Oscar Wilde said, “You can never be overdressed or overeducated,” and that’s what Dr Ayesha Nikhat seems to live by. The education bit, that is. Ayesha worked as a lecturer for over a decade before she joined MT Educare in Mumbai. It was the death of her father that spurred her to help the needy, for he had dedicated his life to educating women and those who could not afford it, a mantle Ayesha took on when the time came.
A representative of MT Educare, Ayesha’s work involves taking care of people who have passed the SSLC exam but haven’t been able to get much further. “We actually see a lot of auto drivers and mechanics who have passed their SSLC exam. That is one criterion for enrolling in our programme. The other is that they should be between 18 and 35 years of age with an annual income of less than Rs 2 lakh.” The scheme, which is called Kaushalya, has been designed for dropouts and unemployed youths. Ayesha has named her programme Hunanawaaz, which means skill development.
“We provide the candidates with spoken English lessons, soft skill training, interview skills and CV design,” says Ayesha. The objective is to make them worthy candidates for a corporate job or to enable them to study once more. The students get lectures from soft skill experts; they are given complete personality development and basic computer skills as well.
Ayesha’s role in this involves canvassing in slum areas, looking for people who have made it through the SSLC and are doing menial jobs. “I go from door to door, talking to potential candidates and their families,” says Ayesha. “We have received approvals for Bengaluru, Mangalore, Mysore and Udupi.” The programme also includes a job mela, which was held in the city in June last year. “There were 1400 candidates in all last year and about 360 from Bengaluru. About 247 were placed last year,” she explains.
“In all my experience, I have realised that language barriers are the biggest deterrent,” she says. “There are many who have not been able to carry on studying because they don’t speak English fluently enough. The English
language is the one thing that can break educational barriers across communities, that is its power.”
Which is why Ayesha’s programmes are so popular. Students clamour for classes soon after the application forms have been submitted. “The approvals take about a month to come because the list has to be verified and checked, but most candidates aren’t willing to wait that long.”
The programme is being sponsored by the Directorate of Minorities, Government of Karnataka. Students get a monthly stipend of Rs 500, which comes to them as a bulk amount of Rs 3000 at the end of the six-month programme, which is completely free.
“There are lots of people who don’t belong to minority communities who are keen to attend. They are even willing to forego the stipend and the certificate, as long as they can brush up on their English,” says Ayesha. Mobilising finances, she says, is the easy part because there are lots of willing donors for education.
Education of women is something that is very dear to her heart, a legacy passed on to her from her father. “My father would always say that if the woman is educated, the family is educated,” she says. She runs the AKAJ Memorial and Charitable Trust as a tribute to her late parents. Ayesha attributes her success to the men in her life, her father and her husband. “My husband never asks me any questions, even though I travel alone and work late into the night, sometimes starting early in the morning. People say that there is a woman behind every successful man,
but I also think there is a man behind every successful woman,” she says.
