Muslim women capable of playing crucial role in empowering the community: Shahida Aslam

January 23, 2014

Amidst the unending debates and arguments over the status of Muslim women and necessity of hijab among other things, a young woman from an orthodox family in Mangalore makes an attempt to study Islam. This attempt ultimately becomes a turning point in her life. After reading Quran she accepts Islam and its lifestyle. After marriage, along with familial duties and responsibilities, she engages herself in social activities. Hailing from a middle class family, Shahida Aslam is now national president of National Women's Front. Following are the excerpts of an exclusive interview with the Ms Aslam.

Could you please shed light on the key objectives National Women's Front?

NWF was launched to create a platform for the women of the backward sections especially the Muslim community to strive for their empowerment and protect their rights. It is a known fact that women in India face various problems and women from minorities, tribals, Dalits and rural areas are more prone to be victims of oppression.

When we study the Muslim community we can observe that it is one of the most backward communities in India. Whether it is literacy, school enrolment, graduation or employment the percentage of Muslim women is less when compared to women of other communities. Considering these facts it is very important to have a dynamic movement among the Muslim women which will work for its empowerment.

When you talk about empowerment of women can you emphasize on the need of empowerment?

We strongly believe that only striving on the lines of present concept of development won't be enough to solve the problems of women as development is something in which the expectation is from external factors. This is similar to the difference between protection and security. Empowerment is an internal phenomenon where emphasis is given on making the women capable enough to pursue and sustain development. An empowered woman will develop all the skills and qualities needed to cope up with the emerging challenges.

There are many women organization and even organizations for Muslim women. How are NWF's activities different?

The major difference between organizations lies in their vision and also style of functioning. On a broad aspect we believe all the women organizations do play an important role in shaping the lives of Indian women. NWF concentrates more on grass-root level activity. If you observe the programmes or campaign we conduct you will see a micro level approach where our members reach out localities and carry out the activities. This type of functioning is possible because of the presence of granular level unit structures. Secondly the issues we take are also very serious in nature and not just limited to issues which catch the headlines. Our multi-dimensional agenda includes education, awareness and protection of women rights, health and hygiene, counseling, legal and political awareness. We believe all these fields' needs to be equally served as women belonging to Muslim and other backward communities need assistance in these fields.

For educational uplift NWF conducts various programmes like school enrollment, literacy campaigns, scholarship scheme and educational aid distribution. We also conduct various guidance classes for the parents from slum areas regarding the importance of education and the need of educating their kids. Health and hygiene is also a very serious issue for the economically weaker sections of the society. We usually coordinate with various health care workers and hospitals to conduct health awareness classes and health camps. Another creative initiative we recently started is the counseling programme which concentrates on solving personal and family related issues of poor people.

You have mentioned about legal awareness and political empowerment. Is there a possibility of bringing Muslim women to play a more prominent role in political field?

It is indeed possible. Muslim women do have all the capabilities to play crucial role in the political empowerment of the Muslim community. Today we see a huge number of Muslim women taking interest in education. The number of Muslim women pursuing higher education is also increasing. So this is the right time Muslim women understand the importance of political activities and get involved in political activities to strive for the rights of the weaker sections. NWF believes in promoting an alternate political front led by the backwards sections.

What would be your message to women?

The problems faced by women in India are not just an issue for women but for the entire society. Women form half the population of our society and a success of any society will depend on the success of this section. There is an urgent need that women must look beyond only feminist issues and come forward to play a major social role. We need to understand that our country faces grave challenges internally and externally so there should be more efforts on the social and political front by the women for protection of the rights.

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AIE flight crash brings back memories of 2010 Mangaluru crash

coastaldigest.com news network

August 8,2020

Mangaluru, Aug 8: As visuals of the Air India Express flight crash at Kozhikode international airport emerge, one cannot help but be reminded of an eerily similar and unfortunate accident that occurred a decade ago. The August 7, 2020 tragedy brought back memories of the 2010 crash.

It was on May 22, 2010 that an Air India Express Boeing 737-800 flight from Dubai to Mangaluru over shot the runway while landing at Bajpe airport and fell into a cliff. Of the 160 passengers and 6 crew members on board, 158 were killed (all crew members and 152 passengers) and only 8 survived.

Even back then, the plane had split into two. The crash has been termed as one of India's worst aviation disasters.

The final conversations between Air traffic control (ATC) and the pilot prior to the landing showed no indication of any distress.

Like the Mangaluru accident, Karipur crash too happened when the flight was attempting to land.

The captain of the aircraft which crashed at Mangaluru, Z Glucia, was an experienced pilot with 10,000 hours of flying experience and had 19 landings at the Mangalore airport. Co-pilot S S Ahluwalia, with 3,000 hours of flying experience had as many as 66 landings at this airport. Both the pilot and co-pilot were among the victims.

An investigation into the accident later found that the cause of the accident was the captain’s failure to discontinue an ‘unstabilised approach’ and his persistence to continue with the landing, despite three calls from the First Officer to ‘go-around’.

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Anti-NRC protest in Mangaluru brings ‘media bias’ to the fore

Abu Muhammad | coastaldigest.com

January 16,2020

Even as the Muslims of undivided Dakshina Kannada district broke out of the “spiral of silence” and made history by leading an unprecedented protest against CAA, NPR and NRC as well as the categorial mistreatment of non-saffronites at the hands of the police across the country, mainstream media turned a blind eye to the spectacle at the Shah Garden Maidan in Mangaluru’s Adyar where about two lakh patriots with tricolor in their hands converged to assert themselves on January 15th, 2020, a date which will be remembered by the people of coastal Karnataka forever.

The largest gathering in the history of Mangaluru was absolutely peaceful, law-abiding and respectful. While the slogans of ‘Azaadi’ were reverberating in the atmosphere, the protesters were seen making way for vehicles and passersby, taking care of women and helping elderly citizens on the highway adjacent to the ground. Though the organisers and most of the participants were Muslims, they collectively identified themselves as “We, the people of India”.

The district administration and the police department hadn’t imagined or even dreamt of such a mammoth gathering after blocking the highway and banning public transport from 9 am to 9 pm. Many opine that this action was taken only to discourage the concerned from participating in the protest and to create fear in the hearts of the people who are yet to process the unjustifiable deaths of two innocent citizens in an unwarranted police firing a few weeks ago.

What has since surprised the protesters most is the mainstream media’s blatant attempt to downplay the significance of this largest ever gathering. Shockingly, it could not make it to the front pages of any of the state-level Kannada daily newspapers except city-based Vaartha Bharathi. In the absence of The Hindu, which had announced a holiday on account of Makar Sankranti, most of the English newspapers too pitilessly buried the historic event in their inner pagers. National TV channels too were evidently reluctant to cover the event until NDTV started telecasting the news of the protest.

This uneasy relationship between the media and minorities in coastal Karnataka has long existed, but the non-coverage of the huge protest of Jan 15 marks a quantum leap beyond the media’s traditional pro-Sangh Parivar stance and biases –– which in the past had often demonised non-saffronites –– to now completely ignore and suppress the people’s voice. This media bias has naturally evoked a sharp response from netizens, who took to social media to issue clarion calls to boycott the mainstream media forever.

Cleanliness Drive

Most major protest meets and rallies –– both religious and political –– leave behind tonnes of garbage, especially water bottles, placards and buntings. However, the organisers of the Jan 15 protest meet led by example by launching a cleanliness drive in the area soon after the protesters left the venue peacefully. The drive continued on Jan 16 too. (Ironically, amidst this ongoing cleanliness drive, a local news portal captured photos of a few plastic bottles scattered along the road at Adyar and published a report accusing the event organisers and participants of polluting the area!)

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Birders ‘Walk the Chirp’ in Manipal

coastaldigest.com news network

February 3,2020

A motley group of as many as 150 birders ‘walked the chirp’ in search of their feathered friends in and around the countryside of Manipal. The occasion was the 10th Edition of Manipal Bird Day organised by Manipal Birders Group on Sunday, February 2nd, 2020.

The day began ‘Bird Walk’ from Hotel Sheela Sagar (Opposite MIT campus) at 6:30 a.m. The birders divided themselves in smaller groups of 10-12 members and followed 13 different trails which took them through different terrains like hills, plains, paddy fields and wetlands. The idea was to sight as many birds as possible and record their presence in the region.

When the walk ended at about 10:00 a.m., the different groups have recorded a total of 125 species of birds, which was a bit lesser than the sighting of the yester years. “The 10th edition this year has seen a very good growth of interest among people. At the same time a decline has been seen in the bird species sighted compared to previous years,” said one of the organisers. Some of the rare birds sighted were Indian Pitta, Oriental Turtle Dove, Fork-Tailed Drongo Cuckoo, Orange Breasted Green Pigeon, Eurasian Marsh Harrier and Malabar Pied Hornbill.

The bird walk was followed with an interaction session at KMC Food Court and MAHE Vice Chancellor Dr. H. Vinod Bhat presided over the function. He felicitated six people who actively participated recently in a rescue mission of abandoned birds in Manipal.

A program then continued with a talk on ‘Ethical Photography’ by Dhruvam Desai, final year student of MIT, Manipal. This was followed by ‘Backyard Birding’ with Shubha Bhat from IISc Bangalore. She spoke on different ways to feed the birds with water using different materials for bird baths. “I have recorded 120 species of birds from bird baths in my garden,” she said. She encouraged the participants to have bird baths in their gardens or flats which will help quench the thirst of these little winged wonders during summer.

The participants involved themselves actively in the interaction sessions. The event was accompanied with an art exhibition titled ‘Feathered Jewels’ by Aditya Bhat. He presented around 18 paintings all from his memory of birding encounters.

Participation in Manipal Bird Day was open to all and entry was free.

MANIPAL BIRD DAY

Manipal Bird Day is an annual event dedicated to celebrating birds in Manipal. This day long event brings together a large number of birders from Manipal, Udupi, Mangalore, Mysore, Bangalore, Davangere and other places. Around 150-200 people gather and are split into different teams. They visit the assigned regions and count as many birds as possible. This non competitive event focuses on spreading awareness regarding the diverse avifauna around us. Turn out for this event has been increasing from 3 people to 200 in last 10 years. This is the 10th edition of Manipal Bird Day.

MANIPAL BIRDERS CLUB

Manipal Birders Club started as a Facebook group after the release of the first edition of “A Birders Handbook to Manipal” to share information about the latest sightings. It is now a formal group of over 500 like-minded members that meets at least once a week to go on bird walks. It is now a large birders community and a medium to organize events, bird walks and discussions about birds and sightings.

The next step would be to involve a higher number of local and young birders who will dictate the change in environment around the town in the coming years. With the co operation of Zoology and natural sciences students and other nature enthusiasts and faculty of different colleges weekly birding sessions have been conducted to involve and encourage more and more people to bird and get connected to the nature and to try to understand the changes happening around us, the media release issued by the group said.