The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has followed up on its recommendation to the chief secretaries of all states and union territories to conduct a detailed inquiry of all recognised madrasas admitting non-Muslim children. In a notice issued to the UP Minority Affairs and Waqf Department, NCPCR said that giving Islamic education to non-Muslim students was a violation of Article 28(3) and sought a reply within three days.
The Commission’s latest directive came on January 20, two days after UP Madrassa Education Board (UPMEB) chairman Iftikhar Ahmed Javed rejected its recommendation. Javed said that apart from religious educations, madrasas were also imparting “modern education to children under NCERT syllabus”. Javed, who is a Bharatiya Janata Party member, had evoked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” while expressing his angst at the manner in which divisiveness was being spread in educational institutions through such orders.