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Summary record of Misaal meeting on minority rights held in Lucknow on 29th
July 2015
1.
A group of individuals and organisations (list annexed) all working with
poorer Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, met in Lucknow on 29th July 2015, at the offices of
Action Aid India, to discuss the possibility of forming a UP state level platform for
minority rights. The meeting was organized in the context of Misaal’s ongoing work
to support the development of a rights-based, development-orientated, progressive
civil society among Muslims, with a focus on improving the condition of the most
excluded Muslim communities, through building community capacity at grassroots
as well as local district and state levels.
2.
After a round of deliberations that included presentations of the preliminary
findings of a Misaal-conducted rapid assessment of socio-economic condition of
Muslims in UP, and discussions on Misaal Fellowship program, its objectives as well
as current state of play, the group decided to form a state-level platform of
organisations working with poorer Muslims/on issues pertaining to poorer Muslims,
with the following objectives:
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to synergise efforts of like-minded organisations working to ameliorate socioeconomic condition of poorer Muslims, so as to maximize impact.
share experiences, lessons and challenges, in the course of delivering for
poorer Muslims, thereby developing a common understanding of
developmental issues (how Muslims re excluded from laws and programmes,
for instance) and how issues of security, identity and development intersect
for Muslims as a whole, and Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, particularly.
Carry out (resources permitting) collaborative research and analysis on the
above issues, to develop evidence of how exclusion among Muslims takes
place, what works for undoing that; and what doesn’t. To this end, reach out
to academic and policy based research centres (Aligarh Muslim University;
Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow; Moinuddin Chishti UrduFarsi University, Lucknow, CBGA, New Delhi, among others), for possible
partnerships.
Based on all above, develop policy and implementation positions and
products for advocacy with state and civil society stakeholders, for greater
impact on conditions of poor Muslims in Uttar Pradesh.
Reach out to other civil society alliances/platforms, specific to excluded
groups (dalit, women etc.) or anti-poverty sectors (Right to Food, Right to
Education, livelihoods, secular/plural et al) to participate in those, and gain
from those alliances, also providing a progressive Muslim voice to
deliberations of those networks.
Encourage development of similar pro-poor platforms for poorer Muslims at
district and local levels, by identifying local resources
Support Misaal fellows (and other individual efforts for poorer Muslims on
the ground) with mentoring and handholding support, providing guidance, to
enable these efforts to have maximum impact.
Engage with youth groups within Muslim communities and wider society,
through universities and other student and youth platforms, around
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pluralistic values and secular traditions, to sensitise youth towards co-living
and harmony, and citizenship and minority rights.
3.
It was agreed that the platform would be voluntary in nature, would work on
the principles of consensus and collective ownership within the group, and would
seek to strengthen pro-poor, secular, pluralistic and gender-rights voices within
Muslim civil society and groups. The group would eschew political activities.
4.
The group decided to meet at least once a month, and whenever necessary, so
as to keep up the conversation, and institutionalize the interaction. It was agreed
that through these interactions, a set of modalities should be developed for the
platform’s working and its interactions with Misaal NRC, as well as local and regional
resources supporting Misaal fellows in districts.
5.
As the platform’s first intervention, participants decided to work on advocacy
for better working of minority programmes for Muslims in UP. This, it was agreed,
would entail collating up-to-date data on working of Central and state minority
schemes and institutions in UP; developing a set of ‘demands’ from State
Government for improving their working; draw up a set of advocacy steps to realize
those; and collectively take action on each step. For this purpose, Mr Salim Baig, RTI
activists offered to provide his database of information provided by state
government entities in response to his RTI applications on minority programmes
over the past years. A meet to plan the ‘what’ and ‘hows‘ of this wider work is proposed
for 12th August ’15 in Lucknow (date and venue to be confirmed). All are welcome.
6.
Participants decided to meet next, on 2nd September 2015 (programme and
venue to be confirmed) to further discuss the modalities of carrying out the
platform’s objectives, including devising specific steps and forming a core group to
lead action.
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List of participants at Misaal meeting on minority rights in Lucknow
(29th July 2015)
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Tariq Khan, Foundation for Education and Economic Development,
Lucknow
Athar Hussain, Centre for Objective Research & Development, Lucknow
Saleem Baig, MVSS, Moradabad
Amir Jalal, Youth Group, Tanda
Afaqullah, Awadh People’s Forum, Faizabad
Akram A Chowdhury, Afkar India Foundation, Kandhla, Shamli
Shadab Siddiqui, Being Women, Mumbai
Rajan Singh, Action Aid India, Lucknow
Aqueel Ahmad, Action Aid India, Lucknow
Ajay Sharma, People’s Advocacy Forum, UP
Jawed Khan, Centre for Budget & Governance Accountability, New Delhi
Ovais Sultan Khan, Misaal
Shah Alam, Misaal Media fellow
Reena Cherian, Misaal
Farhat Salim, Misaal
Salim Ansari, Misaal fellow, Shamli
Mohd. Aijaz, Misaal fellow, Bareilly
Sajjad Hassan, Misaal & Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi