Exempted Futures

The framers of Indian Constitution would never have thought that Articles 29 and 30, which give minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice, would one day become an excuse to perpetuate educational backwardness within them. The recent clarification of the HRD ministry exempting madrasas from the provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act by citing Articles 29 and 30 is only one such example. Hailed by leading educationists as a progressive legislation, the RTE is a milestone in Indian education policy. The prospect of putting every child to school is the reason why communities across India are mobilising themselves to make schools and the state accountable. Alas, this unprecedented educational awakening will not light up the life-worlds of those Muslims whose children study in madrasas.

Ever since the publication of the Sachar Committee Report (SCR), it has become commonplace to argue that since only about 4% Muslim children attend madrasas, why raise such a hue and cry about them. The lesser problem with this argument is the very relativity of it: if quality education for all is an important goal, then why should these four percent Muslim children be left out? Is it because they are Muslims or poor or both? But the bigger problem with the argument is that it is based on something which is basically false. Some weeks ago, the union minister Salman Khurshid said that SCR was not the Quran. Despite having disagreements with his brand of Muslim politics, I must say that in this case he was absolutely right. SCR seems to have become something akin to the holy book: no matter what you are articulating, you can always cite The Report to silence your critics. I have heard fantastic claims on the Muslim situation made by leading scholars and all they had to do was to say that it is written in the SCR. The problem is that very few people have actually taken the trouble to read and analyse The Report. Had they done so, they would know that madrasa- going Muslim children are far in excess of four percent.

Here is why.

SCR never conducted its own survey on madrasas. Its data on madrasas came from various state madrasa boards and, more importantly, from the seventh all India school survey conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Now NCERT gives figures about two different kinds of madrasas: those that follow the system of general education (basically madrasas controlled by various state boards) and those that do not follow the system of general education (basically madrasas that have their own curriculum and funding). The SCR has counted only one kind of madrasas to arrive at their erroneous figure of 4%. They have not counted those madrasas — and the students therein —that are not controlled by various madrasa boards. According to the NCERT data itself, their numbers are much more than the state controlled ones. However, even here, it appears that the NCERT data on these madrasas is an underestimation. If one compares the NCERT data with the data provided by Bihar Madrasa Board for example, it will be clear that even the NCERT data is erroneous. My rough estimation tells me that not less than 12-14% of Muslim children access madrasa education and this percentage will be higher in states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh which are the nurseries of madrasas in India.

If madrasas get exempted from the provisions of the RTE, lakhs of Muslim children would be out of the school system. The point is important because as the SCR itself shows, Muslims lag behind at the primary stage of schooling itself. And madrasas have an important role to play in this. It is important to understand that, especially in north India, secular and madrasa schooling are parallel streams — which means that someone going to the madrasa will not be able to attend a regular school. The problem gets acute when we realize that the nurseries of the madrasas, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, are also the states where the access to primary level schooling of Muslims is far below the state average.

The opposition of Deoband and All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) to the RTE is most unfortunate. In demanding exemption for madrasas, they are actually demanding that Muslim children be exempted from the benefits of modern education. What is more unfortunate is the alacrity with which the state buckled under the pressure of religious conservatives. Under the UN convention of the rights of the child, to which India is a signatory, it is duty bound to provide modern education to every child. More importantly, under the RTE, the state can be taken to task for failing to implement the provisions of RTE for a section of Muslims. Why is the state, then shying away from its own stated position to provide free and compulsory education to all? Just because it is an issue about Muslims, should the state dither from its larger objectives which should be equally applicable to all? There is also a still silence from scholars and commentators on this issue. Let them not be under the impression that this is a Muslim- specific issue. The broader issue concerns the rights of children to access modern education; that they happen to be Muslim should be made irrelevant to the discussion. And even if this is made out to be a Muslim issue, the question that needs to be asked: Don’t Muslim children deserve the kind of quality education which children from other communities are entitled to? Till what time can we sacrifice these children’s interests in the name of protecting Muslim culture? And is it not the nation's loss if a large number of children are deprived of modern education?

Dr Arshad Alam is with the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia