Girls and boys from underprivileged Muslim families, who have studied in Urdu or Bengali medium schools, may soon be saying ‘hello’ to the world at call centres. An innovative experiment to pull up the underprivileged Muslim students, especially girls, to the elite class of the society has just started.

The State Haj Committee (an autonomous body under the state minorities department), Educational Support Council (ESC) and Students Education Trust (city-based organisations) have jointly launched a training programme for students, mostly from deprived sections of the Muslim community, which will enable them to secure jobs in call centres.

Counselling for admission to the training session started on February 17, last week. “It is a 16-week programme that will be offered free of cost to graduates and undergraduate students. We have received an overwhelming response. Around 3,500 students have applied and we are in the process of selecting candidates. The training programme will begin on March 9 and will be held on Sundays, in three-hour sessions. The Haj committee has offered the premises of Haj House for free for conducting the course,” said Jawaid Akhtar of ESC.

In fact, the applicants outnumber the seats for the course. However, the organisers are trying to meet the challenge. “Earlier, we had thought of training around 300 candidates. With so many applications, we will now make arrangements for around 800 students,” Akhtar said.

While the state Government’s support so far has been limited to lending out Haj House for free, the minorities department has not ruled out financial support for such projects.

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