A common perception is that Muslim lacks leaders at the grass root level. Where are leaders like Medha Patkars, Sundarlal Bahugunas, Irom Sharmilas from the Indian Muslim community?

In a four part series Charu Bahri looks closely at one such leader Altaf Shaikh who is making a difference for many Indians.

Part I

The Indian Muslim community is familiar with film stars, leading corporate honchos – think Azim Premji of Wipro – and sports luminaries it has produced but is sadly still unaware of its Altaf Shaikhs who are doing a yeoman’s service for the community.

So who is Altaf Shaikh? When we at IndianMuslims.info decided to seek out and focus on lesser known Indian Muslims working with the community, we decided that Altaf Shaikh, a founder member and trustee of Saathi, an NGO – officially registered as a society and public trust – working with street adolescents in Mumbai represented the kind of person we had in mind.

Saathi was established in 1997 by a group of like-minded people, its founder members are Altaf Shaikh, Mansoor Qadri, Neeta Kolhatkar, Rashmi Varma, Nayyar Shaikh, Roabin Mazumdar and Roshni Nair, who collectively run the organization together with new members.

Now in its tenth year, at the core of Saathi’s mission statement is its recognition that what street adolescents most need is role models, guidance and facilitation. This practical realization has followed through from its team members’ actual involvement with children living on the streets – walking the streets with youth living on the streets to exactly determine their priorities and needs and design programs around them.

The Saathi philosophy thus centers on the fact that each person must take responsibility for himself or herself and is capable of making their own decisions. In fact, Saathi represents just that – Saathi, a friend or companion – who walks the journey with the individual, not for the person.

A worthy ideal indeed, but Altaf Shaikh simply says, “I feel we at Saathi are all ordinary beings who have the opportunity to do something which seems extraordinary, where circumstance or conditions allow us to foster our desire to get involved and actively bring about change.�

We wondered what factors foster a desire to bring about change, for wouldn’t the world would be a much better place if so many more shared the vision of those at the helm of affairs at Saathi?

Start young

Evidently, starting young helps! Altaf got involved in social work after his 10+2 standard exams. He had free time, and accepted his mothers’ suggestion to take a six-month evening class organized by the Social Service League where she was coordinator.
Interestingly, he says, “I did the classes with no great enthusiasm. I was studying printing technology and intended doing an advanced course in Germany.�

Altaf readily went along with the proposal and contacted a woman he’d met earlier – a founder of the organization YUVA. Alpa introduced Altaf to YUVA, where he committed to work 7 days a week for 2 months. He was placed in a team to undergo field-training, during the course of which he started conducting non-formal education classes for children of pavement dwellers or living in hutments alongside roads. Altaf’s realization, so to speak, gained momentum when he was approached by other children who asked to join in, but clarified that they did not have any parents or family. They were children living on the street.

In Altaf’s words, “It was the first time I realized that there were children living alone with no support systems other than the circle of friends they created amongst other children living on the streets. It immediately became an area of interest and I approached YUVA about working specifically with these children. YUVA was not set up for this, but gave me the freedom to start a program for children living on the streets, lending whatever guidance they could, but otherwise it was just me and the kids.�

Brave?

Perhaps, but the fact that his small circle of 3-4 children quickly grew to 20, then to 3 groups of 20, was a great motivating factor. Moreover, Altaf’s own experiences spurred him forward. In particular, one boy who’s story mirrored an episode of his own life, but let’s hear it from him:

“One boy affected me deeply and sealed my resolve to continue with what I was doing. When I was in 7th standard, I was staying in Mumbai with a far off relative, with my family in Hyderabad. I had many problems with my guardian and after an especially tense evening, packed my bags and left. I went to Girgaon Chowpatty where I slept on the beach. The next day I wandered around and again spent the night outside. Finally, I went to an uncle from my community and requested that he let me stay with him. His home was not much – four walls and no furnishings – but he welcomed me into his home. When I was working with the children living on the streets, years later, a boy joined our sidewalk classes and his story mirrored my own. He was from a family of a sub-inspector from another city. He also did not get along with the guardian with whom he was staying while attending school, so he ran away from the house. He was not as lucky to have someone to turn to and instead landed on the streets. It had a major affect on me to realize how close I had been to being a child living on the streets myself had it not been for that uncle.�

Child sleeping at Marine Drive,Mumbai

Go with the flow

Altaf’s experience shows how much can happen even if, as he says, social work is not on your agenda. As he says, “I didn’t know what I was getting into. However, one thing led to another. My early experiences on the streets led me to believe that here was a world far remote even from a third world. It was run by different rules to live, love and hate. I consider myself very fortunate to have a very encouraging mother who allowed me to experience this world without forcing me to get on with my life, so to speak or move on with a traditional career. Thus without the typical parental expectations that usually steer children into conventional career oriented study and employment, I was free to spend the four years from 1986 to 1990 working with children living on the streets.�

Certain experiences stand out, for the way they affected him. Altaf recounts one such episode. “One day,� he said, “when I reached these children at around noon, I asked one boy why he was still sleeping. Perhaps I scoffed at his laziness, saying, ‘Yeh sone ka time hai kya?’ He slapped me and spat on my face, saying ‘Tum kya jaante ho, hamare saath me raat ko kya hota hai?’ This experience was enlightening but it culminated in my desiring to know more, to see things for myself.

I then realized that the time I spent with these children was a reflection of my need to be a part of their lives. In fact, however hard I tried, by wearing the same clothes for days, no foot wear etc, I could never really look like them.

I therefore determined to get more involved, hence adopted a new strategy. I would leave home for 3 to 4 days a week and live, eat and sleep with children living on the streets to understand exactly how their lives were.

Once, the police took me in, thinking they would teach me a lesson, and thus push me off the streets, but this only helped to understand how the boys felt when locked up on falsely framed charges.�

Thus, Altaf’s involvement with children living on the streets slowly grew. It was not planned.

Stay tuned, for Part II tracks Altaf’s journey and the birth of Saathi

photos:
Child on the road by Ruchi Mehta
Street children by Moinak Basu
Child sleeping at Marine Drive by Anindo Ghosh