Congress Leader Sushil Anand Shukla alleged that the BJP government was using the NCPCR directive for political gains.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – A total of 2,159 non-Muslim students have been identified across different madrassas registered with the Chhattisgarh government. Out of these, 1,735 are associated with primary-level madrassas, and 424 with the pre-middle ones.
This came as the government, responding to a long-pending directive from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), collected the data aimed at identifying non-Muslim children in madrassas for enrollment in mainstream schools.
The response from the state administration follows a summons by the NCPCR to chief secretaries of 11 states and Union Territories, including Chhattisgarh, for not acting on the directive for the past year.
An official communiqué from the Directorate of Public Instructions, dated January 4, instructed all District Education Officers in Chhattisgarh to conduct a detailed inquiry into government-funded and recognised madrassas admitting non-Muslim children. The directive emphasised physical verification of children during the inquiry and subsequent enrollment in mainstream schools.
The initiative came in response to complaints received by the NCPCR about non-Muslim children receiving religious education in madrassas without parental consent.
Chhattisgarh, with 271 registered madrassas, spread across five revenue divisions, responded with a comprehensive tabulation in a 5-page verification report. The report revealed the enrollment of 10,212 students in these madrassas, with seven unmapped madrassas found in the state.
Director of DPI, Divya Umesh Mishra, asserted that the NCPCR was satisfied with the comprehensive report, based on real-time data from the School Education Department, Tribal Welfare Department, and Women and Child Welfare Department.
The report also highlighted the distribution of non-Muslim students in madrassas across districts, with Surguja district having the highest enrollment of 309 non-Muslim children. Importantly, the inquiry found that these students in primary and pre-middle madrassas were receiving modern (formal) education, not religious education.
In response to these developments, the Congress party in Chhattisgarh accused the BJP government of pursuing a communal agenda. Sushil Anand Shukla, Chairman of the Communication Department, Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress, alleged that the BJP was using the NCPCR directive for political gains.
Former chairman of Chhattisgarh Madarsa Board, Altaf Ahmed, urged against discrimination based on religious beliefs in education. He stated that education should transcend communal lines, emphasising that madrassas play a crucial role in providing both traditional and modern education to students, regardless of their faith.
