Most of the Muslim girls belonging to economically weak families in southeast Delhi’s Jaitpur Extension cannot avail the privilege of a high school education for both financial and religious reasons.
Most of the Muslim girls belonging to economically weak families in southeast Delhi’s Jaitpur Extension cannot avail the privilege of a high school education for both financial and religious reasons.
Jaitpur Extension, a resettlement colony near Okhla, houses poor and middle class families whose breadwinners are mostly daily wage workers. Consequently, almost every household in the area has girls who have dropped out of school.
However, bucking the trend is a woman Farida Khan who runs classes free of cost for such students, some of whom recently took their matriculation and intermediate exams as private candidates from Jamia Milia Islamia University and passed, against all odds.
“These girls wanted to study, but could not. The entire area had some sort of negativity. I had been through that stage in my life earlier and thus I decided to change it,” said Farida, the director of Pehchan Coaching Centre, where she trains her students.
Pehchan is a non-government organisation that was registered in 2015.
“The most difficult part was convincing their parents that it is both safe and useful to teach the girls. Many were sceptic initially, but as the students fared well in exams, it changed their parents’ outlook,” she added.
Among her students is 24-year-old Mubeena who recently passed her intermediate exam. “My father passed away almost 10 years ago. We were facing financial problems and the relatives were forcing me to get married. Everything was mixed up. For a few years, I was imprisoned inside my own house,” said Mubeena.
However, things have now changed for Mubeena who also has a respectable job that pays her enough to supplement her family’s income. However, for her, education is much more than the job she has landed.
