GUWAHATI: The Jamiya Islamia Jalaliya (JIJ)-the largest madrassa in Assam 's Hojai district-has started discussing, for the first time, family planning issues and the need to save the environment from 'population explosion'.Established in 1956 at Hojai's Gopal Nagar locality, the seminary last Friday invited Ilias Ali, former professor of surgery at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH), and a crusader of family planning among the minority community. Ali delivered a talk in the presence of 60 teachers and 1,800 students of the seminary on the importance of family planning and how a rising population poses a threat to the environment.JIJ secretary, Maulana Md Aziruddin told TOI on Thursday that the discussion on family planning and other issues concerning the environment is part of the madrassa's efforts to include modern studies in religious discourses. "Education is empowerment. It helps fight superstitious believes and enlightens society. Our objective is to inculcate values among children so that they can lead a meaningful life and help society overcome superstition. For example, an educated person will never go for child marriage ," Aziruddin said."Along with religious studies, our madrassa has been imparting courses in computer science, English, general science, geography and other subjects for the last one decade," he added.Ali's talk at the madrassa is significant given the backdrop of protests that met his family planning campaigns in the minority-dominated areas. When he started his campaigns in 2008, he faced resistance from the clerics. As the state government's nodal officer for no scalpel vasectomy (NSV), Ali conducted over 48,000 NSVs-mostly in minority-dominated areas from 2009."What I have noticed is that there has been a perceptible change among Muslims in rural areas as far as family planning is concerned. Earlier, they resisted it because of ignorance and illiteracy. This has changed. I am now being invited by clerics to deliver talks," said Ali.In 2009, madrassa students in Hojai's Nilbagan took to the streets in protest against Ali's campaigns. There were protests in other places too against Ali. "However, in 2014, I was invited by the Assam Darul Hadis-also in Nilbagan-to deliver a talk," Ali said.

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