While Manmohan Singh talks about giving a fair share to Muslims in jobs, there are nearly 22 lakh Muslim children in the country who have not seen the inside of a school.
NEW DELHI: While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh talks about giving a fair share to Muslims in jobs, there are nearly 22 lakh Muslim children in the country who have not seen the inside of a school.
Having a literacy rate of 59.1 per cent (as per Census 2001) compared to 65.6 per cent all India literacy rate, Muslims’ education in India is in a dismal state. According to SRI-IMRB Survey of 2005, 9.97 per cent of the total 2.25 crore Muslim children in 6-14 age group were estimated to be out of school (about 12 lakh boys and 10 lakh girls). Of these, nearly 12 per cent are from rural and 7 per cent in urban areas.
Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Assam, West Bengal and Punjab show literacy rates among Muslims below the national literacy rates, while MP, Gujarat, Maharashtra, AP, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have better numbers.
The numbers are substantial enough to force the government to rework its strategies for minority education. The HRD Ministry is making provisions under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to improve levels of education among Muslim children. The ministry claims 6,918 new primary and upper primary schools have been sanctioned in minority-dominated districts in 2006, while 32,250 centres under Education Guarantee Scheme with an enrolment of 120.90 lakh children have been sanctioned. “Our thrust is on the availability of schools in all districts which have more than 20 per cent Muslim population,” said an MHRD official.
Meanwhile, from 2006, onwards, the category Minority (Muslims) is being included in the reporting of enrolment from each school in the country under the District Information System for Education (DISE) database of SSA.
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