. She introduced the speakers to the audience and invited Dr. Zulfia Khan, Chairperson, Department of Community Medicine, J.N. Medical College, AMU, Aligarh who spoke on “health life style for geriatric population” (Ageing and Health). She highlighted the common health problems of the elderly people and discussed such issues as prevention of ill health, prevention of disease and promotion of health and importance of exercise etc.

Dr. Farzana Beg, Reader in the Department of Pediatrics, J.N. Medical College, AMU, Aligarh was invited to speak on Magnitude of Tuberculosis and what we can do. After giving preliminary informations with regard to tuberculosis, she informed the audience about the dangers of this problem but at the same time she also claimed that if regular treatment is given, a TB patient can be cured within a prescribed time limit. She exhorted the well off people to come forward to adopt some patients and pay for their treatment.

Prof. Ashraf Malik, Chairman, Department of Pediatrics and Incharge, Adolescent Clinic, Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, AMU, Aligarh, highlighted the issue of “Adolescent Care: An Emerging Issue of 21st Century” and said that the problems of adolescents are of various kinds and are neither treated by the pediatricians nor the adult physicians due to lack of time to get involved in the special problems. Most of time the doctor is busy in treating only the diseases of their respective age groups. Hence Prof. Malik highlighted the medical and psycho-emotional problems of adolescence and stressed the need for having special Adolescent Clinics and creating social awareness towards them. Prof. Malik gave his e-mail: drashrafmalik@rediffmail.com for answering the queries concerning the problems of adolescents.

Hypertension: A global problem was chosen, by Dr. Anjum M. Chughtai, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, J.N. Medical College, AMU, Aligarh for discussion. Dr. Chughtai started his talk with the definition of blood pressure and spoke about the classification of Hypertension, way of initial evaluation, how to record BP, complications of uncontrolled Hypertension, Treatment, Pharmacological and Non-Pharmacological etc.

Dr. Abdul Razzak Siddiqui, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, J.N. Medical College, AMU, Aligarh spoke on Pulse Polio Immunization Programme: Genesis of Community Mobilization Initiative and informed the house about the dangers of polio, government initiatives to control it, peoples attitude, pattern of resistance and the need of communication strategy, creation of social awareness through mass media and intensive social mobilization and interpersonal communication in polio-affected states.

At the end of the symposium, Mr. M. Serajuddin Khan, Assistant Coordinator of the Chapter thanked Prof. Azra J. Ahmad under whose guidance the local Chapter could organize such a significant symposium. He also thanked the speakers for their contribution and the audience for their participation in the discussion.

Lecture on Islam and Hinduism

Mr. Tariq Murtaza, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Health and Sports Education, AMU, Aligarh delivered a lecture on Common Features of Islam and Hinduism on April 22, 2004 which was jointly organized by Aligarh Chapter of the Institute of Objective Studies, New Delhi and Department of Sunni Theology, AMU, Aligarh.

Mr. Tariq said that Hindus and Muslims have been living together in India for centuries. But, unfortunately both the communities cannot see eye-to-eye due to certain ideological reasons, resulting in great amount of chaos and conflict in the country.

The speaker elucidated the finer points of similarities between the two religions based on religious ideology. In order to avoid controversy the speaker quoted the scriptures of both the communities to prove his point. He discussed specially the following points:

1. Name of both the religions

2. Concept of God in both the religions

3. Concept of Prophethood

4. Books of both the communities

The most striking part of his lecture related to the concept of Prophethood, in which, he tried to prove that the Prophet Nuh (Peace Be on Him) was the Messenger sent to the Hindu community. After the talk, question/answer session was held.

Dr. Mufti Zahid Ali Khan, an Associate Professor of Sunni Theology, AMU, Aligarh conducted the programme and invited Mr. Mohammad Serajuddin Khan, Assistant Coordinator of the IOS, Aligarh Chapter to formally welcome the speaker and the audience. Mr. Khan, in brief, gave a synoptic picture of the aims and objectives of the Institute and its multi-dimensional research activities and exhorted the research scholars present there in particular and the post graduation students in general to use the IOS platform for the expression of their views on the issues and problems of the contemporary world.

Prof. S. Zainus Sajidin, Dean, Faculty of Theology and Chairman, Department of Sunni Theology, presided over the programme.

Coordinator of the Chapter Mr. Mohammad Muqim, appreciated the efforts of the speaker in bridging the gap between the two major communities of our country and proposed a vote of thanks to the teaching staff of the Theology Faculty, its functionaries, students, participants from other departments, Dean of the Theology Faculty for his cooperation and the speaker for delivering a lecture on such an important issue.

PATNA CHAPTER

Lecture on Modern Education and the Muslims

Dr. M.A. Quddus, Co-ordinator, IOS, Patna Chapter, while extending a heartly welcome to Mr. Sarfaraz Ahmad, IRS (Retd.) the honourable guest, highlighted his professional achievements as well as his high flair for social work. The honourable guest initiated the discussion on, “Muslims and Modern Education.”

The learned speaker at the outset mentioned about the deplorable state of Muslim education and the reasons behind it. He also mentioned that his talk may not be very informative but would be thought provoking based on personal observations and experiences. Elaborating his point, he said that once Mrs. Indra Gandhi has given the slogan: “Garibi Hatao” to which Mr. Raj Narain, a noted political figure, retorted that has Indra Gandhi seen poor persons in India except her cooks and butlers who enjoyed a higher living standard than an average person in India. The example suggests that our perceptions are very limited. We must rub our shoulders with people such as the rich, the poor, the educated, the uneducated etc. to get true perception about them. He narrated his experiences with people who thought Muslims belong to the lower level, uneducated skilled/unskilled people. To them it was a surprising experience that Muslims can be highly educated also. He said that since he spent his entire career as a high ranking railway officer in Bengal, he was able to compare the conditions of Bangla Muslims with the Muslims of Bihar. He found that though both the Muslim groups were in deplorable conditions, the Bengal situation was worse than Bihar and it was only due to educational factor. Further he said the education of boys is as much important as that of the girls because the women folk provide the base for socio-economic changes. Unfortunately Muslim girls rarely get a separate school in the town much less in the rural areas. In villages we find that Non-Muslim girls very easily get education with boys in the common school, the Muslim girls, alas, sit idle in home because they can not go for co-education due to their religious belief. The result is very obvious: large number of non-Muslim girls pass the Matriculation Examination every year from rural areas while the number of Muslim girls passing such examinations is almost zero although their population is substantial. He said once he wanted to constitute a panel of experts especially of University Professors for the purpose of holding interview for the recruitment of persons for the railway services. He tried his best to induct Muslim professors in the panel. But he could get such professors only in Urdu and Persian whereas there was abundance of non-Muslim professors in the field of Science, Medicine, Engineering etc. This speaks of the level of education in Muslim community.

Further he said that his experiences as a member of the Railway Recruitment Board has been that a candidate with strong foundation at the primary and the secondary levels does much better in the interview, than those with weak foundations. It is a very significant finding. Unfortunately the present attitude of the guardians towards primary and secondary education further aggravates the weak foundation of their wards. They are more interested in quantity than quality because they want quick promotions whether their wards deserve it or not. Therefore it is necessary that the foundation work should be undertaken right at the primary stage. Quality teachers at the primary stage play important role in laying down strong base in the children. The base for four basics of Math, grammar, spelling and good handwriting are laid at the primary stage from which the students benefit all through their life. In case, the foundation is neglected and later on when the child grows into a young person hankering after admissions in professional courses through coaching services, nothing can be achieved due to weak foundation at the primary stage.

The speaker said that Muslims may think of establishing their own schools and colleges for imparting quality education. But experiences have proved that the results from such schools/colleges are not commensurate with the investments and efforts made in establishing them. Instead it is worthwhile to set up primary and middle schools. Students of these schools with strong foundations can easily be admitted in good schools purely on merit basis. Investment in Colleges (general or professional) is more a wastage in the sense that they cannot be cent per cent used by Muslims because of their meagre share in the population. Somewhere in Kerala, he cited an examples that 36 schools/colleges were set up by Muslims but the occupancy rate by Muslims was hardly 13 percent. Therefore he strongly pleaded for establishing, if so, primary and middle schools only.

Good foundation is important and easy also. Again he cited an example from his own experiences. There was a certain Mr. Sharma, an overseer in Patna University. His wife was a non-matriculate and yet they were running a coaching institute for students of Class VIII-X only with intake of 25 students with waiting list of 150 candidates for admission against vacant seats. The reason for such a rush for a private coaching was very much obvious. More than 50 percent students of Mr. Sharma used to compete in National Talent Search Examination or could get admissions in Dehra Doon and elsewhere. Then what was the magic in the teaching of Mr. Sharma? It was very simple which everyone of us can practice having the same zeal and perseverance. His method of teaching was very simple. His students used to sit on mat. The focus was on English and Math. The basics were practised rigorously. For example, every day 20 English words were given to the students for learning their spelling by heart during the working hours of the coaching centre. Similarly learning and practice sessions were held for translation, grammar, para-phrasing etc. For Math the main focus was on rigorous practice of four basics of Math: addition, substraction, multiplication and division. Say one hundred sums were given everyday and students were asked to work out. The ready-made answers were also available with which the answers of the students were checked up by Mr. Sharma or in his absence by his half-educated wife. Thus through continuos and rigorous practice, the students gradually picked up speed for solving and answering questions swiftly and correctly. In this way a strong foundation was laid down in them and that became the base for their successes in all competitive examinations in the future.

The speaker deplored that education through Madarsa Board is almost non-existent in the real sense although number of Madrasas is increasing, admissions are also increasing, examinations are being held and results are also declared. But the society is not getting right kinds of Islamic scholars, dedicated teachers, mission-oriented students and corruption-free administration. The reason for this sorry state of affairs is the lack of strong foundation in the students who pass from Madarsas.

Comparatively Christian Mission, Ram Krishna Mission, DAV and others are running the best schools in India while Muslim Community, barring a few examples, is much behind them in providing quality education to the people. What is the reason, asked the speaker.

The reason, he said, is quite obvious. They are dedicated, hard working and selfless workers. We are, with a very few negligible exceptions, just opposite of them: self-oriented, practicing double-standard, hypocrat and corrupt. Therefore even the best of our institutions have gone down the drain.

We must come out of the past, live in the present and look at the future. The remedies are, therefore, suggested as under:

1. Small groups who are selfless and dedicated to community welfare be formed to exercise pressures on the people who are officially using the infra-structural facilities provided to them for a better use of such facilities for the greater benefit of the society. For example, the teachers of the Municipal Corporation be pressurized for sincere teachings for the benefits of the small children who study in such schools.These vigilant small groups can even pressurize the private schools as well for being sincere to the guardians and their wards rather than bluffing them through their spurious methods of teaching.

2. Small schools of the primary/middle levels as well as Madarsas may be set up for teaching Math and language to the children. Experienced persons desirous of giving time for teaching in primary classes as well as persons on contract basis may be invited for the work.

3. Further, a congenial social environment is very essential for providing quality education to children. For example we find guardians in Patna are very much concenred about the education of their children. We don’t find such concern among Muslims elsewhere such as in Bombay and Calcutta. It has good result. Muslims from Bihar Compete in larger numbers than those from elsewhere. He cited an example of Kamtaul, a village in the interior of Darbhanga to show how an educational environment created by the people of the village about fifty years back through a primary schools (now upgraded upto secondary level) known as Maktaba Islami is paying rich dividends to the children of the area. After getting strong footage in the Madarsa school the children in large number enter into AMU for higher studies, and a few of them are admitted in the Professional courses and some of them acquire position at the international level as well. Similarly he cited the example of Jamalpur Railway Works in which every year 20 students on the basis of All India Competitive Test are admitted as apprentices in Class I scale and after grooming them for a number of years in an educational environment they became full-fledged railway engineers and are absorbed in the Indian Railway Services. Similarly Hamdard (Delhi) has also developed an atmosphere in which talented selected number of persons are groomed for the IAS Examination and they compete also. JNU is also doing the same thing. It has created an atmosphere in which talents for competitive supremacy are developed. Our Patna Muslim High School has also succeeded in providing result oriented environment to the students appearing at the state level administrative services examinations.

4. The learned speaker while elaborating his suggestions mentioned that the good result of the meritorious children be also appreciated in their presence. It leaves inspiring effect on their future performances. Appreciation may take the shape of prizes, certificates, garlanding etc. Closing his talk he appealed for creating such an atmosphere in every Mohalla for the greater good of the people.

Dr. S.F. Rab, Mr. M.T. Khan, Mr. M.H. Khan, Dr. Md. Ejaz Alam, Dr. Aslam, and Mr. Md. Nezamuddin participated in the discussion and endorsed the view of Mr. Sarfaraz Ahmad relating to primary education. Finally a vote of thanks was moved and the sessions ended with Dua.