The meeting with the Members of the MPLB was held at the residence of Member, Begum Naseem Iqtidar Ali on Newberry Road. The Chairman of the Board, Maulana Ali Mian was indisposed and could not attend the meeting There were two women Members of MPLB, Begum Aziz Fatima and Begum Naseem who spoke on behalf of the Board. As well there were professional women, social workers, college Principals, and members of the press who attended the meeting.

At the outset, the Chairperson of NCW stated that the objective of holding a dialogue with MPLB was to evolve a strategy for the economic empowerment of Muslim women. NCW has held public hearings in several parts of the country and no matter where we went, the overriding concern of the average Muslim women was how to make both ends meet. This is not unlike the concern of the vast majority of women of our country, but the Muslim women are a more vulnerable and weak section. Having contextualised our dialogue in the context of the economic deprivation, we then opened the floor for suggestions from the group.

Education: There was an overwhelming consensus that lack of education was the most pressing problem. One concrete suggestion was that children from the Dini Schools often find that they are not able to integrate into the mainstream. Therefore, Members of the Board suggested that the CBSC curriculum should be introduced ....