NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday slammed BJP when asked about the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) recommendation to stop state funding for madrasas acrosss the nation.
The SP president said that the saffron party wants to do politics over hatred and discrimination. “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,” said Yadav while talking to reporters in Lucknow.
NCPCR on Saturday issued a report titled “Guardians of Faith or Oppressors of Rights: Constitutional Rights of Children vs madrasas,” which discusses the historical role of madrasas along with their impact on children’s educational rights. NCPCR in its report recommended to close down Madrasa Boards and stop state funding to them.
NCPCR chief Priyank Kanoongo said the report has been released after an analysis of 9 years and children in Madrasas are tutored in such a way that they would work according to the motives of certain people.
“Commission has released its final report after studying this issue for 9 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 India-Pakistan partition. There are Madrasa boards in 7-8 states and we have asked to shut the Madrasa boards because they filed to serve the purpose…donations are being raised for Madrasas. This funding should be stopped and Madrasa Board must be disbanded and the Hindu children who are studying in these Madrasas must be enrolled in Schools.” said Kanoongo.
The report maintains that it is the state’s duty to ensure all children receive formal education as defined under the RTE Act. The NCPCR highlighted that merely having a Board or a UDISE Code does not mean madrasas comply with the RTE Act requirements.
The commission also recommended that non-Muslim children be removed from madrasas and placed in formal schools as per the RTE Act. It also suggested that Muslim children currently in madrasas should be enrolled in formal schools to ensure they receive the prescribed education and curriculum.