Thiruvananthapuram: Muslim community outfits and leaders on Sunday said the apex child rights body’s call to stop state funding to madrassas would not impact institutions in Kerala as they receive no such financial assistance in the southern state.
Cutting across their political differences, the ruling CPI(M) and the opposition Congress came out vehemently criticising the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)’s directives, advising the states to stop funding madrassas.
Islamic scholar and Samastha leader Abdul Samad Pookkottur said the madrasas in Kerala are being run by the community at its own expense and they accept no money for the same from the government.
Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama, generally known as Samastha, is an association of Sunni scholars.
While speaking to reporters in Malappuram, he noted that, like general education, religious education is also equally a right of students.
In India, people have the right to propagate, believe and follow their respective religions, he said.
The scholar said the NCPCR’s directive would not impact the southern state as no madrasa here accept any special assistance from the government.
He, however, said many north Indian states have government-funded madrassas and institutions like madrasa board.
“In Kerala, madrassas seek no fund from the state. They receive no special assistance from the government,” he said.
“What we have in Kerala is the Madrasa Teachers’ Welfare Fund Board which accepts money from the teachers and the government makes a contribution in accordance with that,” Pookkottur said.
On the NCPCR’s directives against the madrassas, the scholar said the responsibility of the government is to examine the shortcomings in such institutions and to provide children with their general education along with religious education.
“The closing down of madrassas is amounted to question a community’s right to religious studies which cannot be accepted at any cost,” he said.
Pookkottur also indicated that the Samastha would join if there is any national level protest in this regard.
Political parties like the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Indian National League (INL) also criticised the apex child rights body’s directives against madrassas.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan termed the child rights’ panel directives as “unconstitutional” and said it would create communal polarisation in the country.
Though it would not create any issue in Kerala, the situation was not the same in other states, he told reporters in Kannur.
Sharing similar views, the Congress party said the Centre was trying to eliminate minority rights including stopping the functioning of madrassas.
“Attempts to create division and take political advantage should be resisted and defeated. The Congress will go ahead with its efforts to unite all,” opposition leader V D Satheesan told reporters in Kochi.
CPI, the second-largest coalition partner in the ruling LDF, said that the proposals of the NCPCR to stop funding to the madrassas was part of the Sangh Parivar agenda to marginalise and alienate the Muslim community in the country.
CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam, in a statement, urged the Commission to withdraw from its “dangerous move”.
The apex child rights body has raised serious concerns about the state of functioning in madrassas and called for stopping state funding to them unless they comply with the Right to Education Act.
In its latest report titled ‘Guardians of Faith or Oppressors of Rights?’, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights said religious institutions operating outside the purview of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 had a negative impact.
According to the report, the exemption of madrassas from the RTE Act has deprived children attending these institutions of quality education.
