After the historic victory in West Bengal, the BJP government led by Subhendu Adhikari has presented its first budget. This time in the budget, the amount allocated to Madrasa education in Bengal has been reduced to half. Rs 2165 crore has been earmarked by the government for minority affairs and madrassa education.
This amount is less than half compared to the previous TMC government. In the TMC government, Rs 5713 crore was allocated for Minority Affairs and Madarsa Education for the financial year 2025-26.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal government has sought information about the madrassas of the state. The government has ordered all the district magistrates to submit a report by July 5 regarding the funding, curriculum, qualifications of teachers and activities of madrassas. According to the government, if any kind of irregularities or foreign funding issue is found in madrassas, then it will not hesitate to close them.
There are approximately 614 officially government-aided madrassas in the state. At the same time, the estimated number of unregistered (Khariji) madrassas is between 8,000 to 11,000. Now after the government’s order, the sword is hanging on such madrassas. The government can also form a SIT to investigate the funding received by them.
These serious allegations have been leveled against madrassas
1.NCPR had accused madrassas of not following Right-to-Education (RTE) rules.
2. Madrassas have been accused of focusing only on religious education.
3.Action taken against many madrassas due to misuse of government funding
4. Action taken against many madrassas on suspicion of suspicious funding
After this step of NCPR, action against madrassas increased
Questions have been raised earlier also regarding the funding provided to madrassas, curriculum, qualifications of teachers and activities. Different state governments had been taking action against illegal madrasas in their own way. But these increased when the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) raised questions.
NCPCR had written a letter to all the states saying that the funds given to madrassas should be stopped. They do not follow the Right-to-Education (RTE) rules. NCPCR said that ‘in madrassas, the entire focus is on religious education, due to which children do not get the necessary education and they lag behind other children’. Since then, there has been an increase in screening of madrassas and action against them, especially in BJP ruled states.
Two categories of Madrasas in India
Madrasa is an Arabic word. Its Hindi meaning is educational institution. In the beginning of Islam, mosques also served as centers of education, but from the 10th century onwards, madrassas in the Islamic world established their own identity as institutions of learning in Islam. The oldest mention of madrassas comes from Rasan and Transoxania, which are areas of today’s eastern and northern Iran, Central Asia and Afghanistan.
In India too, the number of madrassas has been decent. There are two categories of madrassas here. One is the Madrassa Darsa Nizami, which run as public religious institutions and are not bound to follow the state school education curriculum.
They follow the syllabus prescribed by big madrassas like Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama (Lucknow) and Darul Uloom Deoband. Whereas, the second one is Madrasa Darsa Alia, which is affiliated to the Madrasa Education Board of the state. They follow the syllabus directed by the state government or NCRT.
The number of madrassas in India was 24,010 in the year 2018-19.
On February 3, 2020, the then Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had told the Rajya Sabha that till 2018-19, there were 24,010 madrassas in India. Of these, 19,132 were recognized madrassas and the remaining 4,878 were unrecognized. 60 percent of the total madrassas in the country were in Uttar Pradesh. Of these, 11,621 were recognized and 2,907 were unrecognized madrassas. According to the state-wise data presented by Naqvi, Rajasthan was at second position in terms of number of madrassas. There were 2,464 recognized and 29 unrecognized madrassas.
In recent years, rapid action has been taken against illegal madrassas in Uttar Pradesh. According to the data of UP government, till now action (demolition and sealing) has been taken against more than 300 madrassas which were operating without recognition, illegal encroachment and illegally on government lands in the state. Apart from this, the government has also investigated the funding of many madrassas. Meanwhile, the number of children in madrassas is decreasing year by year.
Number of students in Madrassa board exam in UP decreased to 63 thousand
10 years ago, more than 4 lakh students appeared in the Madarsa Board examination of UP. At the same time, the number of students appearing in this examination has remained only 63 thousand. At the same time, the number of madrassas running on government grants in the state was 558. But on complaints of manipulation in student enrolment, grant amount, the government has suspended the recognition of 15 madrassas and stopped their grants. At present 543 madrassas are getting grants. There are a total of 10 thousand teachers in these madrassas.
Assam government had changed the identity of 1,281 madrassas.
On the other hand, in Assam, Himanta Vishwa Sarma’s government took major action and changed the identity of 1,281 madrassas. With government assistance, the madrassas running in 21 districts were converted into Middle English (ME) schools. Apart from this, the Assam government is very strict on the illegal operation of madrassas. The government is continuously taking action against madrassas which are running illegally and do not follow the rules.
Action against madrassas in Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh also
Till now, more than 200 illegal and unregistered madrassas have been sealed by the Uttarakhand government. Most of these actions were taken in the border areas of the state. Apart from this, due to missing records of thousands of children and misuse of government funds, nutrition scheme of 11 recognized madrassas and government funding of 23 madrassas were stopped.
Apart from this, the Madhya Pradesh government had also taken major action against 56 madrassas in Sheopur district and canceled their recognition.
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