Anjuman Mufidul Islam

Anjuman Mufidul Islam is a voluntary, non-profit and non-political organisation registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. Operationally, it is now the biggest human welfare organisation in the country. It was founded in 1905 by a Surati businessman of Calcutta Sheth Ibrahim Mohammad Dupley. Its original purpose was to bury unclaimed Muslim and other dead bodies.

After partition (1947), the Anjuman's office was set up in Dhaka in September 1947. Gradually it gathered momentum in its welfare activities under the leaderships of Habibullah Bahar, Abdur Rahman Chowdhury, Justice Hamoodur Rahman, ABMG Kibria, and many others who made significant contributions to make it ever expansive in activities.

The Anjuman Mofidul Islam is managed by an apex body called General Council. It consists of all life members, general members and nominated members from affiliated branches. The General Council elects the president, members of the Board of Trustees, 10 vice-presidents and members of the managing committee. Major funcions like framing or amending of the constitution, preparing annual report, making new proposals etc. are placed before this Council for consideration. It has a Board of Trustees consisting of 10 Trustees with the status of Vice-President. The Trustee Board is the custodians of all movable and immovable properties of the Anjuman. The President of the Anjuman is the Chairman of the Board.

Operationally, the most important body of the Anjuman is the Managing Committee which meets every month. It consists of 78 members including 10 Trustees and 10 Vice-Presidents. It is headed by the President. The Managing Committee sets goals and objectives and formulates policies and programmes of the organisation. It also approves budget and provides overall supervision and guidance in the implementation of activities. The Managing Committee also forms sub-committees as per need of the organisation. The committees hold regular meetings to discuss and approve of the implementation processes of projects.'

The exceutive director is the head of the administration. The director is assisted by deputy executive directors, assistant directors, officers and staff. The Anjuman has its affiliated branches in 43 districts. These branches have their own managing committees, who are responsible to the Central Managing Committee.

Carrying and burial of unclaimed and paupers' dead bodies continue to be the major area of activities of the Anjuman. The number of unclaimed dead bodies buried, number of dead bodies carried free of cost and number of patients carried by the Anjuman's ambulance both in and out of Dhaka city area for last three fiscal years are as follows:

Year	Disposal of unclaimed dead bodies (free of cost)	No. of dead bodies carried (free of cost)	No. of dead bodies carried outside city area with donation	No. of patients carried in city area (free of cost)	No. of patients carried outside city area with donation	Donation received from Ambulance services
2006-2007	2203	732	680	6126	498	Tk.14,60,200/-
2007-2008	2119	928	762	6250	484	Tk.14,45,110/-
2008-2009	2243	868	755	6216	535	Tk.15,96,220/-

Air-conditioned ambulance services are provided free of cost to all religious groups both for carrying patients and dead bodies in and around the City of Dhaka. In areas other than Dhaka the ambulance services are provided for carrying patients and dead bodies. The Anjuman has introduced a Dafon Seba Project under which dead bodies are provided with bath, kafon clothes, coffin boxes etc. both at home and at Kakrail Service Centre.

Anjuman Mufidul Islam is maintaining three orphanages. Orphans are admitted when they are in between five to seven years of age and they are cared for and given education until they are sixteen. At the time of leaving the orphanage, the girls are often given, if asked for, sewing machines and some capital for future income generating activities. Financial supports are also provided for their marriage. In addition, educational expenses of the orphans who qualify for admission into the polytechnic Institutes are met by the organisation. For their technical education, Anjuman established a Technical Institute at Gandaria, Dhaka. Anjuman maintains a Junior High School which provides free education to the economically disadvantaged children upto class eight.

The Anjuman gives winter clothes to the poor in Dhaka and distributes clothes through its 43 affiliated branches among the distressed people.'

AMI has been publishing a quarterly bulletin in Bengali called 'Anjuman Barta' since 1 January' 1999 and an English bulletin namely 'Anjuman News' since 1 July 2001.

The Anjuman's sources of income are government grant, donations, endowments, zakat fund, general fund, sales proceeds of skis and hides of' sacrificed animals, collection inthe night of holy Shab-e-Barat, Trust Funds, rentals from donated houses, and so on. Total income and expenditure of the organisation in the last three fiscal years are as follows:

Fiscal year	Income	Expenditure	Excess of income over expenditure
2006-2007	Tk.3,06,00,849/-	Tk.2,00,45,359/-	Tk.1,05,55,490/-
2007-2008	Tk.3,42,03,281/-	Tk.2,08,47,479/-	Tk.1,33,55,802/-
2008-2009	Tk.4,12,12,543/-	Tk.3,03,82,157/-	Tk.1,08,30,386/-

The Anjuman presently owns a number of properties in the form of lands, buildings, flats, shops etc. in Dhaka as well as in other towns. Majority of these properties were given to the Anjuman by benevolent donors. Some were purchased from the Anjuman's own fund and some were allotted to the Anjuman by the Government.'

In recognition of its services, the Anjuman has received a number of awards. These include Islamic Foundation Award (1994), Independence Day Award (1996), Dr Ibrahim Memorial Award (2004), Rafiqual Islam Banking Award (2004) and Nagar Padak (2005). Conrad Hilton Foundation of Los Angles, USA gave the Anjuman in 1999 'Hilton Foundation Award' for its humanitarian services. [Kazi Abul Kashem]