Hero of literacy: Are you an Ilm Dost?

Bookbinder wants every child in Pakistan to learn how to read and write one day, but needs help to realise his dream.

KARACHI:

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And that step is a new kind of elementary Qaaidah.

A man with no resources is going the extra mile to impart literacy. This is the story of Waseemuddin Siddiqui and his dream that one day, every child in Pakistan will know how to read and write.

His brainchild, Ilm Dost Qaaidah, is a 48-page book with an updated curriculum comprising English, Urdu and Mathematics. It is comprehensive and informative even for those without a formal education.

Seventy-nine-year-old Siddiqui works as a bookbinder at Anjuman-i-Tarraqi-i-Urdu. He was taught how to read and write by librarian Syed Sarfaraz Ali Rizvi. After retiring from service as a bookbinder with the income tax department, the man embarked on a mission. “I invested my pension, a total amount of Rs500,000, when I retired in 2003 and started this project.”

Despite his age, Siddiqiui, can be found hanging around Aliya Bookstall next to the Khairabad Tea Shop on the main roundabout of Shaheen Complex.

The plan

The idea is simple: any organisation or individual who wants to be part of this mission has to invest in the publication. It is an investment of Rs200 per copy. One has to place an order of 1,000 copies which will cost Rs500,000. The organisation or person can either pick up the order themselves and distribute the copies, or leave the distribution to Siddiqui.

“Ilm Dost Qaaidah can be purchased in any quantity, less or more, but has to be sponsored in a larger quantity,” he said. “To appreciate the sponsors, their name and address will be published on the book cover or back cover of all the copies.”

These gift packs will be delivered to the given address for getting distributed or can be distributed anywhere in Pakistan on request. Overseas Pakistanis may also purchase and sponsor the Qaaidah gift pack for distribution in desired places.

Siddiqui had written to the then president Rafiq Tarar in 1999 who called him over, and met on November 8 of the same year. “He agreed on buying 500,000 copies of the book,” he said. “Unfortunately when he left the seat, no one looked back.”

He writes to every public office till date because he wants people to help him carry this initiative forward. The former president Asif Ali Zardari, on February 12, 2012, issued a notice to the Sindh government to look into matters of people mentioned in a list; Siddiqui was last on the list at number 32 but he was never paid any heed. He met Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan, who also did not pay attention to his appeal.

“People in power are wolves. Why don’t they cooperate?” he asked, adding that even foreign agencies and aid organisations never help individuals and are just interested in big organisations. “When you go to these places, their first question is who has sent you? My question is why can’t they just acknowledge the letter of a concerned citizen of Pakistan?”

The disgruntled Siddiqui shared that when he went to meet the court magistrate, Muhammad Afzal Khan said to him, “There are plenty of Qaaidahs. Why do we need another one?”

According to Siddiqui, with all the documentation work to get a child into school, including birth certificate and the NIC, a poor man with a hand-to-mouth standard of living cares about one meal a day he can have, and not his child’s education. “Children out of school deserve a chance too,” he said with tears in his eyes. “They make schools with the purpose of making money but not for education.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2014.