Uncertainty looms over Madrasa students in Uttarakhand 

Eid brings sadness for Mohammed Aashyan as his dream of reading the Quran is threatened by Madrasa closures.

Eid is Mohammed Aashyan’s most favourite time of the calendar. The festival, however, doesn’t felt the same this year as the fifteen-year-old remained unhappy and anxious as uncertainty looms large over his one and the only dream. All he wishes is to become the first person of many generations in his family, who is able to read the Islam’s holy book, Quran.

Student of Madarsaa Irshad-Ul-Uloom in Roorkee, Aashyan is one of the hundreds of students of those 136 Madrasas (schools for Islamic studies) which were sealed in a statewide crackdown by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lead Uttarakhand government, in the month of March. The government says that these Madrasas were running ‘illegally’ and are unfit to impart ‘proper’ education to the children. Sources say that there are around 500 such institutions running in the state which violates the norms and will be shut in the days to come.

“The Madrasas was the place where my children use to get full meal, twice a day as I am unable to earn enough to feed the family of seven. The teachers use to give my children bags, books, even clothes to wear in winters. Now I have to take the children to the brick kiln where I work. The heat is unbearable at the site in summers,” says Nafees Ahmed, Ashyan’s father.

Nafees is unlettered and so was his father, grandfather and great-grand father, he recalls. He sends his three daughter’s to a government primary school in the village but says that they hardly get education there as there is just two teachers for so many students.

A report by the Uttarakhand Commission for Rural Development and Migration Prevention, submitted to the government last month, reveals that 1,149 primary schools in the state are running without a teacher and that around 50% of government primary schools have no principal. It added that school from class 1 to 8 are most affected.

Maulana Haroon, head of the Madarsaa Irshad-ul-uloom in Roorkee, alleged that he has applied for the registration from the Uttarakhand Madrasa board long back but the Board convened just one meeting between 2019 to 2025 in which they approve the registration application.

“If the registration process is so slow, how are we supposed to take permission,” he said adding that he wasn’t just teaching the Islamic religious subjects but even basic Hindi, English, Maths and Science, in the Madrasa so that the students are not left behind from the rest of the world.