Al Haqeeqa
Yusuf Khan (Standing) with the girls who passed out from boards and the Policemen of Jaipur (Courtesy India tomorrow)
New Delhi
Thousands of young children in over 790 villages of Rajasthan’s Mewat region dominated by Meo Muslims mostly end up as school dropouts and never reach the secondary level of their education. All this is going to change with the region’s first private university coming up in the region.
The university to be set up at the Chawandi Kalan village in the Alwar district of Rajasthan is expected to change the educational standards of Meo Muslims of the region. The Mewat region comprises the Bharatpur and Alwar districts of Rajasthan and is also spread across a large area in neighbouring Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
The University is the brainchild of Yusuf Khan, a lawyer who hails from the Tapukara village of Tijara tehsil. He is known for his commendable service in bringing school dropouts among Muslims into the fold of education.
The government has allotted 208 hectares of land at Chawandi Kalan village to the university.
Yusuf Khan, who has been working for education among the girls belonging to the Muslim and other marginalized communities under the banner of “The Missile Man’s Vision Foundation, says this university will impart higher and technical education.
The university will be named after the late Barkatullah Khan, a senior Congress leader, who was the first Muslim Chief Minister of Rajasthan from July 1971 to October 1973. He died in office after serving as the Chief Minister for over two years.
A private member’s Bill for the establishment of this university is expected to be presented in the ongoing budget session of the Rajasthan Assembly.
Yusuf Khan 34, has done a yeoman’s service in helping girls continue their studies during the difficult period of national lockdown due to the Covid Pandemic. He launched a project wherein with the help of Jaipur police and enrolled girls for distance education in the capital city.
He has set up a 17-member Trust – the Missile Man’s Vision Education Trust – in memory of APJ Abdul Kalam, another national figure who became an icon for people of all religions – for running the proposed university.
The Trust has prominent academicians and other professionals on board. The proposed university will offer courses in modern subjects such as disaster management, pharmacy, environment, climate change, sports, engineering, etc.
Yusuf Khan said that the backward condition of his native place had prompted him to launch an initiative. He expects that the foundation stone of the University will be laid in May.
Sources said the move for establishing the university is being quickened because of the upcoming elections in the state. The ruling Congress Government has made major promises to the Meo Muslims in the face of the Assaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM trying to make inroads among the community.
Khan’s major success came during the Covid pandemic. During the lockdown, he collaborated with Jaipur Police to launch “Sikhsha Setu” programme. With the support of 17 Police Stations, he helped a large number of girls in the Walled City, who had dropped out of schools, resume their studies
Under this project, he taught girl students at their homes and encouraged them to write their X and XII class examinations from the Rajasthan State Open School. The police stations paid their fee and supplied study material to the girls.
Khan pointed out that over 750 of these girls were continuing with their formal education and had appeared in examinations. The scheme is run by the Directorate of Women’s Empowerment through its Rs. 1,000-crore Indira Mahila Shakti Nidhi established in 2019-20. Girls in the Muslim- dominated localities, who dropped out of school for doing household chores or taking care of younger siblings, have mainly benefited from the initiative.
He has helped in extending the scheme’s benefit through field functionaries and Anganwadi workers in the Mewat region as well during the current academic session by getting about 10,000 dropout girls enrolled in the open school.
Besides, the Missile Man’s Vision Foundation established in memory of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, has covered 132 villages for the distribution of sanitary pads to adolescent girls under the flagship “Udaan” scheme.”
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Khan, who has been practicing as a lawyer in the Rajasthan High Court for six years, said that the educational intervention would herald a new era of empowerment of both adolescent girls and boys from the Meo Muslim community.
The establishment of the university will encourage children to complete their school education and join the institution of higher learning, besides prompting the State Government’s Education Department to improve the poorly equipped primary and middle schools in the region.
