The importance of minority education
|
COMMENTS 
At a conference on minority welfare and education, held recently in the capital, members expressed their views on the position of minorities in India today, their problems, and what needs to be done to improve their status
Ahmad Rashid Shervani, member, National Commission for Minorities, is a raconteur par excellence. One of his favourite tales is about how he ticked off Indira Gandhi during a discussion they were having on the plight of the Indian Muslim.
“You and your father have ruled India for 25 years primarily because of Muslim votes. During this period, the proportion of Muslims in government services came down systematically, and you claim to provide a secular government,” Shervani caustically informed Gandhi.
Not one to lose her cool, Indira Gandhi retorted: “You cannot put the entire blame on us. The main reason for this decline is that Muslims have lagged behind in education. Muslims comprise only 3% of our total graduates.”
This conversation took place almost 30 years ago. How much has the situation changed today? Shervani admits that he was so startled by Gandhi’s revelation that he has made it his life’s mission to try and ensure that more and more Muslim children attend school.
This intervention, as that of several educationists, has made a difference. “In 1976, only one Muslim girl got a first division from a Muslim intermediate college in Uttar Pradesh. Last year, the number had increased to 1,200,” Shervani points out.
But this is a drop in the ocean. Muslims continue to lag way behind their compatriots in the field of education. They rank 10 percentage points behind the national average in terms of male literacy. They constitute only 4% of the total number of candidates appearing for Class 10, 3% of those appearing for Class 12, and 2.3% of college graduates. This, despite a population strength of 180 million. By contrast, children from smaller communities comprise 10-15% of candidates at the Class 10, 12 and undergraduate levels.
The figure for Muslim girls is even more abysmal. Muslim women graduates comprise less than 1% of all women graduates. And it’s the same story when it comes to specialist courses.
Former bureaucrat, Mooza Raza, who is presently chairman of the Chennai-based Southern India Education Trust, believes that both central and state governments need to institute incentive schemes, including scholarships for minority students, that are on a par with those existing for SC and ST students. Zoya Hasan, professor of political science at Jawaharlal Nehru University, goes a step further. “The government needs to provide more single-sex schools in minority-concentrated areas. They also need to link this with midday meals which provide an incentive to kids to come to school,” Hasan says.
This interchange of ideas took place at a conference on minority welfare and education, organised by the human resource ministry, in the capital, last week.
Professor Mushirul Hasan, vice-chancellor of Jamia Millia University also believes that the poor representation of minorities, especially Muslims, in public office is because of their educational backwardness. “Muslims are not asking for preferential treatment but are asking for their just sphere in public resources,” says Hasan.
The silver lining is that Muslims in south India, because of their earnings from several Gulf countries, have been able to generate their own resources and start several new educational initiatives. The problem lies in the BIMARU states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh where most Muslims live, Hasan adds.
There are three key issues that have thrown most minority institutions into a tailspin. The first relates to getting minority status recognition from the government. Professor Syed Hamid, chancellor of Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi, explains how although the government wants minority groups to open up schools for members of their own community, they are hamstrung as they find it next to impossible getting clearances from bureaucrats. “Getting recognition does not give us material spin-offs but allows us the right to run the institution without outside interference,” Hamid says.
The other major point of contention is how to tackle the madrasas. Poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar made a strong plea for the content base of madrasas to be updated. Dr Mushirul Hasan supported him in this demand. However, leading religious scholars from the two Dar ul Ulooms in Deoband and Lucknow insisted that a board for madrasas imposed from above, which among other things would look into the issue of updating syllabi, would not be acceptable.
Maulana Anzar Shah Masoodi Kashmiri of Deoband also opposed a national board for madrasas. He cited the example of the state board of madrasas set up in Bihar, which had not been able to achieve much because funds were not reaching the madrasas. “If there is a demand for a national board for madrasas from the grassroots level, then it makes sense. An imposition of a board from above without consulting a majority of madrasas in the country makes no sense.”
Similar views were expressed by Saeedul Rehman Azmi Nadvi, principal of the Lucknow-based Dar ul Uloom Nadwatul Uloom. “Wherever the government is running a board for madrasas, the board is doing badly,” said Nadvi.
Differences also arose on the extent of reservations that should be permitted at Muslim-run institutions. Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) vice-chancellor, Professor Nasim Ahmad, argued that minority institutions should not have reservations for dalits and tribals. His argument was that already 55% of all seats at AMU were being given to Hindu students on the basis of merit. If another 25% were reserved for dalit/SCs/STs then very few seats would remain for Muslim students. “Muslims are more backward than SCs/STs,” Ahmad said.
Ahmad’s views were strongly contested by Akhtar, who declared: “If such are your views that you cannot reserve seats for dalits and SCs/STs then you should hang your head in shame.”
The other major complaint expressed across the board was the lack of available statistics on the present economic and educational status of different communities. Hamid pointed out that up to 1941, the national census reports used to publish a community-based break-up of literacy and employment. This data is no longer available. Despite several reminders to the National Census Commission, by Shervani and others, to provide the literacy and employment figures of various minority groups, culled from the 2001 census, the data has not been made available. This information could obviously be used to highlight the government’s inadequacies. And so a wall of silence and misinformation has deliberately been built around minorities.
Human resources department minister Arjun Singh is keen to break down the wall. Singh has announced the setting up of a separate commission to enhance the welfare of socially and economically backward sections. It is hoped that this commission will not go the way of other such august bodies set up in the past.
(Rashme Sehgal is an independent writer and journalist based in New Delhi)
InfoChange News & Features, July 2004