Uncertainty looms over Madrasa students in Uttarakhand -OxBig News Network

Eid is Mohammed Aashyan’s most favourite time of the calendar. The festival, however, doesn’t felt the same this year as the fifteen-year-old remained unhappy and anxious as uncertainty looms large over his one and the only dream. All he wishes is to become the first person of many generations in his family, who is able to read the Islam’s holy book, Quran.

Student of Madarsaa Irshad-Ul-Uloom in Roorkee, Aashyan is one of the hundreds of students of those 136 Madrasas (schools for Islamic studies) which were sealed in a statewide crackdown by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lead Uttarakhand government, in the month of March. The government says that these Madrasas were running ‘illegally’ and are unfit to impart ‘proper’ education to the children. Sources say that there are around 500 such institutions running in the state which violates the norms and will be shut in the days to come.

“The Madrasas was the place where my children use to get full meal, twice a day as I am unable to earn enough to feed the family of seven. The teachers use to give my children bags, books, even clothes to wear in winters. Now I have to take the children to the brick kiln where I work. The heat is unbearable at the site in summers,” says Nafees Ahmed, Ashyan’s father.

Nafees is unlettered and so was his father, grandfather and great-grand father, he recalls. He sends his three daughter’s to a government primary school in the village but says that they hardly get education there as there is just two teachers for so many students.

A report by the Uttarakhand Commission for Rural Development and Migration Prevention, submitted to the government last month, reveals that 1,149 primary schools in the state are running without a teacher and that around 50% of government primary schools have no principal. It added that school from class 1 to 8 are most affected.

Maulana Haroon, head of the Madarsaa Irshad-ul-uloom in Roorkee, alleged that he has applied for the registration from the Uttarakhand Madrasa board long back but the Board convened just one meeting between 2019 to 2025 in which they approve the registration application.

“If the registration process is so slow, how are we supposed to take permission,” he said adding that he wasn’t just teaching the Islamic religious subjects but even basic Hindi, English, Maths and Science, in the Madrasa so that the students are not left behind from the rest of the world.

Abdul Rehman, a teacher at Madrasa Jamiul Uloom, located in Dehradun’s Sahaspur area says that the administration sealed the under construction part of the 40 year old Madrasa stating that the new construction wasnt approved by the authorities concerned. His Madrasa has all the needed registration.

“This Madrasas was built in 1971. No map approval was needed at that time. All we were doing is making third floor in the Madrasas as the second and first one were leaking in rains. It becomes difficult to accommodate students in classes at the ground floor. We asked them to give us time to apply for permission but they refused,” said Mr Rehman.

Mohammed Azim, 13, student of class 9th at Global School in Dehradun use to take evening classes to read Quran at Anwariya Hafatul Uloom, a small Makhtab (tuition classes for Islamic studies) situated in Bharuwala locality. His tuition classes were also sealed in the crackdown. He and his friends are now looking for another evening tuition class, but the challenge is most of them are shut fearing the sealing.

Khursheed Ahmed Siddique, secretary Jamiat Ulema Hindu (Uttarakhand), says that the organisation has now moved to the Supreme Court seeking relief to the students who are now deprived of education, only because of the government of the state is ‘going after a particular community’. He alleged that the sealing of the Madrasas is a ‘politically motivate’ in continuation of the previous ‘draconian’ crackdown of the government on Mazar’s and bring a law like Unifom Civil Code, which he termed was just to target ‘Muslims’.

“The aim is not to give quality education to children but to ensure that Muslims are barred to learn and practice their religion. They are not just shutting Madrasas but also Makhtab’s, which are just tuition classes to teach children read Arbi, the language in which Quran is written in,” said Mr Siddiqui.

He added that there is no requirement of affiliation for Makhtab’s as students who come here for a couple of hours in the evening are school goers in the day time.

As the future of all the students of the Madrasas were hanging in lurch, the child rights panel of Uttarakhand, had requested the government to ensure that each of them is admitted in school. The sources in the government say that a list of all those students is being compiled and necessary action will be taken.

Responding to the allegations pertaining to registrations and crackdown, Mufti Shamoon Qasmi, chairman of the Uttarakhand Madrasa Education Board said that even if the Mdrasa board has convened one meeting in five years, they received only 88 applications for registration.

“Among those 88 applications, we in February approved 49 institutions while 37 were asked to fulfil the norms. We also renewed the registration of 48 Madrasas,” said Mr Qasmi.

He added that Makhtab’s are surely not Madrasas and if they are being sealed, the owners need to give the Board in written that they are only running evening tuitions and they a request will be made to the government to unseal them.