Maharashtra government's move to derecognise madrassas creates furore

The controversial move by the Maharashtra government to derecognise madrassas has created furore as the Opposition and religious heads trained their guns at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Devendra Fadnavis-led state government de-recognised these minority institutions as 'non-schools'.

The government argued that madrassas only gave religious instruction and did not impart formal education in subjects such as science, maths, social science and English. Justifying it, state Minority Affairs Minister Eknath Khadse said if madrassas started teaching these four subjects, they would be considered as schools.

The minister said of the 1,890 registered madrassas, 550 had agreed to teach these subjects. However, state Education Minister Vinod Tawde clarified that madrassas would continue to get government aid.

Khadse said, "Our Constitution says every child has the right to take formal education that madrasas do not give. They are just educating children on religion and not giving them any formal education."

The state has also planned a mega exercise on July 4 when a survey would be conducted to find out the number of 'out-ofschool' kids in the state.

Steering clear, Union minister and BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi shifted the blame to the Right to Education (RTE) Act passed by the Congress-led UPA regime. "This is not the decision of the Maharashtra government. We are doing only what has been laid down in the RTE Act passed by the Congress that claims to be the champion of the minorities in India. The Act clearly says madrasas are not to be counted among educational institutions. We are trying to modernise such madrasas," Naqvi told MAIL TODAY.

'Political gimmick'

Khurshid Imam, assistant professor of the Centre of Arabic and African studies, JNU, said it was just a political gimmick and smacked of targeting a community rather than a positive move for the betterment of Muslims.

"This kind of blanket judgment that all madrasas are giving only religious education is not true. Secondly, the government should understand that these madrasas cater to the poorest of the poor in the Muslim community, which implies not just the economically excluded section of the community but also to the socially excluded one. In the name of religious education, at least these families send their children to madrassas which is better than the kids being detained at home and pushed into child labour.

Also, having seen several examples in JNU, many students who came from madrasa backgrounds made it to the UPSC," Imam said.

"The aim of the two systems of education is different. They do not have a lot of funds for infrastructure. And anyway a number of modernising initiatives are on for madrasas," he added.

The Congress too tried to corner the BJP over the issue. Party spokesperson Sanjay Nirupam called the move unconstitutional. "No child should be discriminated along religious lines. We are going to take the issue up in the state Assembly," he said.

According to a government data published in 2013, there were 1,889 madrassas in Maharashtra which were imparting education to nearly 1.48 lakh students.