Padma Shri Fatma Rafiq Zakaria

Fatma Zakaria has had a long and varied career in the field of  journalism, social work, publishing and education for over 50 years. Fatma Zakaria has been a source of inspiration for the people of the country for years now. Two days before the birth centenary year of Rafiq Zakaria started and yesterday we lost Mrs. Zakaria while she was under treatment for Covid-19 at Bajaj Hospital Aurangabad. She passed away at the age of 85. Along with all her notable works she will be remembered for her deeds for the educational  empowerment of the Muslim community.

After her graduation at the prestigious Isabella Thoburn College popularly known as IT college situated in Lucknow she qualified as a professional social worker from the Institute Of Social Work at Nirmala Niketan in Mumbai.

Fatma Zakaria’s social work

In 1958 she started an institution of Childcare and a Women’s Industrial Home in Mumbai where over 500 underprivileged children were given All Day Care, nursery, kindergarden and primary education and healthcare with free meals and a full medical care programme along with a Child Guidance Clinic while the mothers were trained and given occupation which could supplement the family income.

Role of Journalism in Fatma’s Life

In 1963, young Fatma started writing for children in The Illustrated Weekly of India. Apart from running a regular weekly column, she translated childrens’ short stories from Urdu to the English by eminent writers such as Dr. Zakir Hussain, Krishan Chandar and many others. She worked with this weekly for six years.

From 1970 to 1980, she worked with The Illustrated Weekly of India as Sub-editor & Chief-sub-editor and then Assistant Editor. After that she even worked as Senior Assistant Editor at The TImes Of India. She worked there for 10 years, she was also given independent charge of a 9-page Sunday Supplement (Sunday Review) and worked for some time as acting resident editor at the TImes office.

Mrs. Zakaria wrote extensively in both, The Weekly and The Times on political and cultural affairs from 1978 to 1989. She did exclusive comprehensive interviews with leading figures like Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, J.R.D. Tata, Jayprakash Narayan, and then prime minister Morarji Desai and farmer’s leader Charan Singh.

In 1984 she travelled extensively covering the US elections. She also covered ‘Festivals of India in UK and US in 1982 & 84. In 1976 she represented the country at Festival on Islam in London. During her time at the Times Of India she was also in charge of the Art & LIterary section of the newspaper.

She was also the member of the high power committee for restructuring of Mass Media by the governement of India. G. Parthasarathy chaired that committee for five years.

Fatma Zakaria was awarded the Sarojini Naidu Integration Award for Journalism in 1983.

Fatma Zakaria’s work in the Education

Mrs. Zakaria has been associated with Maulana Azad Educational Trust and Maulana Azad Educational Society since their inception in 1962. She worked as managing trustee alongside her husband the late Dr.Rafiq Zakaria who was a cabinet minister and also he was associated with Indian Freedom Moment. They founded over 15 colleges and institutions in Aurangabad together. The three beatiful campuses are equiped with the state-of-the-art infrastructure giving quality education to students from the lesser previliged sections of the society.

Dr. Rafiq Zakaria and Fatma Zakaria founded a girls college named previously as Aurangabad College For Women which has been running for 20 years now and has today over 2000 girls in the Arts Science and Commerce along with the management Science Course, she has now named the college after her late husband as Dr. Rafiq Zakaria College for Women and the campus is coverted entirely for Women only.

Mrs. Zakaria was a chairman of Maulana Azad Educational Trust, president of Maulana Azad Educational Society and Executive Vice-Chairman of the board of governors of the Trust’s Institute Of Hotel Management which is run in collaboration with the Taj Group of Hotels.

Mrs. Zakaria was also the member of the Senate of the Bombay University as the Chancellor’s nominee for five years.

Mrs. Zakaria was also the editor of the prestigious and much-acclaimed quarterly Art Journal – The Taj Magazine – brought out by the Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces.

So for a Muslim Woman who was born in 1936 in Mumbai to do such kind of work in the fields of Education, Journalism and Social work is inspiring and motivating not only for the women in the Muslim Community but for women all over the country. Fatma Zakaria passed away on 7 April 2021 but she left a legacy of great social, educational work for the society.

Her sons Arshad and Fareed ( who has recently been conferred with the Padma Bhushan Award in Journalism) both graduated from Harvard and have created there great careers in their respective fields in the United States of America.

In 2006 Fatma Zakaria was awarded the Padma Shri by the President of India for her work in Education in 2006. Fatma Zakaria will be remembered for her great social and educational work her work in these fields will show the light for the coming generations of India.

– An article by Kiran Gite.