The move evoked a mixed reaction from the community leaders, with one section welcoming it cautiously and the other questioning the need to tinker with the madrassa students traditional attire.
Lucknow: The UP Government has proposed a new dress code for Madrasa students in a bid to end the difference between other school students.
According to official figures, 16,461 Madrasas are functioning in the state, including 560 government-aided and 8,171 attached to the Madrasa Modernisation scheme.
“The aim of the UP government is to bring madrasas at par with other educational institutions in every sense. Till now, students in madrasas have been wearing ‘kurta-payjamas’ but now this dress code will make it more formal… We might also try to meet the expenses,” said State Minister for Muslim Waqf and Haj Mohsin Raza on Tuesday.
“Stressing that it is only the BJP-led governments which have done justice with the minorities, the minister said the other political parties have been considering them as only a vote-bank. Raza said the current dressing style of madrasa students reflects a clear demarcation between them and the students of other schools which will come to an end now,” The Hindustan Times reported.
“The state government has already gone ahead with its plans to introduce NCERT books in the madrasas of Uttar Pradesh in a bid to bring their students at par with their counterparts in other schools and to modernise the education in madrasas affiliated to the State Madrasa Board,” the report added.
“Our intentions are absolutely clear as we work with transparency and believe in sabka saath, sabka vikas”, he said adding that Prime Minister wanted to integrate the Muslim society with the country’s mainstream with a Quran in one hand and a laptop in the other. “Madrasa students are already availing religious education, we are not going to hamper it, we are only going to impart them social education to integrate them with the country’s mainstream and help them go to the IIMs or the IITs and clear competitive examinations,” he said in the report.
“The government’s move evoked a mixed reaction from the community leaders with one section welcoming it cautiously and the other questioning the need to tinker with the madrassa students traditional attire. “We will welcome it if it is good, but only after seeing what the changes are and with what intentions they are being brought,” said UP unit president of the Jamait Ulema-e-Hind, Ashhad Rashidi, who runs a number of madrassas in Moradabad, Rampur and Bijnore. The spokesperson for All India Shia Personal Law Board, Yasoob Abbas, however, questioned the need for bringing a change in the traditional attire worn in madrassas. “Who has objected to the traditional attire… it is acceptable by all… we are not in favour of the government forcing a new dress for students,” Abbas said in a report by The Business Standard.
“The HRD ministry is working on a plan to revamp madrasa education in the country under the Scheme to Provide Quality Education in Madrasas (SPQEM), under which the institutions would have to get affiliated to either madrasa boards or state boards to be eligible for central government funds. The government is also planning to map madrasas in the country based on their Global Positioning System,” reported News18.
With inputs from PTI