In order to help introduce underprivileged Muslim students, especially girls, to the mainstream, the state Haj committee (an autonomous body under the state minorities department), Educational Support Council (ESC) and Students Education Trust (both city-based organisations) have jointly launched a call centre training programme for such students.

Counselling for admission into training programme started on February 17.

“It is a 16-week programme to be offered free of cost to graduate and under-graduate students. We have received overwhelming response. About 3,500 students have applied and we are in the process of selecting candidates,” said Jawaid Akhtar, a representative of ESC.

He added, “The training programme will begin on March 9 and be conducted in 3-hour sessions on Sundays. The Haj committee has offered the Haj House premises for free for the training. Earlier, we had thought of training about 300 candidates. With so many applications, we will now make arrangements for about 800 students.”

While the state government’s commitment, so far, has been limited to lending out Haj House for free, the state minorities department has not ruled out financial support for such projects. “Let us see how it works out. There is a good response and we will assess the situation. We are interested in supporting such projects,” said Abdus Sattar, Chairman of the state Haj Committee and Minister of State for Minorities.

This call centre experiment is expected to set the pace for the state’s other minority organisations as well.