Owaisi slams Union govt. for scrapping scholarships, cites gaps in Muslim education

Hyderabad parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday criticised the Union government for discontinuing the pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means scholarships, describing the move as an injustice to students.

Mr. Owaisi was speaking at the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) headquarters in Darussalaam where he distributed educational kits and provided assistance towards examination fee for approximately 1,700 students studying in government Urdu-medium schools.

“By withholding scholarships for the last four years, you are doing injustice to students. I strongly condemn this action of the Union Government,” Mr Owaisi said.

The AIMIM president also spoke about dropout rates in the Muslim community and cited data to highlight the gaps in educational access. According to data from 2014, 15% of Muslim children did not attend school, he said.

Citing UDISE data, he said minority students accounted for 14.5% in Class X in 2020-21, with the figure increasing to 24.4% in the subsequent year. “This is a slap on the faces of those who say that Muslims do not want to study,” he said.

However, data from the National Family Health Survey 5, he said, showed that the proportion of girls aged between six and 17 years who had not attended school was highest among Muslims compared to other communities, he said.

Mr Owaisi said that Muslims account for 14% of the population in the country. Using this as a benchmark, he sought to explain how their representation is disproportionally low. “From primary level to secondary level, the percentage drops from 8% to 6%. In higher education, meaning XI, XII, it goes down to 4%, he said. “Now you think about it. Is this not an example of hatred of those who are in power? Time and again they lie that Muslims don’t want to study,” he said.

Citing the Kundu Committee report, Mr Owaisi said Professor Amitabh Kundu had identified lack of financial resources as a major reason why Muslim families were unable to educate their children. The absence of a safe environment for girls and the lack of schools in their villages were other factors, he added.

“You will be shocked to know that there are over 300-400 villages in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal where there are no schools,” he said.

Mr Owaisi also cited enrolment data from Uttar Pradesh for 2021-22. While Muslims accounted for 19.26% of the State’s population, their enrolment share stood at 17.3% at the primary level, 12.6% at the secondary level and 11.4% at the higher secondary level, he said.

Referring to Telangana, he said nearly five lakh students appeared for the SSC examinations every year. Given that Muslims account for 12% of the State’s population, around 60,000 to 65,000 Muslim students should be appearing for the examinations, of whom approximately 8,000 were Urdu-medium students, he said.

The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) among Muslims in Telangana stood at 33.6%, compared to the State average of 40%. The GER for the community was 34% among girls and 33% among boys, he said.

“Indeed, we have not touched the State average of 40%, but the GER is the highest in the country, followed by Tamil Nadu at 27.6%,” he said, adding that the data was sourced from the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration.

Mr Owaisi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to go through the Kundu Committee report, which was submitted to the Union government in October 2014. The report, he said, highlighted the challenges faced by Muslims in accessing education.