The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has urged that state funding to madrasas should be stopped across the country and non-Muslim children from madrasas be moved to regular schools. Children studying in madrasas should also be enrolled in formal schools, the commission has said.
NCPCR chairman Priyank Kanoongo, wrote the chief secretaries of states in a letter dated October 11, saying, “The exemptions of religious institutions from the RTE Act 2009 led to the exclusion of children attending only religious institutions from the formal education system… What was intended to empower children ultimately created new layers of deprivation and discrimination due to wrong interpretation.”
Along with ceasing to fund madrasas and moving children to regular schools, Kanoongo also called for scrapping the Madrasa Boards in the letter, saying that this move was subject to the ruling in a case pending before the Supreme Court.
In the case before the Supreme Court, the petitioners sought a review of the Allahabad High Court judgement dated March 22, 2024, which held that the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Act 2004 was ulta vires and unconstitutional, and the state government would move all students studying in madrasas to regular schools.
The Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued an interim stay order in April.
In September, the NCPCR filed written submissions in the case, saying that madrasas are exempted from the RTE, children attending them are deprived of formal education and other benefits such as mid-day meal, uniforms, trained teachers, etc, LiveLaw reported.
Kanoongo said in the letter that the recommendations were made in a recent report called ‘Guardians of Faith or Oppressors of Rights: Constitutional Rights of Children vs Madrasas’. “The report consists of 11 chapters touching upon diffeent aspects of the history of Madrasas and their role in violation of educational rights of children,” Kanoongo said in the letter.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has lambasted the NCPCR’s move, saying that the BJP wanted to change the Constitution. “They want to do politics over hatred, by creating conflicts between castes, religions.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ajai Rai said that the NCPCR’s recommendation was not practical and that it should be withdrawn. He said that madrasas which had deficiences should be investigated and closed, but not all of them,” Rai told IANS.