Ashraf Ali or Sikandar Baba, as his friends call him, is a teacher at Sultanul Uloom madrasa in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. At 41, he is anxious about his job and family’s future. “My older son is 13 years old. Our family’s expenditure is increasing as the children grow older and we age,” he says of his parents, wife, and himself. “I spent 18 years teaching. Over the past few years, it has given me no financial benefit.” Ali is now taking up more work as an electrician, something he did as a side gig, but fears it may become his sole job soon. He has not received the Central government honorarium for about five years now.
Ever since the U.P. government conducted its first survey of madrasas in 2022, the community that runs these Islamic educational institutions has felt under threat. In 2023, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to probe alleged foreign funding sources of madrasas.
In March this year, the Allahabad High Court declared the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004 “unconstitutional”. While the decision was stayed by the Supreme Court a few weeks later, it was unsettling for the community. Now, the proposal to disaffiliate 513 madrasas has been approved by the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education after they failed to register their details on the board’s portal.
Uttar Pradesh has India’s largest population of Muslims — almost 20% of total 20 crore, as per the 2011 Census. The State also has the highest number of madrasas in the country: 16,513 recognised and 8,449 unrecognised, as per the board. These institutions cater to at least 30 lakh students. Of the recognised madrasas, only 560 are government-aided. Here, teachers get regular State government salaries on a par with their counterparts in government schools.
Roughly 21,000 teachers of 7,442 madrasas in U.P. have benefited from grants and honorariums, paid in part by the Centre and the State, in the past. While the Centre provided ₹6,000-₹12,000, depending on the qualification of teachers, the State contributed about ₹2,000-₹3,000.
Ali, who was also dependent on this honorarium, is in Lucknow, the State capital, for a protest. About 30 people from the surrounding districts have gathered in Eco Park to ask for their honorarium. It is not just about paying the teachers though. “Those teaching modern subjects also give education to pupils on Islamic subjects,” he says, adding that it was because of government support that many institutions survived.
Among the affected teachers is Anant Singh from Siddharth Nagar, who holds a BEd degree. “Irregularity in providing honorarium is harming us. A sum of ₹15,000 used to give us stability amid times of high inflation,” he says.
In December last year, a larger protest was held, which went on for over two months. Teachers said they had not been paid by the Central government for over five to six years and by the State government for a year or two. Ali, who heads the Madrasa Aadhunijikaran Shikshak Ekta Samiti, the teachers’ union, was at the forefront of that protest. He remembers sitting through the finger-numbing cold of the season.
Ashraf Ali (wearing the cap), a teacher at Sultanul Uloom madrasa in U.P.’s Bahraich district, who heads the Madrasa Aadhunijikaran Shikshak Ekta Samiti, the teachers’ union. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
‘Tied tightly together’
The Central government began the Madrasa Modernisation Scheme in 1993-94, with the introduction of subjects like Science, Maths, and English on a voluntary basis. In 2014-15, when the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at the Centre, it claimed to have restructured the existing schemes benefiting madrasas under the Scheme for Providing Education to Madrasas/Minorities. One part of the umbrella scheme took care of hiring three teachers per institution, while the other gave a grant for infrastructure.
Madrasas provide four levels of education, matching the mainstream school system: Maulvi (Class 10), Alim (Class 12), Kamil (bachelor’s degree), and Fazil (master’s degree). Most recognised madrasas in Uttar Pradesh follow the norms of the National Council of Educational Research and Training and offer classes in modern subjects along with Islamic education.
In some places, students can choose Deeniyat (religious studies) or Sanskrit as an optional course. Madrasa education has been linked with the National Institute of Open Schooling. Ali did his schooling in a madrasa, secured a postgraduate degree in History from Lucknow University, and later graduated with a degree in Electronics from an Industrial Training Institute. He now teaches Social Sciences.
Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, former chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education, whose term ended this September, says he has written multiple letters to the Union and State governments seeking grants. He draws attention to the Prime Minister’s idea of “Koran in one hand and computer in the other”. “Muslim students can be successful only when these educational institutions [madrasas] receive grants from the state in letter and spirit,” Javed says.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Muslim community often lags behind in development indicators such as education and employment. Javed says it is not just the delayed honorarium that has worried teachers about their future. “Over the last few years, there have been reports of many recognised madrasas being on the brink of closure.”
During the mid-September meeting of the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education, when disaffiliation of the 500-odd recognised madrasas was recommended, many of the institutions had requested this move, says Javed.
Thriving vs surviving
In the State government’s 2022 madrasa survey, various details were gathered. These included when the organisation that ran the madrasa was set up; the number of teachers, students, and staff; the curriculum; whether the madrasa was operating out of a privately-owned or rented building; and if the building was safe and had drinking water, furniture, and other facilities.
The SIT found that over ₹100 crore had been received by madrasas from abroad over three years. However, evidence supporting this claim was not made public. It was alleged that madrasas located in the border districts along neighbouring Nepal had suspicious funding sources.
“Who would like to face frequent harassment in the name of inquiries? We were hopeful after our protest in January that pending grants would be released, but nothing happened. We have lost hope,” says Hafijullah Khan, another madrasa teacher, in Lucknow.
The Madarsa Act, 2004, enacted by the U.P. government, regulated and governed the functioning of madrasas in the State. It was under this Act that the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education was established to oversee and supervise activities of madrasas in the State. When the High Court deemed this an unconstitutional body and the Act itself in violation of secularism and fundamental rights, it also asked the government to accommodate the children in madrasas in U.P. board schools. While this was stayed by the Supreme Court, the “anything can happen” fear among students and teachers is hard to dispel.
Madrasa is an Arabic word for an educational institution, and it came into India in the medieval period after the first Islamic settlers established kingdoms in the Gangetic plain. Through time, madrasas have been supported by religious endowments. Even today, unrecognised madrasas affiliated with Islamic seminaries like Darul Uloom Deoband are able to manage finances better, with money mostly coming in from charity.
Non-Muslims like writer Munshi Premchand, too, studied in madrasas as they provided a window into Persian and other subjects. “Madrasas were at the forefront against the British during the Revolt of 1857, and the Independence movement,” says Aadil Faraz, a researcher, who has written the book, Ahde Akbari Mein Ulama ke Ilmi wa Siyasi Naqoosh, on Islamic education in Mughal emperor Akbar’s time.
Students at Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow. | Photo Credit: SANDEEP SAXENA
Routine for some
The U.P. government says the derecognition of 500-odd madrasas is routine. “It happens in CBSE, ICSE, or any other board of education. Some educational institutions are accorded affiliation, and some get deregistered,” says Danish Azad Ansari, State Minister for Minority Welfare, Muslim Waqf, and Haj. He says the survey was to help the institutions benefit from existing government schemes.
Opposition parties, however, allege a systematic pattern of intimidation aimed at discrediting madrasas. “If you look at the developments in the last two years, there is a structural design for creating a false perception about madrasas,” says Shahnawaz Alam, national secretary of the Congress. “If the government found anything wrong in the SIT probe or the survey, they should make public what kind of actions were initiated over the wrongdoings. No concrete details were shared. We demand a White Paper on the whole exercise, so the truth can come out,” he says.
Meanwhile, the teachers have the daily drudgery of looking for jobs to meet their basic needs. Mumtaz Bano, 48, from Bijnor, who teaches Social Sciences, is devastated. Not only is she not getting the honorarium but her husband has also been diagnosed with lung cancer. “I contacted our teachers’ union for help, but it is also helpless. My husband was running the household with carpentry work, earning ₹400 to ₹500 a day,” she says. Bano is now supporting her family of five through sewing. “I earn ₹6,000 a month, but it is impossible to buy medicines with this.”
To support themselves, some teachers now drive autorickshaws, while others sell fruits from carts on the road and take home tuitions.
Published – October 06, 2024 07:59 pm IST
