The Yogi Adityanath government’s decision to launch a survey to identify the unrecognised madrasas and gather details such as organisations running them, curriculum and source of income has sparked a political row. The opposition alleged that the exercise was meant to harass Muslims in Uttar Pradesh.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, an organisation of Islamic clerics, said on Tuesday that they would not oppose the survey if it was done under the law. The Jamiat has also formed a steering committee to decide on the survey and asked madrasas in UP to maintain their accounts.
However, Jamiat president Maulana Mahmood Madani said: “The UP government should try to understand, and not misunderstand us.”
All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi said the exercise was not a survey but a “mini-NRC”. He hit out at the UP government for “harassing Muslims” and said the government could not interfere with their rights under Article 30 of the Constitution.
There are 16,513 recognised madrasas with about 20 lakh students in the state, according to the Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Shiksha Board. However, a rough estimate suggests that there are over 40,000 private madrasas in India’s most populous state. In Deoband alone, there are over 100 private madrasas not recognised by the UP Madrasa Shiksha Parishad.
“Almost all mosques have a madrasa,” says Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali, rector of Darul Uloom, Farangi Mahal, and chairman of Islamic Centre of India, Lucknow.
The Minority Welfare department in UP, in an order issued on August 30 last, asked all the district magistrates to start a survey of the unrecognised madrasas in their respective districts and gather details including the name of organisation running them, location, year of establishment, if the building is suitable for students, curriculum, source of income, etc.
The DMs will also submit details whether the madrasas are affiliated with any governmental or non-governmental organisation, any charges against the organisation and whether or not its students are enrolled at another school.
The state government has directed all the DMs to constitute a committee each by September 9 for the survey.
The committees will function under the supervision of the ADMs who will be given a report of the survey by October 5. The ADMs will submit their reports to the DMs by October 10 and the same will be shared with the government by October 25.
The Uttar Pradesh government maintains that the objective behind the survey is to get data regarding the number of unrecognised madrasas in the state.
UP Madrasa Shiksha Parishad chairman Iftikhar Ahmed Javed said while 16,513 madrasas are recognised, 560 get grants from the state government. “In 2018, when an online portal was started to fill in the data of madrasas, 2,500 to 3,000 madrasas were found existing only on papers. It means that several madrasas got recognition without existence.
“We don’t have the number of madrasas functioning without recognition. When a violation of child rights takes place, fingers are pointed at the government. We want to know the number of such madrasas, their status, the number of students and teachers; whether or not they have facilities required for children as per the NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) rules,” Javed said, adding that new rules would be formulated for granting recognition to madrasas after going through the findings of the survey.
Minister of State for Minority Welfare Danish Azad Ansari said: “The apprehensions of the Muslim community leaders are unfounded and there is no cause for trust deficit. The government has ordered the survey on the directions of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. Several instances have been reported where the children in madrsas were tortured by maulvis. Instead of opposing, Muslim religious leaders should cooperate and assist the government in collecting the data which will be useful for making plans for the modernisation of the madrsas.”