Lok Sabha Question No. 2826 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-05
Subject: Financial Asistance to Madrasas
Ministry: MINORITY AFFAIRS
Asked by: Kani K. Navas, Balubhau (Alias Suresh Narayan) Dhanorkar

- (a) No, Sir.
- (b) Does not arise.
- (c) The Ministry of Minority Affairs implements below mentioned schemes for educational empowerment of six notified minority communities i.e. Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Muslims, Buddhists and Parsis under which more than 4.52 crore minority students belonging to economically  weaker  section  from  the  six  centrally  notified  minority  communities  have been benefitted:
- (i)  Scholarship  Schemes : Pre-Matric  Scholarship,  Post-Matric  Scholarship  and  Meritcum-Means based Scholarship.
- (ii)  In  addition,  the  Maulana  Azad  Education  Foundation  implements  Begum  Hazrat Mahal  National  Scholarship  for  meritorious  girl  students,  belonging  to  the  minority

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2826 TO BE ANSWERED ON 05.08.2021

## FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO MADRASAS

## 2826.  SHRI K NAVASKANI: SHRI BALUBHAU ALIAS SURESHNARAYAN DHANORKAR:

Will the Minister of MINORITY AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  is  aware  that  several  States  in  the  country  are  taking measures ranging from stopping financial assistance to madrasas to abolish State run Madrasas against the Constitutional mandate ;
- (b) if  so  ,  whether  the  Government  would  consider  giving  appropriate  directions  to  the State  Governments  to  protect  educational  rights  of  minorities  guaranteed  by  the Constitution and if so, the details thereof ; and
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  implemented  any  new  scheme  for  the  educational upliftment  of  minority  communities  during  the  last  three  years  and  if  so;  the  details thereof?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF MINORITY AFFAIRS (SHRI MUKHATR ABBAS NAQVI)

communities and whose total annual family income is less than Rs.2 lakh, and who are studying in Classes IX to XII.

- (iii)  Maulana  Azad  National  Fellowship  Scheme  provides  financial  assistance  to students  from  notified  minority  communities,  to  pursue  higher  education  such  as M.Phil and Ph.D.
- (iv) Padho Pardesh: A scheme for providing interest subsidy on educational loans for overseas  studies  to  enable  students  from  minority  communities  to  pursue  higher education.
- (v) Naya Savera: The Free Coaching and Allied Scheme aims to assist students and candidates  from  minority  communities  to  qualify  in  examinations  for  admission  in technical and professional courses as well as to succeed in competitive examinations for recruitment to Group 'A', 'B' and 'C' services and other equivalent posts under the Central  and  State  Governments  including  PSUs  etc.  During  last  seven  years  about 69,500 candidates have benefitted from the coaching scheme of this Ministry.
- (vi) Educational Loan Scheme of National Minorities Development Finance Corporation  (NMDFC):  NMDFC  a  PSU  under  the  Ministry  implements  Educational Loan  Scheme  with  the  objective  to  facilitate  job  oriented  education  for  the  eligible persons  belonging  to  minorities.  Loan  is  available  for  'technical  and  professional courses' for which loan up to Rs. 20.00 lakh for domestic courses and upto Rs.30.00 lakh for courses abroad is provided.

Besides,  there  is  another  Scheme  namely  Pradhan  Mantri  Jan  Vikas  Karyakram (PMJVK), which is implemented by the Ministry, in 1300 identified Minority Concentration  Areas  (MCAs)  of  the  country  with  the  objective  to  develop  socioeconomic  assets  and  basic  amenities  in  these  areas.  The  thrust  of  PMJVK  is  to allocate  at  least  80%  of  the  resources  to  education,  health  and  skill  development sectors of which at least 33-40% are allocated for women centric projects. The type of education  projects  sanctioned  under  PMJVK  includes  new  school  buildings,  student hostels,  residential  schools,  smart  classrooms,  computer  labs,  Libraries,  Degree colleges, ITIs, Polytechnics, Unani Medical College, Nursing College, .etc. Under the PMJVK more  than  43000  basic  infrastructure  projects    have  been  created  such  as schools, colleges, hostels, community centres, common  service centres, ITIs, Polytechnics,  Girls  Hostels,  Sadbhavana  Mandaps,    Hunaar  Hub,  etc  in  backward Minority concentrated areas across the country.

In  addition,  the  Scheme  for  providing  Education  to  Madarsas/Minorities  (SPEMM), which  comprises  two  previously  existing  schemes  namely,  Scheme  for  Providing Quality Education in Madarsas (SPQEM) and Infrastructural Development in Minority Institutions  (IDMI)  has  been  transferred  from  Department  of  School  Education  & Literacy,  Ministry  of  Education  to  this  Ministry  with  effect  from  1 st April,  2021.  The objectives  of  SPQEM  is  to  encourage  traditional  institutions  like  Madarsas  and Maktabs  by  giving financial  assistance to  engage  teachers  to teach Science, Mathematics, Social Studies, Hindi  and English in their curriculum so that academic proficiency for classes I-XII is attainable for children studying in these institutions. The process  of  modernization  of  traditional  Madarsas  and  Maktabs  is  voluntary.  The objectives of IDMI is to facilitate education of minorities  by  augmenting and strengthening  school  infrastructure  in  Minority  Institutions  (elementary/  secondary/ senior secondary schools) in order to expand facilities for formal education to children of minority communities.

Besides,  the  Department  of  School  Education  and  Literacy  (DoSEL),  Ministry  of Education implements Samagra Shiksha scheme and one of the major objectives of the scheme is bridging of gender and social category gaps including minorities at all levels  of  school  education.  The  Scheme  reaches  out  to  children  including  those belonging  to  SC,  ST,  minority  communities  and  transgender.  The  scheme  has  also given attention to urban deprived children, children affected by periodic migration, and children  living  in  remote  and  scattered  habitations.  The  Integrated  Scheme  also focuses  on  the  identified  Special  Focus  Districts  (SFDs)  on  the  basis  of  adverse performance on various indicators of enrolment, retention, and gender parity, as well as concentration of SC, ST and minority communities.

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