“My biggest achievement has been getting people to hug, as well as seeking education. I don’t believe in giving alms. Giving education is the best weapon to combat any evil”.
Dilafroze Qazi (born 1962) is the founder and Vice President of the College of Engineering, Technology and Management at Srinagar School of Management (SSM) in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Despite coming from a poorly literate family, Dilafroze studied at a free public school and has a double master’s degree in Education and Economics. He completed his LLB program from the University of Kashmir. To help the girls and housewives in the society, he started the small business in rented premises in 1988, called ‘Srinagar School Of Management’, where he taught them vocational courses like cutting, cooking, sewing and shorthand.
Nationalist violence, threats to life could not shake his determination to serve society. He fought against lack of security, harsh weather conditions, aggression, state insecurity, armed separatists, the killing of community members, and the kidnapping of all his family members, including his father, brothers, and husband. He was even warned that if he didn’t give up his cause, anyone who dared to open the doors of the university would be killed. However, she stayed true to herself and never gave up. She moved the university to a safe place in Srinagar, but she again received threatening calls from the locals, on behalf of religious leaders who claimed to be protesting against her work in women’s education. But she knew that every problem is an opportunity in disguise that brings you closer to your goals and she never looked back. Gradually, she added a 3-year Diploma course in civil engineering to the university. Currently, she is vice president of SSM’s College of Engineering and Technology, which has 4,000 engineering and management students on its rosters. The university also offers degrees in civil, mechanical, electronic, and communication engineering. The university also has a branch at Gudhrana in the Palwal district of Haryana. She also opened a free primary school in 1996 in Divar Parihaspora village in Baramulla district. In 1998, he opened another school in Sumbal village in Dangarpora and opened a free primary school in Kunan Poshpora in Kupwara district in 2001. Apart from contributing to education, he also runs craft centers and has helped establish a center self help. group for the underprivileged, especially widows and poor women, and she has been involved in organizing medical camps and rehabilitation programs for women. Even after three decades, she receives threatening calls, but her approach is the same: she believes that all basic human rights must be systematically granted to women.
In 2005, along with 90 other women from India, she was nominated for the 1,000 women for the Nobel Peace Prize, with the support of the Swiss government, UNIFEM and UNDP. In 2011, the Association for Community Harmony in Asia awarded her the ‘Peace Star’ award for her efforts in building community harmony at a function held in New Delhi.
