Promoting Muslim entrepreneurship

By Shahid Sayed,

‘Threshold India 2009’ is brain child of Shahid Sayed to promote entrepreneurship amongst the Muslim youth, to bring them closer to the mainstream and make them committed global citizens that value life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as a goal worth achieving by their own efforts.


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I am a product of the “Chor Bazaar Municipal Urdu School”. Due to circumstances that are not at all uncommon, I had a childhood and youth wherein every step of my education was both a struggle and then a marvel to have achieved. When I see around me, in the current younger generation, despair, helplessness and a frustration at being left behind, I am bothered. More so because deep in my heart I do believe that today’s youth is far more resourceful and enterprising than my generation ever could be. All through my MBA in the US last year, I have been mulling over this: how can we bridge this gap.

On January 5th 2009, I walked into the Maharashtra College, seeking some of the students’ leaders of the college. As it turned out, there were no student leaders around and I was directed to the Vice Principal’s office. Vice Principal Mr. Waheed, the Principal Dr Shakeel and Professor M.Z. Shahid were most encouraging and within minutes, a meeting of students of Maharashtra College was arranged for January 7th.




Shahid Sayed addressing the students on January 7th, 2009

Challenges

Before I began my session with students I asked them about the challenges they are facing today. The girls were very forthcoming with information and listed these issues: Discrimination; Lack of opportunities; Communalism; Poverty; Pollution; Population; Corruption; Lack of civic sense; Reservation; Violence; Second class citizen status; Terrorism; Lack of infrastructure ; Unemployment; Illiteracy; Inequality between men and women; Caste Barriers .

If someone had asked us this question during my college days I am pretty sure we would have spelt out the same issues. In other words, two decades have passed but the issues have not changed.




Students from SNDT and Maharshtra college assembled for a group picture after the event.

This pretty much summarizes how the Muslim youth believes it has benefited from the economic liberalization policies that have been promoted by various governments in the last decade. And we see that Muslims believe that Muslims are still considered the fringe elements of society.

How can India be a successful nation if 15 percent of its population fails to participate in the monumental opportunities offered by the new world order?

And thus was initiated the dialogue on entrepreneurship at the Maharashtra College. A sweet young relative from SNDT Women’s University brought her entire class to the forum and it became an SNDT v/s Maharashtra College competition. I would have been happy with a group of 30/40 students as audience. Instead, we ended up with twice that size of enthusiastic participants.




Nazreen Shaikh (Group Leader – Maharshtra College) with her team members.

Making money

My young guests were in for a surprise when they were divided into 8 groups and offered Rs. 1000 each. With the help of a few tips and insights, they had the freedom to do whatever they chose to do with the money. All I wanted in return was for them to engage in some creative brainstorming to generate ideas, utilize their talents in making the money grow. It was impressed on them that it was not important if they made 50 paisa or 200 rupees, or even if they lost their allotted amount, as long as they made a sincere and honest effort in going through the process.

After the initial blank stares and plenty of giggles from behind the hijaab, expressing absolute surprise, their enthusiasm and energy took over the classroom and spread like magic. Some of them had doubts – could this offer be real, others accepted it immediately as a challenge, eager to prove themselves. It was a great sight to see a gamut of emotions run through the faces.




Masood Alam Siddiqui (Group Leader – Unique Group of Maharashtra college) making a pitch to the judges ( sitting L to R are Shahid Sayed, Prof M.Z. Shahid, Pia-Mollback-Verbic, Piyu Mukhrji and Rashmi Bansal)

They hesitantly and then more confidently expressed their dreams and aspirations, their fears and apprehensions. The raw plans, their own fearless predictions of all that they could do, to me, was a sign that these were indeed the stars of the future of our nation, as we move ahead in life with 8% GDP growth all around us.

A week later, all eight groups showed up with the stories of their struggles and activities undertaken to ‘earn and grow’ the money. Attentively listening this time around were three entrepreneurs of repute, Piyul Mukherjee, Pia Molback-Verbic and Rashmi Bansal. Who later guided the youngsters with various tips and insights… the importance of studying the end customer and her needs; the value of value added services as versus a mere ‘trading’; of ethics and of a social conscience.

The stars of this new venture were indeed the students; their recounting of their efforts and their stories of sailing in un-chartered waters, their successes and a few failures held the audience spellbound.




Pia-Mollback-Verbic asking a question to a group.

As expected the students had felt overwhelmed initially by the task of using RS 1000 to make maximum money in just one week. However, each group mentioned how their initial fears were tackled, as the creative ideas started flowing. From selling handbags, ear rings, attar to holding food festivals, making PAN cards for a lower fee to applying mehndi to foreign visitors at the Gateway of India.

Although two winning teams were chosen, the theme of the day was truly that everyone was a winner. Not a single team had come back with a loss. Even those initiatives that had failed to beget any profit had been quickly replaced by other activities that brought in some extra money. More importantly, they all succeeded – not just in making money. But in learning about themselves, about team work, their sense of self-worth, their so far un-capitalized talents, and about turning unrealized needs into awesome business opportunities.

Enthusiasm

The enthusiasm can be seen in the comments received from the students later: –

– “We never believed we could do something like this. Thanks a lot for the opportunity” – Ansari Nazreen, Maharshtra College

– “We are feeling more confident than ever in our life. We believe we can start any business, even with Rs. 500. That smell and taste of profit which is earned with our own effort is mind boggling and addictive. We will continue to do better. ” – Rukhsar Khan, SNDT




Rumana Kazi (Group Leader – Royal Challengers of Maharashtra College) with her team members. Rumana Kazi’s Maharashtra group made a profit of only RS 356, but had a sustainable idea of making PAN cards for RS 150 each.

– “This has taught us diplomacy and forced us to prioritize our efforts. We even spoke with people we have been avoiding so far. We left no stone unturned to reach our goal” – Sameen Mushtaq, SNDT

– “Our group became a better team. We are more in union than before and enjoying our new bonding. We can take any new challenge” – Monica Sharma, SNDT

– “Thanks for the great effort. We need more people like you in our community” – Alam Siddqui, Maharashtra College

– Thank you sir for this opportunity. My mom is so proud of me and everyone in the family is supporting our efforts. Its been a great experience” – Farhat Ansari, Maharastra College

As youngsters in colleges break the “psychological boundaries” that comes with living in a particular neighborhood or belonging to a certain strata of the society, we believe this young generation of India will break free from the past.




Rukhsar Khan (Group Leader, Challengers of SNDT), Sameen Mushtaq and Jyoti applied Mehndi to foreigners at Gateway, for RS 50 a hand.

Rukhsar Khan’s SNDT group made a profit of Rs1850 and were judged winners for a we ll coordinated effort.

No other option

There is just no other option available.

Not anymore!

Studies have proved that there is a direct link between poverty, education and social ills in any society. In case of our Muslim community, violence and terrorism is another dimension that is now added in the long list of woes faced already. Often caught in a vicious cycle, the lack of proper education and subsequently, lack of opportunities deprives Muslim youth of many jobs they could have capitalized upon. Instead, despair and distrust becomes part of daily life.

For a religion wherein the first convert was a businesswoman and the third caliph was the wealthiest man in Arabia, the followers of Islam in the recent past have been turning away from financial pursuits and prosperity choosing instead a life of “self imposed poverty” and a sense of false contentment.

This continued disillusionment with anything financial has brought in followers that desire everything but a life of luxury and comfort. Granted that money cannot buy everything; its presence does offer a sense of security among humans and acts as a safeguard against losing rationality.

I believe if we want to make this world a safer, equitable and prosperous place, we must allow and promote each individual of the world irrespective of the religion and faith believed in, to have an equal stake in the growth and prosperity that has been going around for a few hundred years. Yet, to all purposes, it appears to have bypassed Muslims, 24% population of the world.

If you are like me, and believe that every step counts in this journey, do join me in this experiment.

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Shahid Sayed can be contacted at [email protected].

Link:

Threshold India 2009 on Orkut: http://www.orkut.com/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=58645806

UTI on Threshold India 2009:


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