OWAISI SLAMS GOVT FOR MUSLIM BACKWARDNESS

MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, commenting on the report ‘Household Social Consumption on Education in India’ said it shows that the literacy gap between Muslims and other groups continues to increase.

Because successive governments have refused to invest in education for Muslims, haven’t made scholarships demand driven and not established schools for Muslim students, Muslims remain at the bottom of the barrel, he said.

Explaining that demanddriven scholarships mean that every eligible person who applies for the scholarship will get it, Owaisi said that “since our standing committee report has ‘gracefully’ slashed 80 crore from scholarships, this is unlikely to happen.”

Last month, Union minister for minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi promised crores of scholarships to minority students. In the budget, BJP slashed `80 crore from schemes that required a substantial increase.

The fact that so many people applied for these scholarships but only a few get it proves, asserted Owaisi, that Muslims aspire to study despite the absence of support. “Reservations may be too much for you to digest but at least establish more schools and fund more scholarships,” he said.

The report shows that on every attendance ratio, Muslims lag behind others. What is more worrisome is that the ratio falls substantially as Muslim students move from primary towards higher education. In other words, Muslim students are forced to drop out due to lack of financial support.

Muslims have the highest proportion of young people who have never been enrolled in a formal education programme. This again points to the worsening state of government spending on education for Muslims. Muslim backwardness is solely a product of deliberate neglect by the government, Owaisi contended.

The parliamentary standing committee on social justice’s 2018 report showed that 85 lakh Muslim students are deprived of scholarships every year because the government gives scholarships to only a limited number of people and does not make it demand driven, Owaisi reiterated.