Jamshedpur, April 16: From the hallowed hallways of Lucknow, the call for reform is now trickling down to the grassroots.

The Imarat Shariah, a social and religious organisation with deep roots in eastern India, today passed a resolution to check rising incidence of divorce, ban dowry and achieve 100 per cent literacy. It also wanted more Muslim girls to become doctors, engineers and management graduates.

The resolution at a national convention here is one of the first instances where a minority organisation that maintains close contact with people on a day-to-day basis has endorsed a social initiative usually championed by scholars of the Lucknow-based All India Muslim Personal Law Board.

Headquartered at Phulwarisharif in Patna, the Imarat Shariah has a strong base among the four crore Muslims living in Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Assam and Karnataka. The conference is held every five years.

The head of the Shariah, Maulana Syed Nizamuddin, said the meeting resolved to end instances of unnecessary divorce and adopt preventive methods. “Maulvis, ulemas and the masjid would be roped in to ensure less instances of divorce in our society.”

Nizamuddin, who is also a general secretary of the personal law board, added that the resolution would be implemented in these states through the 100-plus branches of the Shariah.

The general body meeting of the organisation, after two sessions of long debates, also decided that the community has to work towards achieving higher education among girls. It felt that Muslim girls were lagging behind their counterpart from other faiths.

“Just another normal school and college education will not solve the purpose. We should promote technical education among them. More number of doctors, engineers, MBAs and civil servants should emerge from the girls of our community,” the resolution said.

To broadbase madarsa education, the leaders also decided to promote the way of teaching among other community students, particularly Hindus.

The one-day convention stressed the need for special cells in courts, wherein advocates from the Muslim community and ulemas would be present with the Shariat (sets of personal law for the community) to assist the judiciary.

The religious leaders declared dowry as anti-Islam and passed a directive on performing marriages “only in mosques”.

However, Nizamuddin was against the move to make registration of marriage mandatory. But he said a census of the minority population in defence and other services is desirable as “the number of Muslims in defence as well as other government jobs are dwindling”.

The leaders demanded an inquiry by a retired Supreme Court judge into the Jama Masjid and Varanasi blasts.