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A crusader for communal harmony
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``Legal rights, human rights and communal harmony are interlinked. When humanism is dying nothing else can work in this world.'' Batcha now has all his organisations focussing on `communal harmony'.
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``Entry banned for rabid religious bigots, odious casteists and anti-humans,'' says the board that hangs at the entrance to his office.
This, in essence, reflects the focus of his mission. The 42-year-old Akbar Mahaboob Batcha is a crusader of human rights and communal harmony. The saga of Mahaboob Batcha's commitment to spreading legal literacy and fostering communal harmony stretches to a span of over 19 years. He talks to S. Annamalai about the persons who inspired him and his mission in life.
BATCHA ALWAYS loved to read books from a variety of genres of Tamil literature. After finishing school, he worked as a `sub-editor' in `Chibhi', a monthly magazine for students, from 1978 to 1980. His interaction with the student community during this period equipped him with more knowledge about various ideologies, including the Leftist ideology. As student of the MSS Wakf Board College, he went around slums to write about the travails of the marginalised people. The student group also organised coaching classes for the slum children. The slum-specific problems prompted Batcha to mobilise the youth against exploitation. He started a Tamil monthly, `Iyakkam' in 1978 and later, in 1981, `Nijangal', another Tamil monthly. Both of them could not be continued beyond a period. While writing news stories for `Nijangal', he wrote a letter to the Supreme Court highlighting the plight of five prisoners kept in solitary confinement at the Madurai central prison. And Justice P. N. Bhagwati, then Judge, took it up as a writ petition.
In 1982, Batcha took part in a rally of rickshaw pullers in the city against "police harassment'' in the interest of getting a good story for his magazine. The police used force at the culmination of the rally and Batcha found himself among 18 persons arrested and remanded. His sojourn at the prison developed a desire to provide legal assistance for the ignorant. In October 1982, he started the Society for Community Organisation (SOCO) Trust. At that time "I thought it would be easy to provide legal assistance to all the needy. Now I realise it is a myth.'' From providing legal assistance, the SOCO Trust turned towards creating `legal literacy' among the masses. Batcha, with a degree in Law, has been organising legal training programmes for different sections of people all over the State.
From legal literacy programmes, his attention shifted to human rights education when he took up the case of bonded Paliyar tribals of Shenbagathope near Srivilliputtur in Virudhunagar district during 1983. The Supreme Court appointed him as a member of the three-member committee to release the Paliyar tribals from bondage in 1985 and also in the commission to study `police atrocities' in Vallam village the same year. Batcha came into limelight when the apex court appointed him as a one-man commission to release bonded workers in Kodaikanal coupe in 1986. He also served as a commissioner to study the problems of beedi workers of Tirunelveli district in 1990. His work in the area of spreading awareness about human rights could be gauged from the fact that there will be at least one SOCO-trained motivator working in any village in the State, he points out.
The organisation has also released scores of children and adults from bondage. ``Legal rights, human rights and communal harmony are interlinked. When humanism is dying nothing else can work in this world.'' Batcha now has all his organisations focussing on `communal harmony'.
The Forum for Promotion of Communal Harmony, Justice Bhagwati Foundation for Harmony and Education and Students for Secularism -- all these organisations work for harmony and peace in society. Batcha looks at Justice Bhagwati and Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer as legends who inspired him. He has been instrumental in bringing out the official biography of Justice Krishna Iyer, titled, `A Living Legend'. He is currently working on its Tamil version. . "We should first learn to live as human beings.'' He has plans to extend the peace programmes to Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, crossing language barriers, through tie-ups with activists like Swami Agnivesh.
Batcha has also spearheaded many campaigns to foster Indo-Pak friendship. Recognition for his work has come in the form of a `National Citizen Award' presented by the President, K. R. Narayanan, in 1998, the Diwaliben Mehta Award in 2000 and the Bangaru Adigal Social Service Award in 2001.
He has created the Justice Bhagwati Fund with the Rs. three lakhs received for the Mehta Award to provide education for the children of parents killed in caste and communal clashes. Batcha says he still has a long way to go.
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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