A 21-year-old Muslim boy in Bhawanipatna who is hearing-impaired and born to a poor family of 15 siblings, could be brought to the mainstream of life.
Arif is the second child of his parents Ibrahim Ali (55) and Mahjabi Khatun (42). Ibrahim is a garment seller, locally known as pheriwalla. Ibrahim and Mahjabi’s total 15 children are within 5 to 22 years of age and all are living in their below the poverty line (BPL) rented make shift household in Nabapada, near Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium adjacent to LIC office in Bhawanipatna at a monthy house rent of Rs 2,000 which is quite difficult to accommodate a dozen of family members.
Arif now works in Bhubaneswar, after undergoing skill development training.
Poverty, social rejection, ineffective public policy implementation and role of State in uplliftment are at crossroads in case of this family, who originally is from Bihar but settled in Bhawanipatna years ago.
Arif’s childhood was spent amidst acute poverty and neglect. Living in a small makeshift house without education was a nightmare for him. The family was not sound enough for treatment for Arif even. He took admission in a Government school but his special character (deaf) impaired his life miserably till he was discovered by his mentor and social worker Suraj and Smita Tripathy, chairperson of Gurukul Foundation.
Arif’s family was convinced by the two activists and also explained to Arif’s local teacher and district administration officials about free boarding, lodging and skill development training scopes in Bhubaneswar. Arif was later admitted to sewing machine operator trade of skill training being funded through SIPDA programme of DEPwD under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in Government of India.
Arif completed 270 hours of training in SMO trade and scored more than 90 percent marks in the assessment, said SCPwD director (operations) Debasish Panda, who coordinated it.
After completion of training, Arif joined in the Gram Tarang Employability Training Centre (GTETS) apparel designing and production center as a trainee to prepare all types of costumes and dresses for students with a token salary of Rs 7,000 per month, said Partha Sarathi Mohanty, production incharge and GM, GTETS.
While working in GTETS which is located inside the premises of Centurion University, Bhubaneswar, Arif became aware of higher studies and saved some money to join in secondary school courses of Government of India’s National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) which has a study centre in Centurion University, said Prof SupriyaPatnaik, Vice Chancellor, Centurion University.
Arif joined there and he came across another long term skill development training programme of one year being funded by HPCL.
Now Arif has been selected as the group leader with higher perks and responsibility which added to his self confidence, said Suraj, his mentor.
Arif also learned various games, yoga, physical exercises, meditation and cleanliness etc along with residential skill training.
"We have been focusing on skill training of special children who are away from a career path or self determination," said Prof Mukti Mishra, president Centurion University who created a niche for such special persons irrespective of any caste, creed, sex or religion in the age group of 15 to 59 years encompassing persons from cyclone ravaged areas to that of highly impoverished forest dominated inaccessible Maoist affected areas in Odisha and eastern India.
"We have no words to express our profound gratitude to almighty who through Arif’s mentor, training centre and job provider enabled Arif with a ray of hope to live a life with dignity. God has given me all these including Arif and 14 other children. Let God show the right path and education. Arif should help people, society, respect parents, family and others," said Mahjabi, Arif’s mother with teary eyes.