Mangaluru: The Executive Committee meet of the Sindhi Federation of South India (SFOSI) was held in the city on Sunday, April 24, where the delegation stressed on the need for education of the community members in general and women in specific.
Over 50 Sindhi community delegates across South India participated in the meet, which was held at Hotel Ocean Pearl.

Explaining the aim of this meet, SFOSI president J C Prakash said that the community, which once gave little importance to education is now gradually marching towards more liberal outlook, and the result is that evidently more and more girls from the community are becoming educated and independent.

However, he lamented that there are some fringe elements within the community who still subscribe to the old school thought that educating the girls means giving them liberty, which in turn leads to divorces.

He opined that such conservative thoughts and ideas must be kept at bay and girls must be motivated to learn and be independent.

He said that unlike the northern and the western states of India, here in the South the population of the Sindhi community is countable and scattered.

Keeping this aspect in mind, he called upon the Sindhis living in the Southern part of India to united at least once a year to strengthen the bond among the community members.

Speaking about Sindhi language, Prakash said that youngsters are shying away from speaking in Sindhi language, which is harming the language in a big way.

“Today our youth are inclined to speak in English and  other foreign languages. We appreciate learning other languages, but in the bid to learn other languages we must not let our mother tongue die a silent death,” he asserted adding that the Sindhi community, which had once migrated to India from Pakistan, post-partition, has found its ground here in India doing business, especially connected to textile, spices etc.

The Sindhi Federation of South India is the umbrella organisation for the Sindhis across India.  Today, nearly 75 such organisations are associated with the SFOSI.

The organisation has undertaken several activities keeping in mind the betterment of the community.

The project named ‘We Care’ helps many economically weaker families by providing ration and providing monetary aid when needed, which could be gradually repaid to the organisation.

Several scholarships too have been provided to the toppers in the community during every annual meet of the SFOSI.

The next SFOSI annual meet will be held in Vizag, Andhra Pradesh, in November, this year.