“Around 1.25 cr children deprived of basic education rights”: NCPCR chief on stopping state funding to Madrasas

New Delhi [India], October 12 (ANI): National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) Chief Priyank Kanoongo said on Saturday 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 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 NCPCR consists of 11 chapters mentioning the history of Madrasas and “their role in violation of 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 India-Pakistan partition.

There are Madrasa boards in seven- eight 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,” 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 said.

The Commission in its report also asserted that merely constituting a Board or taking a UDISE Code does not mean that the Madrasas are following the provisions of RTE Act, 2009.

“Therefore, it has been recommended that State funding to the Madrasas and Madrasa Boards be stopped across all States/UTs and Madrasa Boards should be discontinued and closed down. This is subject to the Judgment of the Supreme Court on SLP (Civil) No. 008541 of 2024 in case of Uttar Pradesh,” the Commission said.

“It has also been recommended that all non-Muslim children be taken out of Madrasas and admitted in schools for receiving fundamental education as per the RTE Act, 2009. Also, children from Muslim community who are attending Madrasa, whether recognized or unrecognized, are enrolled in formal schools and received education of the prescribed time and curriculum as per the RTE Act, 2009,” the NCPCR said.