The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has summoned the chief secretaries (CS) of 11 states and union territories (UTs) for the delay in complying with its directive to identify non-Muslim children, including Hindu children, studying in madrassas so that they may be admitted to schools.
About a year ago, the NCPCR ordered the action stating that enrolling non-Muslim children in madrassas is a blatant violation of Article 28(3) of the Constitution.
The summons has been issued to CS of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Telangana, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The central body stated that the Article prohibits educational institutions from obligating children to participate in religious teaching without parental assent.
It stated that madrassas, as institutions, are primarily responsible for providing religious education to children and that it has been learned that those madrassas funded or recognized by the government provide religious education as well as some formal education to children.
According to Commission Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo, the child rights body has been asking all states and union territories (UTs) for the “last one year to identify Hindu and other non-Muslim children going to madrassas or living in madrassas and getting them shifted and admitted to schools.”
The panel further requested that all governments and territories “make arrangements to provide basic education to children enrolled there by mapping all unmapped unrecognized madrassas.”
The chief secretaries of Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh have been summoned to appear before the Child Rights Commission on January 12, while the top bureaucrats of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been summoned on January 15.
Jharkhand’s chief secretary has been summoned on January 16, while Karnataka and Kerala’s chief secretaries have been summoned on January 17. The chief secretaries of Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Telangana have been summoned on January 18.
The NCPCR had previously requested that states investigate all government-funded and recognized madrassas that allow non-Muslim youngsters. The NCPCR had requested that the investigation include physical verification of the youngsters before admitting them to schools.