Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband has convened a conference of Muslim clerics and managers of madrasas on Sunday at Deoband in Saharanpur district. The conference will be held at Masjid Rashidiya in Deoband.
The conference has been convened by `Kul Hind Rabta Madrasa-e-Islamic’ (All India Coordination Committee of Madrasas), an organisation controlling a network of 4,500 madrasas across the country.
The Majlis-e-Shura or the executive committee of the Darul Uloom Deoband had decided to convene the conference of the madrasas earlier this month. The meeting of the Majlis-e-Shura having 50 members will be held on Saturday.
Maulana Mufti Abul Kasim Nomani, Mohatamim (vice-chancellor) of Darul Uloom Deoband, said the meeting had been called to discuss the situation arising out of the state-wide survey of private unrecognised madrasas across the state. Darul Uloom Deoband has also been found to be an unrecognised madrasa.
This is the third `jalsa’ (conference) of Muslim clerks since the order for the survey of madrasas was issued by the state government in early September. Officially, the Islamic seminary has said that the agenda of the conference is to discuss the issues facing the Islamic schools and to discuss the measures for improving the education standards and the infrastructure.
The first meeting of madrasas was organised by Darul Uloom Deoband on September 13 soon after the order for the state-wide survey of madrasas was issued by the UP government. Around 250 representatives of madrasas from Uttar Pradesh had attended the meeting.
The Uttar Pradesh government had then clarified that the objective behind conducting the survey was to gather information about the basic facilities, teachers and curriculum taught at the unrecognised madrasas. It said information about the ownership of the madrasas, their affiliations, funding, place of operation and availability of toilets, furniture, electricity and potable water would be collected.
The survey is in line with the requirement of NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) to provide basic facilities to madrasa students. Following the Sunday convention, madrasa owners and Darul Uloom Deoband will together decide the future course of action.
Darul Uloom Deoband, earlier this week, had lodged a protest with the state government for being termed as illegal by the UP Minority Welfare department after the survey. The clerics of Darul Uloom Deoband demanded "rectification of the wrong message that has gone out".
The madrasa at Darul Uloom Deoband is not registered with the UP Madarsa Education Board. The state government in September had ordered the state-wide survey of madrasa or schools preaching Islamic religious education. Over 6,000 private unrecognised and unregistered madrasas have been detected across the state.
Maulana Ashraf Usmani, spokesperson of the Deoband-based seminary, said, "Darul Uloom is registered under the Societies Registration Act, and both religious and modern education is imparted here as envisaged in the Constitution of India. There is no question of it being illegal."