The Uttar Pradesh government will conduct a survey of unrecognized madrassas in the state to gather information about number of teachers, curriculum, and basic facilities available there, among others.
Minister of State for Minority Affairs Danish Azad Ansari on Wednesday said the state government will conduct the survey in accordance with the requirement of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in connection with the availability of basic facilities to the students in madrassas.
During the survey, details such as name of madrassa and the institution operating it, whether it is running in a private or rented building, number of students studying there, and information regarding facilities of drinking water, toilet, furniture and electricity supply will be collected, Ansari said.
All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi hit back at UP government’s survey calling it a “mini NRC” and alleged the state wants to “harass madrassas” by issuing orders prohibiting namaz.
The development comes a day after a madrassa in Assam’s Bongaigaon district, which was allegedly used for carrying out ‘jihadi’ activities, was demolished by authorities on Wednesday for “violation of building norms”.
This is the second such action taken by the state administration this week as a madrassa in Barpeta district, which had allegedly sheltered two Bangladeshi operatives of Ansarul Bangla Team for four years, was demolished on Monday.
“Terror links” and madrassas
Reports of “terror links” to madrassas across states are not new. Most recently in the Assam case in Barpeta, police on July 28 arrested one of the alleged Bangladeshi terror operatives, the principal, a teacher and another person associated with the madrassa.
Police officials said that incriminating documents related to ‘jihadi’ elements were recovered from the canteen of Kabaitari Ma Arif Madrassa before its demolition.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had recently said that the state was becoming a “hotbed of jihadi activities” with about five modules having links with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent and Ansarul Bangla Team busted in the last few months.
More than 40 people with suspected links with the ‘jihadi’ activities, including Bangladeshis, have been arrested in the state since March this year.
Child safety concerns
A viral video showing two boys in chains inside a madrasa in Uttar Pradesh’s Gosainganj surfaced social media in May this year, following which the police rushed to the madrasa and found that the parents of the two had themselves asked the madrasa teacher to chain them as they use to run away from the madrassa and loiter around.
ACP Gosainganj Swati Chaudhary told reporters that the boys, both aged 12, had earlier ran away from the madrasa and were picking up wrong habits. Hence, their parents had asked the teacher to keep them in chains.
An incident of rape was reported on June 2 in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district where a 50-year-old maulana was arrested for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl who was staying at the madrassa.
In a bizarre incident in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal, at least 24 out of 35 students from Bihar in two madrasas were found have the same birthday in their admission documents, January 1, though with different years of birth, during an inspection that found several violations of rules.
The inspection was carried out by the Madhya Pradesh Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MPCPCR), Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and the police on Friday. This was a day after police found that at least 10 minors were brought to Bhopal without any parental consent.
Quality of education
Earlier this year, Karnataka Education Minister B.C. Nagesh said that children are not being provided contemporary education in madrassas. “If madrassas demand, we are ready to provide formal education there. We are also ready to impart uniform education to all. However, no decision has yet been taken,” Minister Nagesh said on March 21.
Nagesh had earlier stated that students belonging to minority community should not stay away from “proper contemporary education.”
In June, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Wednesday came out against Madrasas and wondered whether young children were taught there that punishment for blasphemy is beheading.
Stating that the Muslim law does not come from Quran, Khan said it had been written by individuals during the time of the ‘Empire’ and it provides for beheading. “The question is whether the children are taught that the punishment for blasphemy is be heading and they are being taught so in our own institutions in the country,” he said.
Khan’s comment came in the wake of a tailor’s murder in Rajasthan done to “avenge an insult to Islam.”
The NCPCR had found through a study that many children who are enrolled in these institutions or schools were not able to enjoy the entitlements that other children are enjoying because the institution they are studying in is exempted and is enjoying the rights of minority institutions.
Subsequently, the Commission, noting that minority schools, in particular madarasas, have become “ghettos of underprivileged students languishing in backwardness”, recommended that these schools be brought under both the Right to Education policy and the government’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
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