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Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav criticised the BJP-led government over the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) recommendation to stop state funding for madrasas and madrasa boards and said "they want to keep everything under their control".
He accused the BJP of discriminatory politics and taking steps that cause "hatred" in society. "BJP does everything that spreads hatred in society. If they have a problem with education, they should have taken steps to improve the quality of education. All institutions, whether madrasas or any other institution, if they had the power, would have closed Sanskrit schools as well. They want control, they want to keep everything under their control," Akhilesh Yadav said. "This country belongs to everyone - the constitution gives us the rights. Whatever system has been established by the constitution, they (BJP) want to change that. They are the people who want to do politics over - hatred, by creating conflicts between castes, religions. But they won't succeed, people of the country, intellectuals of the society now understand that the discriminatory politics of the BJP won't go long," he added. Earlier in the day, NCPCR chief Priyank Kanoongo stated that the rights body, after studying the issue for nine years, found that approximately 1.25 crore children are deprived of their basic rights. The NCPCR has written a letter to the Chief Secretaries and administrators of all states and Union Territories regarding the Commission's report, "Guardians of Faith or Oppressors of Rights: Constitutional Rights of Children vs. Madrasas." The report prepared by the NCPCR consists of 11 chapters mentioning the history of madrasas and their role in violating the educational rights of children. Kanoongo said, "The commission has released its final report after studying this issue for nine years. We have found that around 1.25 crore children are deprived of their basic education rights. They are being tutored in such a way that they would work according to the motives of certain people; this is wrong." "The people who have captured these madrasas are those who used to say that they wanted to preach Islam across India during the India-Pakistan partition. There are madrasa boards in seven to eight states, and we have asked to shut the madrasa boards because they failed to serve their purpose. Donations are being raised for madrasas. This funding should be stopped, and the madrasa boards must be disbanded, and the Hindu children studying in these madrasas must be enrolled in schools," the NCPCR chief said. "We are not against any religion or its education; therefore, Muslim children should also be taken out of madrasas and provided basic education," Kanoongo added. The Commission in its report also asserted that merely constituting a board or obtaining a UDISE code does not mean that the madrasas are following the provisions of the RTE Act, 2009. "Therefore, it has been recommended that state funding to the madrasas and madrasa boards be stopped across all states and Union Territories, and madrasa boards should be discontinued and closed down. This is subject to the judgement of the Supreme Court on SLP (Civil) No. 008541 of 2024 in the case of Uttar Pradesh," the Commission said. "It has also been recommended that all non-Muslim children be taken out of madrasas and admitted to schools to receive fundamental education as per the RTE Act, 2009. Also, children from the Muslim community who are attending madrasas, whether recognized or unrecognised, should be enrolled in formal schools and receive education of the prescribed time and curriculum as per the RTE Act, 2009," the NCPCR added. (ANI)
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