Major outreach to minority education

The government plans to give 50 million scholarships for the education of students from minority communities over the next five years to bring them on par with students from the majority, or Hindu, community.

The programme is part of the government's outreach to minority communities, from which it has been accused of distancing itself. The outreach will have a major focus on girls. The different scholarships – intended to be given before and after school board exams - will be provided to 50 million students over the five year tenure of the government and will include 50 per cent girl students, Minority Affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi announced.

The scholarships would include more than one million Begum Hazrat Mahal Girls Scholarship for the economically weaker sections.

The outreach is part of the government's efforts to create an atmosphere of inclusive growth by eradicating the "disease of communalism" and appeasement politics, Naqvi said. The Narendra Modi government is a dispensation committed to "samaveshi vikas, sarvsparshi vishwas (inclusive growth with trust)," the minister added, in line with the Prime Minister’s first statement made after winning a massive mandate in May, in which he had expanded the "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas" slogan to "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas".

The new plan envisages that girls from minority communities, who have dropped out of schools, will be linked to education and employment. They will be provided with "bridge courses" from reputed educational institutions of the country.

This will be provided to all economically weaker students from minority communities - Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, and Parsi.

In a clear effort to reach out to the country’s largest minority community, the Muslims, madrassa (Islamic school) teachers across the country will be given training from various institutions in mainstream subjects.