Musabirul Hoque, a social activist who represents Assam’s displaced Bengali Muslims, sets up a school for children of the community, giving them a fresh chance at life. Village Square does a recce.
The state of Assam received a lot of attention for the attacks on the marginalised Bengali Muslim families there, who were targeted on the pretext of encroachment and became victims of violence. One big incident was the Dholpur eviction drive that happened a mere 65 kilometres from Guwahati in September 2021. Here the picture of slain Moinul Hoque, who was stomped on after being shot, sparked outrage in the national media that questioned the state’s atrocities against the Bengali Muslim minorities, who had been labelled “illegal immigrants”.
Two thousand families were forced out of their sandbar lands, of which 600 were moved from the western to the eastern part of the Darrang district. Political parties, some civil society organisations and student unions decided to offer help through funds for clothing, food and basic necessities for the evicted families.
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It was in February 2022, when Musabirul Hoque, a social activist who also belongs to the marginalised community, reached the relocated evicted families of Dholpur at Shyampur, that he saw a child of class one struggling to read on his own and grasp subjects that he should ideally have been taught by teachers. “We don’t have a school or teacher. We have to do everything on our own,” the hapless child said to him by way of an explanation.
The sight moved Hoque. Although he has been grateful for offers of generosity from concerned political parties and student bodies towards the displaced community, he sought a more permanent solution for the atrocities faced by the community. “I believe the children of the families can earn respect in society only through education. Education is the only means to freedom,” said Hoque to Village Square.
Hoque, a social activist who represents the marginalised Bengali Muslim community, says that education for the kids of the displaced community has taken a backseat. He offers the example of a place called Nellie, which is located five hours away from Dholpur, and was one of the spots where violence broke out.
“You cannot even find a graduate or a master’s degree holder in Nellie,” pointed out Hoque. For him, it has been a learning that the community has to be self-sufficient instead of portraying itself as a victim. “The state will respect the community only if it can establish itself,” offered Hoque.
Thus, was born the idea of starting a school for the children of the displaced community. It began as a social media campaign that sought to neutralise the hate towards Bengali Muslims in Assam.
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“There has been propaganda against the minorities. It was in 1983 that the Chaulkhowa and Nellie massacres took place, and many minorities were killed along with some local Assamese people. The state has made it clear that it wants to exact revenge for the local deaths,” said Hoque, tracing the history of the Dholpur incident. “But we think we can get justice only by educating our community,” he added. “We would like to create human potential in this community such that in 20 or 25 years these kids take to sports and academics. That’s the only way to earn respect and (help get) a good life for them,” he said.
With this thought in mind, Hoque set up the Educare Foundation on October 13, 2021. He arranged for a meeting with over 150 government school teachers. The construction of the school through the months of April and June 2022, was funded by the contributions of the teachers and patrons as well as donations made after social media campaigns were instated on platforms like Facebook.
The school is located on one bigha of land at Shyampur and has about nine rooms. This institution, which has classes sectioned from 1 to 8, starts at 8:30 am and ends at 2:30 pm. The medium of instruction here is Assamese and it follows the Secondary Education Board of Assam [SEBA] curriculum. The teachers are given a monthly salary of Rs 200-Rs 300.
Nazrul Islam, the headmaster at the Educare Academy school, who oversees the management, says he has seen improvement in the academic performance of the evicted children. “Before they had forgotten to write the Assamese alphabet with education taken away from them. In the last two to three years, they’ve learnt to recite and write alphabets and words well,” said Islam, a social science teacher himself. He is among the nine-odd teachers recruited to teach about seven subjects that are a part of the curriculum.
The teachers take extra tests to hone the academic skills of the students apart from the usual class and unit tests. Books, uniforms and stationery are provided free of cost to the children.
The school has 220 children, all belonging to the evicted families. Hoque has made his own investment of Rs 1,00,000 towards the school.
As of now, the school only caters to educating students at the elementary level. However, Hoque hopes to establish a secondary and higher secondary school so that he can stall the worrisome drop-out rates of the Bengali Muslim children in Assam and prevent the migration of the kids to other states for menial work.
The lead image on top depicts a teacher of the Educare Academy school teaching children of the displaced Bengali Muslim community. (Photo courtesy Educare Academy)
Aatreyee Dhar is an independent journalist from Assam.
