She follows her heart to offer hope, serve a cause
SRINAGAR : Sensitised to the plight of the downtrodden since childhood, Qurat Ul Ain Masoodi, 35, found her calling in social work, particularly for orphans and women.
“I studied at Mallinson Girls School in Srinagar, where we were taught to help the less fortunate, so I used to visit orphanages and the leper’s colony,” says Qurat.
Originally from south Kashmir’s Khrew, her family shifted to Srinagar over two decades ago. Her mother, Dilshada Banday, is a retired government teacher and father Dr Saqlain Masoodi a retired law professor. It was her parents, particularly her mother, who encouraged her to help people in distress.
She was pursuing engineering at the local SSM College in early 2000 when she decided to course correct. “I had taken the eighth semester exam, but I wasn’t comfortable. My heart lay elsewhere,” she says, adding she did not return to college even to collect her degree.
Instead, she went to look after children in orphanages in town. Initially, she would take along small gifts for the inmates but the pain in their eyes moved her to do something substantial.
To the rescue of orphans
During her visits, Qurat found that children of some orphanages were facing abuse and she started highlighting their plight. “I was threatened with dire consequences and warned that being a young woman, this could become dangerous. But I continued raising the concern till the government closed all orphanages where children were being exploited,” she says.
Qurat, later, went on to pursue a master’s degree in social work.
The focus of her work in orphanages has been the mental health of the children. “I started a scholarship programme for orphaned students in January 2018. My organisation, Aash (Hope), offers free education, meals, books and uniforms to 50 needy students,” she says.
Hosting mass marriages
Gradually, Qurat found herself travelling to remote pockets of Kashmir, where people, particularly women, needed a helping hand out of poverty. Aash, which she set up a decade ago, has so far solemnised weddings of 300 couples at mass marriages. “I make all arrangements for the mass marriages after raising funds from friends and acquaintances,” she says, adding that the focus of her foundation was Khansahib in Budgam district as a majority of people there lived below the poverty line.
“I’ve been working for improving the lot of women of underprivileged sections. In the first of its kind mass marriage in Kashmir Valley more than 50 women were married off in October 2018,” she says.
The total number of marriages supported by Aash has crossed 250, she says, adding her aim is to help families that don’t have resources to organise weddings.
“Some parents say they have no option but to sell their land or household items to arrange the wedding. And a majority have small portions of land, so Aash stepped in,” she says.
Though mass marriages are suspended these days due to the Covid pandemic, she recalls arranging khewa and biryani instead of the traditional Wazwan, where a lavish lunch or dinner is served to guests.
“Rather, we gift clothes and household items to the newlyweds,” she adds.
I kept raising the concern till the J&K government shut all orphanages where children were being exploited QURAT UL AIN MASOODI, social worker