Stop funding madrasas: Child rights body tells state governments

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has written to the chief secretaries and administrators of all states and Union territories asking them to stop funding madrasas and madrasa boards, reported ANI on Saturday.

Priyank Kanoongo, chief of the child rights body, wrote in the letter: “It has been recommended that State funding to the Madrasas and Madrasa Boards be stopped across all States/Union territories and Madrasa Boards should be discontinued and closed down.”

Kanoongo also wrote that all children, Muslim or otherwise, should be enrolled in schools recognised under the Right to Education Act, 2009.

“The exemptions of religious institutions from the RTE Act 2009 led to the exclusion of children attending only religious institutions from the formal education system,” Kanoongo’s letter added. “What was intended to empower children ultimately created new layers of deprivation and discrimination due to wrong interpretation.”

The recommendations in Kanoongo’s letter are based on a report – Guardians of Faith or Oppressors of Rights: Constitutional Rights of Children vs Madrasas – prepared by the commission to assess the alleged role of madrasas in violating children’s right to education.

Kanoongo also urged states and Union territories to take steps to close down madrasa education boards, but clarified that a final decision in the matter would be subject to...

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