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Remembering
Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan
Dr. Akhtar Hameed
Khan
Nasim
Yousaf
Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan, social scientist,
was born into a cultured and noble family on July 15, 1914 in
Agra, India. He was the eldest son of Khan
Sahib Amir Ahmad Khan. After completing his education in India, he
joined the Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.). After joining the
prestigious group of government servants, Dr. Khan went to Magdelene
College at Cambridge University for two years, from 1936 to 1938.
In 1939, Dr. Khan married Hameedah Begum,
the oldest daughter of the famous leader from South Asia, Allama Inayatullah Khan Al-Mashriqi.
Their nikah ceremony was held at the end of 1939, and their rukhsati
(bride's departure from parent's home) was held in May 1940. After
Hameedah's death, he re-married. From his first wife, he had three
daughters and a son and from his second wife, he had a
daughter.
Dr. Khan was the founder of the Pakistan
Academy for Rural Development, Comilla (now
known as Bangladesh
Academy for Rural Development, BARD) and the
Orangi Pilot Project (OPP), Karachi. The BARD was started in 1958
whereas the OPP was launched in 1980. Dr. Khan achieved global
recognition as a result of his work on these exemplary community
development projects.
In the early 1960's, Dr. Khan formally
introduced microfinance / microcredit through the Comilla
Co-operatives scheme (also known as Comilla Model or Comilla
Approach); he demonstrated to the world that microfinance /
microcredit models could work and could be applied on global scale.
Today microcredit is a buzzword in the world of economic development
and poverty alleviation.
Crediting Dr. Khan on microcredit, Louis
A. Picard, Robert Groelsema, and Terry F. Buss wrote in their book
entitled, Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy: Lessons for the Next
Half-Century: "The village small cooperative loan system set up
through Comilla was a forerunner of the Grameen Bank, now considered
a major breakthrough in terms of microcredit."
Microcapital Monitor (Massachusetts, USA)
wrote in its issue of May 2008 under "Pioneers in Microfinance"
(under written by Deutsche Bank): "…Khan is the originator of two
development exemplars: the Comilla Model and the Orangi Pilot
Project. Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan help lay the basic foundations of
the microcredit movement through his work on the Comilla Model of
rural development in the 1960's and the Orangi Pilot Project in the
1980's."
Under the Comilla Co-operatives scheme,
Dr. Khan also introduced microsavings. Initially the villagers could
not grasp the concept, and Arthur F. Raper wrote of these villagers
in his book: "'What does the man [Dr. Khan] mean - telling us
[villagers] to save?'…'When we tell him we are too poor to save, he
says that is why we must save.'" Raper went on to write in reference
to said scheme: "The savings in the early days appear tiny indeed.
During April, savings of the first seven agriculture societies
ranged from Rs.12.00 to Rs. 65.00. The per-member monthly savings
ranged from Rs.0. 60 (12 cents) to Rs. 2.65."
Recognising Dr. Khan's overall
achievements at the Comilla Academy, the Board of Trustees of The Ramon
Magsaysay Award Foundation (Philippines) honoured him with the
Magsaysay Award, also known as Asia's Nobel Prize, in August 1963.
In 1964, Michigan State University awarded him with an Honorary
Doctorate for his works and accomplishments.
In his lifetime, Dr. Khan was also given
many other awards for his innovative ideas, tremendous achievements,
and contributions towards economic and human development. Among
these were the Nishan-i-Imtiaz, Hilal-e-Pakistan, Sitra-i-Pakistan,
and Jinnah Award.
Dr. Khan was also invited to speak at
various forums and he shared his ideas at various institutions
around the globe. Dr. Khan was a visiting professor at many
distinguished universities, such as Harvard, Princeton, and Michigan
State Universities in the USA,
Lund University in Sweden, and Oxford
University in England. Dr. Khan was also on the boards
of various educational institutions in Pakistan.
Throughout the course of his lifetime,
not only did he establish himself as a social scientist but also as
a scholar and a poet. Dr. Khan possessed an immense amount of
knowledge, and we could have learned much more from him, but his
time came to depart. Dr. Khan left us on October 09, 1999; he died
in the USA where he was visiting his family.
Today, Dr. Khan's ideas and works are
quoted in books and journals and are not only globally recognised
but replicated in various countries of the world. Millions of
unprivileged people are benefiting from these projects in Pakistan,
in Bangladesh, and across the globe.
May Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan rest in peace
and may God bless his
soul. | 
