Helping rural folk hone their writing skills, and rise in life

Charkha snatched stones from the hands of our children and gave them pens, through which they could highlight the problems and issues of their region in front of people through three major languages of the country i.e. Hindi, Urdu and English; through the medium of Charkha features in leading newspapers and magazines across the country for which I personally thank the Charkha team and especially Anis Sahab, I congratulate them.” This appropriate sentence is from the author of several books, columnist, poet and former zonal education officer, Mr. Nazir Qureshi Sahab. He further says, “The bloody line that divides our country was drawn on the chest of our district Poonch, who knows the pain of division more than us, but the situation of the development is that we could not even make a road in our part, which could connect these border residents to our state and country’s capitals.”

Charkha is a non-governmental organisation based in Delhi, better known as Charkha — The Development Communication Network. For the past 24 years, the voices of rural India’s marginalised people, written by local boys and girls, have been made available through Charkha’s Feature Service across the country. The publication of feature articles in leading newspapers and magazines has continued to flourish; with the encouragement of rural writers. Let us try to see Charkha from the eyes of some of the rural writers of Poonch district.

Mr Mohammed Riaz Malik, resident of border block Mandi, Poonch says, “Charkha has left its mark in the Jammu region of Jammu & Kashmir. I remember that when I joined the first writing skills workshop of Charkha, the youngsters present there had ridiculed me. I used to send messages on the landline telephone, I did not even know that there was no messaging system on the landline, but Charkha has changed my lifestyle. Our training in writing skills, especially news and feature articles helped me to improve my writing skills. Day by day my writings got better and better, the whole team of Charkha, especially Mr Mario Noronha and Mr Mohd. Anis ur Rehman Khan, played a vital role in my improvement. They continued to guide and handhold me to a great extent till I achieved success in the month of September 2015, Urdu daily Azaan-e-Sahar hired me as a reporter then and till now. In 2017, a local news channel Pas-e-Manzar made me a reporter from Mandi for their channel, after which the live Facebook channel and YouTube daily news portal “JKAC” contacted me. Apart from Urdu newspapers and channels, English daily “Diamond” also approached me, I also got offers from Urdu dailies Awami Lehar and Sada-e-Kohistan, but because of the paucity of time, I had to apologise to them. In the last four years, on Republic Day and Independence Day, the Army has given me many awards for my writings, it gives me more happiness when my articles help in the development of the area, an example of which is the now beautiful building of Mandi Hospital, four bridges on the Arai river, apart from the construction work, many other works were started due to my articles. Today due to my journalism, I have an identity in my district and in the state. This has been made possible only because of Charkha”.

Shiraz Sikander, who works for Video Volunteers and Unheard Kashmir had been fascinated by the camera since childhood and was very fond of writing. He says, “I wanted to use my hobby for the development of society but the question was how? It is Charkha who helped me make this dream come true, I learned from Charkha that through publicity how service and development can be done. I feel elated by the fact that I have learned journalism from a good teacher like Anisur Rahman Khan. Today I am a documentary filmmaker for India Unheard and a community reporter and editor for Kashmir Unheard and am also running my own production house called SS Films. I thank Charkha for all this and especially my mentor Mr. Anisur Rahman Khan”.

Syed Basharat Hussain Shah Bukhari says, “In the year 2014, I got a chance to learn a lot from Charkha’s Manager Projects and deputy editor Mohd. Anis-ur-Rehman Khan, I wrote several articles whose impact was seen on the ground. Besides this I worked as a sub-editor in the state’s famous Urdu daily Lazawal, for all of this I am grateful to Charkha.”

Musarat Yasmin, a teacher in a private school in Surankote block of Poonch, says, “A few years ago, I used to be nervous while talking to somebody but after the training from Charkha, other people, even the officers, were afraid of my questions. I also got a fellowship and my writings also began to have an impact. We hope that Charkha will continue to guide us”.

Ajazul Haq Bukhari says, “I am working in the famous Urdu daily Azaan-e-Sahar of Jammu, before that I used to work in the Urdu daily Udaan. My first fellowship and award came from Charkha, then for better reporting from the government information department here in Jammu. Then there were many awards from the NGO Sir Syed Mission, the Ahsaas Foundation, and the Kalam Foundation, which included a certificate for better journalism at the hands of former Indian petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar. My education took place in a Madrasa and people do not expect religious leaders like us to write articles on development issues, but I got to learn a lot from Anis sir of Charkha and today due to Charkha, Alhamdullilah I am in such a position where I can help others through my articles. I urge Charkha to once again come to this border district of Poonch and train the youngsters here to write on development issues”.

Yusuf Jameel, who has received a master’s degree in Arabic from Aligarh Muslim University, says, “Nowadays I am working as a journalist for the Urdu daily “Aasmaan” which is being published from Jammu. My journalism started five years ago at the time when I was studying in Government Degree College, Poonch. One day I was reading the newspaper in the college library when a stranger asked smiling — “Do you only read news or do you also write something for the newspaper?” My answer was that if we cannot find a place in the newspaper, then what is the benefit of writing? On that note he introduced himself as Mohd. Anis ur Rehman Khan and the organisation he was working for as Charkha. He invited me to attend the five-day writing skills workshop which was being organised by Charkha at the Dak Bangla, Poonch. In the workshop we were taught in detail how to write articles for newsletters and for newspapers, the difference between news and features and at the end of five days we were able to write articles for the newspapers. Today I want to give all the credits of my identity in this field to my guru Mohd. Anis ur Rehman Khan and the entire Charkha team. Thank you for giving us the ability to showcase the difficulties faced by the people of our region through the pen.”

Another rural writer Syed Anees-ul-Haq of Khanetar village, district Poonch says, “Training given under the guidance of our teacher Mohd. Anis-ur-Rehman Khan sahib of Charkha taught us not only the skill of writing but also the full understanding of the power of the pen. Having made the way for us to follow the lead, Anis sir and his other colleagues, after adding colour to our writings, were able to publish it in newspapers across the country. While our writing started appearing in various newspapers and magazines, many newspapers began inviting us to write for them. The managing editor of Urdu daily Udaan janab Tanvir Khatib also invited me, besides this other newspapers published from Poonch also invited me. Weekly newspaper Pas-e-Manzar also asked me to write an editorial for them. For sometime I was writing for these newspapers and it was published with my name. While this started to enhance my identity in my district, on the other hand, in Jammu where I had gone to complete my graduation, the expenditure also began to increase. Another rural writer associated with Charkha, along with me got an offer to work with Urdu daily Lazawal, where we both worked as sub-editors and this helped taking care of the expenditure on our education. In fact, the time spent with Charkha has proved to be helpful in assisting us in many ways.”

Mr. Mario Noronha, chief executive officer of Charkha, says in this regard, “We have worked in all the three border areas of Jammu and Kashmir, including the border districts of Jammu, Kupwada in Kashmir, both districts of Ladakh — Leh and Kargil. Our organisation has realised that the names of these border districts appear in the media only when there are major problems with our neighbouring country like cross border firing. Apart from this, the world needs to know about the beauty, the culture and lifestyles of the people living here, the development issues and challenges in the area. Keeping this in mind, Charkha trained more than 300 young boys and girls in district Poonch over a period of three years to become rural writers who today are working in local newspapers and channels. Not only are they getting well paid respectable jobs but they are also taking care of their social responsibilities.”

Dear readers! You have read a name repeatedly in the article, so it is necessary to talk to the person concerned — janab Mohd. Anis ur Rehman Khan Sahib — in this regard. With a big smile on his face he says, “Children from the state of Jammu and Kashmir are very talented. We at Charkha have only shown them the right direction. It is only their dedication, hard work and perseverance with a little effort from my side which has resulted in bringing out the best in them.”

There is no doubt that the work of Charkha is very different from other organisations, instead of giving material things to the people, it believes in giving them the power of the pen to write with and places in their hearts a desire to serve the society and the nation at large. By making them writers it not only solves their problems of livelihood but also earns them a lot of respect. Their writings also help them get many awards and fellowships. I am also an example of the good work done by Charkha and therefore I will try to focus on Charkha’s work in other districts and states in my future articles.
— Charkha Features