LUCKNOW: Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, during diksha for Buddhism at Nagpur on October 15, 1956, had asked the Dalit community members to donate five percent of their earning for the social, religious and economic emancipation of their fellow community members.
Now, the Bharatiya Dalit Zakat Foundation, is collecting just one percent of the earnings from the Dalit community members and has successfully started a school on the outskirts of the state capital. Zakat is a Muslim tradition wherein a small percentage of earnings is donated to the poor.
Started in 2003 with five members - Atul Krishan, B D Sant, Satya Prakash Kuril and C P Arun led by J Ram – the foundation has now 251 members committed to the cause of the Dalit uplift.
Interestingly, politicians’ entry to the foundation is a strict no-no here and their donation is returned with a humble ‘thank you’, even though the Bahujan Samaj Party led by Chief Minister Mayawati is in power championing the cause of the Dalits in the state.
J Ram says few people are aware that Buddha was the first to call upon his followers to donate a part of their earnings to the deprived.
“For thousands of years, the Dalits have been discriminated on grounds of untouchablity under the varna (caste) system. Our aim is to liberate the Dalits and to bring them in the main stream of the social system,” he said.
The money collected is utilised for establishment of educational institutions, construction of houses for the homeless, scholarships to meritorious student coming from poor families, purchase of garments for poor children and establishment of hand pumps in the Dalit-dominated areas.
The first school established by the foundation, Ambedkar Buddha Shiksha Niketan in Chinhat locality on way to the adjoining Barabanki district, has over 100 students coming from the poor section of the society. There is also a plan to open a high school for girls.
Head teacher of the school, Shahin Jahan, starts the class every morning with Buddha Vandana in the chaste Pali language. Though a Muslim, she said, “All religions call for compassion.” “There is hardly any difference between the Muslim and the Dalit zakat. The aim is the same - assist the poor and the deprived,” she said.
Eight-year-old Zuber is in standard III. His father is a barber by profession and can’t afford expenses of a good school. But Zuber is enthusiastic and dreams of becoming a teacher one day.
His friend Sona, 11, wants to be a doctor after she lost her mother to cancer. She doesn’t know what cancer is or anything about tuberculosis, which claimed her father’s life, a sweeper.
