News Brief

Recognition Of 56 Madrassas Canceled In Madhya Pradesh, Many Had Working Hindu Professionals' Names Enrolled For Grants

Nishtha Anushree

Jul 31, 2024, 03:06 PM | Updated 03:06 PM IST


Islamic school (representative image)
Islamic school (representative image)

The Madhya Pradesh Madrassa Board has canceled the recognition of 56 of the 80 madrassas in the Sheopur district as they were not found to be functional.

Interestingly, 54 of these 56 madrassas were even receiving government grants and many of them even had Hindu names registered as students.

The action comes one and a half months after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) summoned MP Chief Secretary Veera Rana to Delhi to question Hindu children studying in madrassas.

The action was taken based on a report from District Education Officer (DEO) Ravindra Singh Tomar. The investigation report was sent to the state education centre, after which the Board took action.

Only 24 of the 80 madrassas were found to be functional. The DEO is now investigating what happened to the students enrolled in the non-operational madrassas.

As per Jagran, a name Manav Goyal was found enrolled in a madrassa but he is working as a software engineer. Similarly, an enrolled student Priya Mittal is a doctor now. But grants were being received in these names.

It has come to light that the names which were enrolled in 2004, were being used even in 2018 and 2023. As per NCPCR, 9,427 Hindus are enrolled in 1,505 madrassas of MP.

The maximum of them are in Morena, followed by Bhind and Rewa, where over 1,000 Hindus are enrolled in madrassas. The NCPCR is also planning to initiate similar action against missionaries as well.

After this action, state School Education Minister Uday Pratap Singh has directed all the DEOs to have field inspections conducted for the madrasas being operated in their respective jurisdiction.

This is to ensure that madrassas run as per the rules, without diverting their funds elsewhere and the students are not bereft of government schemes.

Nishtha Anushree is Senior Sub-editor at Swarajya. She tweets at @nishthaanushree.


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