Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, has halted payments to approximately 21,000 teachers in madressahs, including those teaching mathematics and science. This move has sparked concerns about the potential impact on the education of Muslim children and has raised questions about discrimination against the minority community.
The affected teachers were employed in madressahs in Uttar Pradesh, which is governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This decision has come just before Modi seeks his third consecutive term in the upcoming general election scheduled by May.
Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, chief of Uttar Pradesh’s madressah education board, revealed that over 21,000 teachers are now at risk of losing their jobs. This development has prompted worries about a setback of about 30 years in the education of Muslim students and teachers. Human Rights Watch and other rights groups have accused the BJP of intimidating and harassing religious minorities, including Muslims, under Modi’s leadership. The BJP, however, denies these allegations. Muslims constitute approximately 14% of India’s 1.42 billion population and nearly a fifth of Uttar Pradesh’s population.
According to a document obtained by Reuters, the federal government ceased funding the Scheme for Providing Quality Education in madressahs in March 2022. The Ministry of Minority Affairs, which ran the program until its closure, did not provide reasons for ending the initiative. While the document showed that Modi’s government did not approve new proposals from states under the program between 2017-18 and 2020-21 fiscal years, the government had previously increased funding for the program to a record of about $36 million in the fiscal year ending March 2016.
The closure of the program has prompted concerns, and a government official suggested it might be related to a 2009 law guaranteeing free compulsory education for children in regular government schools. Government data indicates that over 70,000 madressahs were covered in the first six years of the program initiated in 2009-10 by the previous Congress party-led government.
Shahid Akhter, a member of a government panel on minority educational institutions, advocates for the revival of the program, emphasizing its benefits for Muslim children in receiving both Islamic and modern education.
The decision to cease payments to madressah teachers in Uttar Pradesh has faced criticism from rights groups and Muslim leaders who argue that it will deprive Muslim children of quality education and further marginalize the community. The BJP defends the move, claiming it is necessary to ensure equal quality education for all children. However, critics contend that this decision aligns with a broader agenda of Hindu nationalism, contributing to the marginalization of Muslims and other minorities in India.
Additionally, the northeastern state of Assam is converting hundreds of madressahs into conventional schools, a decision met with opposition and protests from the Muslim community and political opposition. The chief minister of Assam has called for all states to cease funding madressahs. This decision is expected to have significant repercussions on the education of Muslim children in India and may strain the relationship between the Hindu majority and the Muslim minority further.
