Parcham organizes a seminar on Sachar Committee Report and Way forward in Saharanpur (29th July 2007)

Parcham organizes a seminar on Sachar Committee Report and Way forward in Saharanpur

 The hall was echoing with clatter of women, the young girls made themselves comfortable in one corner of the place and a group of men with their eyed fixed on the podium could easily be located at the other side of the hall. It was on of those rare occasions when one can find a local gathering of academicians, intellectuals, press, students and other men and women in Saharanpur for discussing the social issues relevant to the community. The occasion was that of a local consultation on ‘Implementation of Sachar Committee report’ in the context of Saharanpur, organized by Parcham Women’s Organization on Sunday, 29^th July 2007.

 Dr.Syed Zafar Mehmood, Joint Secretary of Income Tax Department, New Delhi and Ex-Officer on Special Duty for the Sachar Committee report was the chief guest for the event and Father Packium Samuel was the guest of honor. Dr.Zafar highlighted on the fact that it is the high time that the community responsibly takes initiatives of addressing the common problems faced by people. The community today faces a major drawback of lacking the approach to pursue schemes and services available to them. We need to learn to make the best use of the opportunities and work towards creating new opportunities for Saharanpur. He further added that there are many people there who more than 5 acres of land which is not used by them. The best thing to do is to contribute is establishing a school or college at such a place which will facilitate the children from the local area to get educated.

 Later Ms.Samreen Usmani from Sathi All for Partnerships, New Delhi discussed the scope of taking the report further for lobbying on Muslim women’s right in Saharanpur. As stated in the report more than 70% of Muslim women are home based workers it is clearly reflected in the working dynamics of Saharanpur. The women involved in polishing and local weaving work are exploited and are not even able to sustain themselves out of this work. She said that now is the time that these women should asset their resource rights and see themselves as entrepreneur rather than cheap labor force. These women should organize themselves in groups and take assistance form Parcham to initiate income generation programs with community ownerships.

 Other Speakers on the occasion were Father Samuel, Mr.Shahid, Mr.Imraan and DR.Qudsiya Anjum. .