Amazing Pakistani Scholars
Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan
Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan was a Pakistani development activist and social scientist whose work in area of rural development, microcredit, microfinance initiatives, farmers’ cooperatives and rural development earned him worldwide recognition. He is recipient of awards like Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Magsaysay award (aka ‘Asian Nobel award’) and honorary doctorate from Michigan State University.
His particular contribution was the establishment of a comprehensive project for rural development, the Comilla Model in 1959. This model laid foundations of cooperative rural development initiatives and continue to be inspiration to present day microfinance initiiaitves like Grameen Bank by Dr Muhammad Yunas.
In the 1980s he started a bottom up community development initiative of Orangi Pilot Project, based in the outskirts of Karachi, which became a model of participatory development initiatives. He also directed many programmes, from microcredit to self-finance and from housing provision to family planning, for rural communities and urban slums.
Apart from being a development activist, Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan was a literary personality as well. He was fluent in at least seven languages and dialects and published many scholarly books and articles and a collection of poems and travelogues in Urdu.
These few words which appeared in an editorial tribute in Daily Dawn perhaps chronicle his life and works comprehensively:
“Striking deep roots in the communities with which he worked - be it the Comilla Rural Academy or the Orangi Pilot Project - Akhtar Hameed Khan developed his ideas at the grassroots level. He was a genuine friend and benefactor of the people. He based his strategy on the cultural values, beliefs and lifestyles of the people to promote change on a self-help basis. It was not philanthropy which he wanted to hand down to them. The "basti dwellers," to quote his own words, "want to survive and prosper. They are frugal, diligent, enterprising and resourceful. They are workers and producers, not free-loaders and spongers. They do not need doles and subsidies, sinecure jobs or free homes." He strongly believed that the people of the kachchi abadis needed technical and social guidance to help themselves. This he provided through the institutions he set up and his research on the needs and problems of the people.”
More on life and works of Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan can be seen on this website
His particular contribution was the establishment of a comprehensive project for rural development, the Comilla Model in 1959. This model laid foundations of cooperative rural development initiatives and continue to be inspiration to present day microfinance initiiaitves like Grameen Bank by Dr Muhammad Yunas.
In the 1980s he started a bottom up community development initiative of Orangi Pilot Project, based in the outskirts of Karachi, which became a model of participatory development initiatives. He also directed many programmes, from microcredit to self-finance and from housing provision to family planning, for rural communities and urban slums.
Apart from being a development activist, Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan was a literary personality as well. He was fluent in at least seven languages and dialects and published many scholarly books and articles and a collection of poems and travelogues in Urdu.
These few words which appeared in an editorial tribute in Daily Dawn perhaps chronicle his life and works comprehensively:
“Striking deep roots in the communities with which he worked - be it the Comilla Rural Academy or the Orangi Pilot Project - Akhtar Hameed Khan developed his ideas at the grassroots level. He was a genuine friend and benefactor of the people. He based his strategy on the cultural values, beliefs and lifestyles of the people to promote change on a self-help basis. It was not philanthropy which he wanted to hand down to them. The "basti dwellers," to quote his own words, "want to survive and prosper. They are frugal, diligent, enterprising and resourceful. They are workers and producers, not free-loaders and spongers. They do not need doles and subsidies, sinecure jobs or free homes." He strongly believed that the people of the kachchi abadis needed technical and social guidance to help themselves. This he provided through the institutions he set up and his research on the needs and problems of the people.”
More on life and works of Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan can be seen on this website
