Spreading smiles to one and all
Lawyer and social activist Nafeesa Ismail approaches life with a single mantra: “If we need change in the society, we need to be that change.”
As a practising criminal lawyer around a decade ago, Nafeesa witnessed a lot of injustice permeating into, and being allowed by, the judicial system. Especially in cases of rapes and dowry deaths, defence advocates would find ways to delay the proceedings, until the victim’s family would eventually give into an “arrangement” for some money.
Nafeesa, who was recently felicitated with the Karmaveer Puraskaar, wanted to try and address these issues much before they reached the court. And this led her to launch the NGO Marg Foundation in 2007, which actively works for children’s health, women’s empowerment and health in general.
“If you have to address the criminal mentality in people, you need to realise what makes it manifest in a person. Often orphan children develop this lack of empathy and indifference towards their environment because we as a society keep neglecting them,” she says.
To reach out to these children, Nafeesa organises “Spreading Smiles” — an annual event every year where children from around 12 of the city’s orphanages are addressed by the city’s top bureaucrats and corporates so that they are inspired to explore their interests and take them forward.
Her organisation also equips women coming from underprivileged backgrounds with soft skills and vocational training so that they can be financially independent. Nafeesa says, “At the foundation we also counsel women to make them emotionally strong. This is because often, even the best of us, with good jobs and successful careers, get emotionally dependent on our partners or our loved ones, and if things don’t work out, it is just a downward spiral from there.” A mother of three, Nafeesa’s thoughts are greatly inspired by the books she reads. And for someone who has just received an honour for her services, her feet remain firmly planted in the ground. She says, “Awards don’t matter, but reaching out to people, helping them cope with their difficulties, is the real incentive in what I do. And that is what makes me happy.”
— AP