There was a very old grave beside Dhaka - Jessore highway near my village home. After the liberation war, an Indian army Jawan assembled some villagers and admonished them for neglecting the mazar of a saint. Someone bought a piece of red cloth and put it on the grave. The passers by and the bus and truck drivers started to through coins and notes while crossing the grave. It soon took a name of a 'Dargah'.

Within a very short period of time, the villagers became involved in a series of clashes over the collection of money that people drop at the Dargah. The dispute continued for several months. Later, the villagers decided to form a committee to collect the money and use it to build an elementary madrasa. It did not solve the problem because dispute remained over being a member of the committee. Finally they decided to go for a monthly 'Izara' system in which the authority of collecting the money was given to the highest bidder. The person or group won the bid for a month had to pay the money in advance to the Dargah committee.

It has been working very well. Currently there is an earning of more than one million Taka per year. The money has been used to first build an elementary madrasa which was subsequently converted to an Alia madrasa. Later a high school was built and run with this money. Recently a college has been established. It is also receiving subsidy from the Dargah.

It may seem unholy to look at the mazars, which many people consider as holy places, as a money machine. However, the fact is that these places have been generating a huge amount of money which are going to the wrong hands. If a roadside mazar of an unknown person can generate a million Taka every year, you can imagine how much will be generated from famous mazars like that of Hazrat Shah Jalal, Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali etc.

Currently these mazars are managed by a Mutawalli system where someone acts a mutawalli of the mazar and controls everything there. The process of selecting a mutawalli is mainly inheritance based where the son of a previous mutawalli is made the current mutawalli.

Whatever the system of nominating the mutawalli is, there is no transparency in receiving money from the devotees and spending it. I think steps should be taken to establish a system for accounting this money and channelling it to human services for the distressed humanity. Schools and hospitals for the poor can easily be constructed and run by this money. An 'Izara' system may be introduced for collecting and accounting it.

It will not only make proper use of the money people pay as the symbol of their respect for the saints who devoted their lives for the betterment of the mankind, but also help stop many killings and blasts surrounding the mazars.