Satananda Bhattacharjee/Hailakandi (Assam)

Poverty had deprived Ahmed Ali of education. However, nothing could stop him from working hard and pursuing a mission to ensure that nobody from his community ever had to put up with a ‘sin of illiteracy’.

The 85-year-old from Khilorbond-Madhurbond in Patherkandi circle of southern Assam’s Karimganj district is a celebrity in his own right.

A rickshaw puller, Ahmed Ali’s perseverance to pursue his dream is of another level. Ali has spent all his meager savings from pulling a rickshaw and from 32 bighas of ancestral land on setting up nine schools in his area. Today, about 500 girls and 100 boys are enrolled in these schools. Nobody has to ever live in the ‘sin of illiteracy,’ as Ali calls it. 

Ali first set up a primary school in 1978 by selling a plot of his land. He also received small sums of donations from the villagers. Thereafter, Ali never had to look back in life in pursuing his dream.

Ahmed Ali with his wife

Of the nine schools he has set up in Khilorbond-Madhurbond and its adjoining areas, three are lower primary, five are middle-school (English medium), and one high school. Five schools have become provincial that is the teachers and the staff gets salaries from the government while in the rest, teachers work voluntarily.

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At 85, Ali has not stopped dreaming and pushing his mission into new horizons. He is making efforts to open a junior college in the vicinity of his village so that those passing matriculation from his schools can continue their studies in the college.

Speaking to Awaz-the voice, Ali said he had considered himself as a ‘cursed man’ for being illiterate.

Ahmed Ali being fecilitated

“With the Almighty guiding and showering me with bliss, I am on a mission to change the lives of the upcoming generations. I am happy that I could educate my children along with the rest of the children of our villages. Some of the pass-outs of the schools are now well settled and are in jobs. This gives me a sense of fulfillment.”

Ali has 11 children from two wives and one of them is employed with the high school named after him.

Although Ali says he never wanted his name to be associated with any of his schools, the high school has been christened Ahmed Ali High School at the insistence of the villagers.

Honoured with many awards and felicitations, the humble ‘rickshaw-puller, as he still prefers to be says he continues his basic profession because he believes in the dignity of work.

Ahmed Ali in front of the schools named after him

Ahmed Ali’s name was mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his monthly radio program Maan Ki Baat in March 2019.

“I was speechless after hearing my name in PM's voice on the All India Radio program,” Ali said. Modi had praised Ali’s initiative and said he must be recognized for his philanthropy.

Ali’s quiet work was first brought to light by erstwhile Patherkandi legislator Krishnendu Paul a few years ago. Referring to Ali as an “extraordinary personality”, he contributed an amount of Rs 11 lakh from his multi-sectoral development program fund under the Union ministry of minority affairs, for the development of the Ahmed Ali High School.