Accomplishment

I read about the InfoChange India media fellowship some weeks ago and suggested to our teacher, Amina, to apply.

Amina has been working since 2006 as free-lance reporter and photographer for the Urdu daily Akhbar-e-Mashriq published from Calcutta. She had filed over 200 news reports, about 25 news photographs and about 10 special articles. She had written on missing children in Howrah slums, illegal construction, communal and electoral violence. Amina is perhaps the first Urdu newspaper woman crime reporter in the Calcutta region.

It was decided that she would propose a series of five articles, in Urdu, with the title Yahaan se sheher ko dekho (See the City from Here). That is the title of a poem by Faiz about the cruelty and injustice of the city. The articles would be accompanied with photos. The five articles would be on: 1) shelter & housing; 2) health; 3) education; 4) crime; and 5) culture and community (how people try to be human despite all the difficulties).

Despite the preoccupations of Ramzaan and Id, the application was sent off on time. Meanwhile, Amina has become something of a heroine recently, with her series of hard-hitting articles about slum conditions, administrative failure and crime in Howrah. These were written in the context of the forthcoming corporation elections in Howrah. She was threatened repeatedly by the local political goons.

On 31 October, we learnt that Amina had been selected for the fellowship.

A tremendous accomplishment, and tremendous honour indeed, for Amina, for Talimi Haq School and Howrah Pilot Project. She has come a long way in the ten years since she began working with us.