Though Muslim girls in other parts of the country are still struggling to receive education, in Shekhawati region of Rajasthan, they have made significant and abiding progress. In Sikar and its surrounding villages, over 20,000 Muslim girls have been attending schools and colleges every day while Jhunjhunu district also has more Muslim school-going girls than boys. The region has witnessed a sea change in the mindset of the Muslim community as most of the families are sending their daughters to schools.
“Eight years back, when I came from Goa and joined a school as a teacher, I noted a trend taking place among the Muslims to send their daughters to schools. Now, almost every family allows its daughters to attend school. We get tremendous support from mothers and grandmothers,” says Shabina, a Sikar resident.
The process to motivate Muslims for girls’ education started in 1997 when a Mumbai-based social worker, A. Wahid Chowhan, set up a school, Excellence Girl’s School, in Sikar. It was exclusively for girls from all religions and faiths.
“In the beginning, there was a lot of apprehension and doubts about our project. A small section of the society even opposed it and raised several questions but we convinced parents and ensured the safety of girls. It has yielded results,” says Mr Chowhan, adding, “We started with only 27 girl students. Now we are running a girls college in Sikar with 3,000 girls.” Mr Chowhan’s school and college are different from the others as they provide education free of cost as well as uniforms.
Hailing from Sikar, Mr Chowhan developed the school based on secular principles. “It is based on the broad vision of providing equal opportunities to girls, particularly the economically backward section of the society, irrespective of religion, caste or creed. It is an educational institution based on secular values,” he says. Not only Muslim girls, but several Hindu girls too have enrolled in the school and the college. The Shekhawati region has witnessed mushrooming of schools not only in towns, but in small villages as well.
In Fatehpur town of the region, Jamiat-ul-Vyaparian runs three schools — one of them exclusively for girls. “Now our girls are getting modern as well as religious education. We realised the value of modern education. Nowadays, boys want educated girls when they are seeking a match,” says social worker Yusuf Ahmad Khokhar. Shabana has four sisters and a brother. She is the only girl in the family who has got the opportunity to attend an English-medium school in Fatehpur. A Class 5 student, Shabana says: “My father is an autorikshaw driver. He wants to see me become a doctor. Had such a school not been set up here, it would be difficult for girls like me to get education.”
Muslim girls are taking up subjects like commerce, architecture, computer science and law, previously taken up by men. “I am pursuing computer science and want to be an IT professional as there is a demand in private institutions for IT,” says Rahila, a Muslim girl at Excellence College.