TOI photo by M Ali.

AJMER: More than 500 Muslim women from across the country attended an event organized for them by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliate in Ajmer on Thursday.Rashtriya Muslim Manch convener Indresh Kumar, who is also a senior RSS functionary, was the key speaker at the ‘Small Family, Happy Family’ event. He announced several schemes, including a food bank programme and the setting up of a women’s welfare trust, for poor Muslim families. However, RSS functionaries advised women to avoid eating beef and to refuse to abide by the existing format of ‘talaq’.“On December 21, an institute, Ashfauq Allah Taleem, and the Jan Kalyan Trust will be started in Pune,” Kumar said. “Business houses of Muslim communities and prominent people of the Muslim community are helping us in that.” He said the trust, to be run by the women’s wing of the Rashtriya Muslim Manch, was meant to spread education among Muslims.“The organization will make food available to those who do not get two meals a day even after hard work,” Kumar said. “The Anaj Bank Yogna has been started for them. At present 80 families are getting the benefit of this programme and the numbers will go up soon.”Rehana, a 22-year-old woman from Jaipur’s Ramganj locality who attended the function, said: “I was married at 13 and now don’t have the money to educate my children. Had I been educated, I would never have got married early.” She has three children.Sara Bano from Uttar Pradesh agreed with the concept of having a small family. “In my family, two members have to support 12 people,” she said.Massom Khan from West Bengal said it was wrong to say that Muslim women are uneducated or live in unhygienic conditions.“It’s a misconception that Muslims have large families,” said Tranam, also from West Bengal. “Even in rural regions there’re a good number of Muslim families where girls are getting an education.”Some women admitted they had come mainly to visit the Ajmer Sharif Dargah and attended the event afterwards.A number of banners and hoardings at the programme venue urged people to “leave beef party and adopt milk party”. One banner said that talaq should be from liquor and not from the wife.