Busy year for Bengalee

During the year April 2008-March 2009 member of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Dr Mehroo D. Bengalee attended 46 meetings, went on several tours, undertook two research studies, tackled many issues and attended to a large number of complaints, as per a progress report on her activities sent by her to Parsiana.

A special meeting was held with then Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on July 7, 2008 to discuss reservation of seats for Parsi students in institutions established by Parsis, the problem of encroachment of Parsi properties and membership of the State Minorities Commission. Minoo Shroff, former chairman of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) and industrialist Nusli Wadia joined Benga­lee at this meeting to impress on the chief minister the urgency of these matters and were assured by Deshmukh that he would help resolve the problems at the earliest.

Delhi was the venue for the other meetings, of which 12 were the formal monthly ones, 32 informal weekly meetings, one held on the occasion of Minorities Rights’ Day on December 12, 2008 and another for all State Minorities Commissions, held on January 20, 2009.

Dr Mehroo Bengalee: tackling issues

Of the tours undertaken by the veteran educationist 12 involved Parsis only, while the rest applied to all minorities. Bengalee visited Surat, Udvada, Deolali, Nasik, Goa, Ahmednagar, Satara, Lucknow, Nagpur, Jalna, Aurangabad, Hyderabad, Poona, Sanjan and Calcutta. Five meetings were held in Bombay.

Among the issues and complaints tackled by Bengalee were admission of Parsi students to professional colleges; scholarships for higher studies; encroachment of Parsi properties, which is being sorted out with the local collectors at the instance of the chief ministers of Gujarat and Maharashtra; repair of the Bahrot Caves, which has been taken up by the collector, Thana district; problems of defunct anjumans, which is being handled by a retired legal officer appointed by the BPP along with Sohrab Katpitia of Surat; projects for the development of agiaries, colonies and community halls; and better Parsi representation at the local, state and center levels, for which it is necessary to have a sociopolitical forum. A model Act has been prepared by the NCM and sent to the state commissions whereby the latter will appoint one representative from each of the five minorities. When this is implemented, each State Commission will be required to include a Parsi member.

In addition to a research study on the socioeconomic and educational status of the Parsis in India which has been assigned to the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the study on training and employment opportunities for Parsi Zoroastrians which has been published (see "Lost opportunities,” Books, Parsiana, May 21, 2009), a report was prepared for the NCM annual publication on Parsi problems and recommendations to implement the same and forwarded to Parsi anjumans for their information, the report reveals.