Helping underprivileged girls live their dreams

Women from Jyothipalya help Sabiha Hashmi to clean her first crop at Ajji's Farm. 

Pallavi, a girl from Jyothipalya, working on an art file made of discarded cardboard cartons and fabric under the guidance of Sabiha Hashmi.

Pallavi, a girl from Jyothipalya making some upcycled products under the guidance of Sabiha Hashmi.

Sitting in Ajji’s cottage in Jyothipalya, a tiny, sleepy village in Ramanagara district, Pallavi is busy preparing a beautiful art file from discarded cartons. Having learnt the art from Ajji, Pallavi has used this to fund her education upto graduation and is now supplementing the family income.

A few years back, Sushma Rao, then a PUC student, wanted to complete her degree and be a bank manager. However, financial constraints held her back. But after she learnt to upcycle fabrics and cardboards to prepare some utilitarian products from Ajji, she could complete her BCom and even learn to stitch. Today, Sushma works as an accountant and owns an embroidery shop in Bengaluru.

Like Pallavi and Sushma, a number of students from Jyothipalya, especially girls, owe the credit of turning their dreams into reality to Sabiha Hashmi, their beloved ‘Ajji’.

Sabiha, an art teacher from Delhi who is settled in Jyothipalya, is a silent changemaker. At 72, she never rests her feet. She is constantly working to empower women in and around her village, just like the way she cares for her grandchildren.

Initially, realising the helplessness of the women in the village, she collected some donations from acquaintances and paid the school fees of some girls.

But she did not want these girls to depend on others and so she began teaching them how to make upcycled products like pencil holders, jewellery boxes, organisers and other items using discarded fabrics and cardboards. She then sold these at exhibitions in schools in Bengaluru and the money she earned went into a ‘piggy bank’, which was opened when the school fees had to be paid. Slowly, more girls as well as their mothers turned up to work with her.

With the help of her ‘women force’, Sabiha even worked to stop families from marrying off their daughters at an early age. “Girls getting married after or even before their Class 10 is common here. Most of the officials/police knew about it but kept mum. So, the only way was to make parents aware of the disadvantages of early marriage and allow their daughters to continue their education,” says Sabiha.

Along with her students and volunteers from the schools she worked with, Sabiha encouraged the girls to learn skills like stitching, computer operation and others so that they could earn a living.

Staying in her modest cottage, Sabiha has also developed an organic farm on a two-acre parcel of land that was almost unfit for farming. Having purchased the land using the gratuity amount she received after her voluntary retirement, she keeps experimenting with various medicinal herbs at the farm that came to be known as Ajji’s farm.

To address the problem of malnourishment, Sabiha with the help of donations provided milk to the children of the village. She also brought stationery and subject and storybooks for them.

“Ajji came as a ray of hope in our lives. Though an anganwadi worker, I found it difficult to make ends meet as a single mother. Without expecting anything in return, Ajji helped both my daughters earn degrees and made them independent,” says an emotional Pramila.

Her journey

Humble enough not to brand herself as an activist or a social worker, Sabiha’s journey from Delhi (Gurugram) to Jyotihpalya is inspiring. Born to progressive parents, Sabiha spent her early childhood in Aligarh but moved to Delhi where she and her sister got educated without “constraints” of a burqa or a salwar kameez. At Delhi, she completed her degree in fine arts and began working as an art teacher in a school where she mobilised funds through art for various causes.

A trekking enthusiast, she set up an adventure club in the school and during vacations, took students on a trek to several places. “As a child, I used to observe several women toil at home as well as earn their living while men spent time flying kites. During treks as a student and enthusiast too, I came across several women and found a similar situation,” recalls Sabiha, adding that such instances made her realise how helpless and overburdened the women in our country were.

After opting for voluntary retirement, she moved to Bengaluru in 2007 with one of her two sons. There she regularly dropped her grandchild at Poorna Learning Centre. Inspired by the unique alternative learning approach of the school, she joined Poorna as an art teacher. “I wanted to move away from the city's hustle-bustle and so, looked out for land near Bengaluru and ended up in Jyothipalya,” she says.

At Jyothipalya, moved by the plight of the women, she decided to help them. Though initially, the villagers refused to accept her advice, they later trusted her as their ‘Ajji’ when happiness began spreading in their houses.

Library

Sabiha, now, plans to open a library for the children of Jyothipalya and nearby villages, and a learning centre for youths on a portion of her farmland.

Expanding her farm, she has been looking forward to setting up a garden of medicinal plants. She also wants to sell some organically grown saplings so that she can support the education of the girls whose earnings have come down following Covid.

“Every woman I have met here has a story of struggle and resilience. They are bound by social norms, and just some encouragement will allow them to fly with freedom. This is what I have been doing here,” says Sabiha, hoping for a better future for these girls.

Sabiha can be contacted on 99006 90411 or [e-mail].