SGA History

Sindh Graduates Association owes its existence to enlightened and educated young men of Sindh, who came mostly from middle and lower Middle Class families and felt the real miseries of the masses in the interior of Sindh, who toiled from dawn to dust but could hardly make the both ends meet and were deprived of all basic services which the welfare state offers to its citizens.

The basic reasons or for that matter the constraints behind this situation were in-equal distribution of Wealth, un-economic land holding system, inadequate safe guards against tenancy rights, unemployment, lack of industry, necessary infrastructure and developed services sector, human rights violation, gender imbalance, lack of co-operation and co-ordination between public, politicians, NGOs, and government functionaries. Due to boom in agriculture production, which came about as a result of modern mechanized farming practices adopted by the then Pakistan government during 60’s, the economic condition of the people in rural areas were far better than today’s as they lived a simple and content life. Yet, in the days ahead, needs increased and brought in their wake poverty and unemployment at massive scale, which eventually led to rural population’s influx towards urban fringes in search of employment. The present poverty ratio must be over 45% as it was 44% during the last decade.

This situation called for a serious thinking and dialogue to formulate a well thought out strategy to promote education as a fundamental step to break the stagnation in society and awake the people to the need of time to bring about improvement in living standard, basic services, in short quality of life in back ward rural areas of the province. It was a Herculean task and required human and material resources, necessary skills and co-ordination between the stakeholders.

Having taken into account different factors, the group realized that the salvation of Sindh’s masses lies in advancement of education. Hence they concentrated on improving education standard initially at Hala, a town of considerable population in district Hyderabad, near Bhitshah. In order to have a forum to coordinate efforts in this direction, the likeminded friends launched Hala Graduates Association in the year 1968 with the aim to make quality education accessible to the youth of the area. All these things were to be done at government owned schools where the founders of H.G.A. took their initial instructions. The condition of those and other schools was poor and necessary facilities were non-existent. So H.G.A. pledged to bring about improvement in school infrastructure and quality of instructions by all possible means. The young men went out to community and arranged necessary funds to embark upon the task of national reconstruction, which begins initially with awareness, and education of the people. Education polishes the talents and enlightens the ones who are sincere and feel the pain of the others to play a meaningful role as the agents of real social change in society. Hala Graduates Association provided the basis for establishment of Sindh Graduation Association in the days ahead. “Sindh Graduates Association” was formally formed on 4th June 1972 and got registered on 29th September 1972 under the Societies Registration Act of 1860.

The first task before the Association (SGA) was to generate funds. And thus they raised funds on their own without external donor support for over 17 years of its existence and successfully carried out different activities out of their limited resources. However, they received membership fees and donations from members, community and local philanthropists to continue their march against ignorance and poverty. Poverty is often identified with lack of education and technology. So education, human resource development and community mobilization drive are permanent activities of the association to set the people of Sindh on the road to progress. The Association had its headquarters at Karachi from where they coordinated with the branch network spread in different parts of the province. At present there are 61 branches through out Sindh with one branch at Islamabad and thus it makes 62 branches in all. There are over 9000 graduates on its members roll. It is not for profit civil society organization that is committed to the cause of masses in Sindh. The branch wise breakup of SGA is given at Annexure-I.

The pathetic state of education in rural Sindh emphasized major structural, technical and administrative changes, and this transformation required co-ordination and material support as well. However, the Association pledged to focus their utmost attention on the improvement of education standard in existing government owned schools in rural Sindh, as was envisaged in Hala Graduates Association’s objectives which found their reincarnation in the establishment of the association to lead the people of Sindh towards progress and sustainable social change in rural society.

Despite SGA initiatives, aimed at improvement in education, the standard of government owned schools did not improve due to various reasons and SGA realized that they should better utilize their resources and energies on some other option. They had the idea of setting up their own schools. SGA had declared year 1980 as a year of Education. And by this time the Association had consolidated its community base and made an attempt to establish their first Roshan Tara (twinkling stars) School at Hala with limited means. This was a pilot project, which borne encouraging results as the quality of instructions had improved substantially as a result of better academic atmosphere, balanced curriculum and good teaching staff and management.

Greatly moved by positive public response, SGA opened up more of these schools in different parts of the province to provide better teaching facilities to the youth in rural localities of the province. At present there are 19 Roshan Tara Schools through out Sindh. The founders of the association had a vision of transformation and revival of Sindhi society on modern lines to enter the 21st century as a moderate community, familiarized with current educational and technological advancements. SGA did not confine them to education alone, but they simultaneously addressed other important social issues such as health, emergency, water and sanitation, income generation, human rights advocacy, human resource development and co-ordination with line departments and partnerships with NGOs. Out reach in the areas of interventions resulted in extended interaction with NGO world. Every important issue relating to the problems and priorities as well as interests of the people was eloquently addressed at domestic and international level. In order to undertake various activities in social domain, SGA entered into partnership agreements with GOP, GOS, UNICEF, RSPN, Action Aid Pakistan, Khushhali Bank and others to help bring about socio-economic change and sustainable development in the province of Sindh. Now the association is on the road to progress and they hope to achieve their objectives fully in the years to come. They hope that their friends and well wishers will continue to support them and give them inputs for improvement and expansion in scope and nature of their activities. The SGA objectives stand for improving access to basic services and social development. SGA attached equal importance to human resource development, as most of their endeavors are directed towards welfare and well being of mankind. The members of the association had a penchant for books and they bought books and exchanged with each other to enhance their knowledge.. The knowledge they acquired through reading, discussion and observation was practically applied in society for the development of land and its people.