Farhan Israeli/Jaipur

About 90 years ago, a group of people in Jodhpur, Rajasthan conceived an idea of empowering the future generation. They coalesced their ideas under the banner of what is today known as the  Marwar Muslim Educational and Welfare Society. It works towards the mission and runs a chain of one of the most progressive minority institutions in the country.

Mohammad Atiq, Vice President and CEO of Marwar Muslim Educational and Welfare Society, who lives a simple life, is responsible for managing various schools, colleges, hospitals, and universities under the aegis of the society. “We are working day and night,” he says.

His position and responsibility are huge and yet he uses an old chair to sit in in his office. Parents who want to admit their children to his schools and colleges or those already studying there are permitted to walk in to meet him in the office. It’s for such reasons that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot always mentions Mohammad Atiq’s name during his public speeches.

Mohammad Atiq says the purpose of his society is to do the work of education for the social progress of Muslims. This society is run in association with the State Waqf Board. He says, “Often the property of the Muslim community gets misused and misappropriated in the hands of those who run the society.

the  Marwar Muslim Educational and Welfare Society owns properties worth Rs 1000 crores and the Waqf Board is their caretaker. This ensures that the assets of society never fall into the wrong hands or the government. All these properties are registered with the Rajasthan Waqf Board.

More than 1700 students pass out from the society every year. Till now thousands of students are part of the work force of India. The society runs courses like B.Ed, Nursing, Paramedical, Pharmacy and Industrial training.

The established educational institutions of society provide education from nursery class to university, in which students are educated and trained with love and moral and social values ​​among people of all religions.

Maharaja Umed Singh, the founder of modern Jodhpur, established this committee in 1929 to promote education among Muslims. He started this society on the day he laid the foundation stone of his Palace. On that day, in Jalsa-e-Aam Maharaja Umed Singh ordered to start of a school for the Muslim community.

 His famous phrase was “Hindu and Muslim are my two eyes”. The construction work of the said school building started on 6 February 1934, which was named Darbar Muslim School. After the partition of the country in 1947, the then government took it under its control.

Its name was changed to Mahatma Gandhi School. The Muslims of Jodhpur kept trying to get it back. In 1974, the government allotted 5 acres of land at Paul Link Road, Kamla Nehru Nagar, Jodhpur to the Muslims for the construction of a building for educational advancement, but the actual possession was taken in 1978. The construction of the new school started on 1 January 1981. Due to a lack of funds, the construction of 20 rooms remained incomplete.

In October 1987, the then committee handed over this incomplete building to the committee comprising Noor Mohammad, Shabbir Bhaijaan, Dr. Ghulam Rabbani, Fazlur Rehman, and Mohammad Atiq. This group was led by Haji Mohammad, Haji Imdad Ali, Mufti Ashfaq Sahab, Haji Abdullah.

The members and officials of this committee immediately collected about Rs 20 lakh from the people of that city and completed the construction of five blocks by vacating the incomplete school building and some part of Waqf Takiya Chand Shah.

On 11 September 1988 The then Chief Minister Shiv Charan Mathur and the then Lok Sabha member and Congress President Ashok Gehlot started the secondary school in this new building.

On Ashok Gehlot's suggestion, this school was named Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Muslim Secondary School. Also, a separate building was built to promote modern education among Muslim girls. It was named Feroze Khan Memorial Girls School. Which was inaugurated On 18 October 1995, the then Chief Minister Bhairo Singh Shekhawat did it.

This society is running more than 30 educational and welfare institutions. Today, apart from Muslim schools, more than 13,000 students of other communities from nursery to PhD are getting an education here, out of which the number of girl students is more than 5,000. 700 teachers. Other employees are working in.

The society has three different senior secondary level schools, one middle school, three madrasas up to class five, one ITI, and two B.Ed for boys and girls. College, a D.El.Ed training school, nursing college, paramedical college, and pharmacy institute. Till now thousands of students graduated from here are working in government and non-government enterprises.

In 2013 the foundation stone of the Maulana Azad University was laid in Bujhawan, Luni, Jodhpur. Today about 3,000 students study Arts, Science, Commerce, Engineering, Computer Science, Education, Pharmacy, Yoga, and Public Health at the university.

The society is working to get approval for Ayurveda and Unani Medical College, Nursing College, and Law Faculty. Already a hospital with a capacity of 100 beds is under construction.  The Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad, is also planning to establish a campus here.

Efforts also afoot to get the study centers of Indira Gandhi National Open University, NIOS, New Delhi and the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language.