Sangh Parivar

The
Centre has advised all universities to increase the number of Muslim
teachers in colleges located in areas with a high concentration of
people from the community.

All
universities have received a letter, dated May 6, from the University
Grant Commission that passed on this instruction from the human
resource development (HRD) ministry, a Benaras Hindu University (BHU)
teacher said.

The
ministry had written to the UGC on March 10 this year to “post Muslim
teachers in educational institutions in areas of Muslim population”,
based on the recommendations of the Sachar panel that looked into the
social, economic and educational status of Indian Muslims. The Sachar
report had been tabled in Parliament on November 30, 2006.

The
committee had found that only one in 25 undergraduate students was a
Muslim. The ratio fell to one in 50 at the postgraduate level.

The
ministry apparently believes that appointing more Muslim teachers could
encourage more students from the community to join higher education
institutions in Muslim-dominated areas.

“I
would request you to advise universities and colleges suitably so that
the alarmingly low access of Muslim students to higher education could
be improved with the positioning of teachers belonging to that
community wherever feasible,” the HRD ministry letter said.

As
a first step, BHU has asked affiliated colleges to transfer Muslim
lecturers from colleges in mixed areas to towns where the population of
students from the community is high.

In
Uttar Pradesh, a high percentage of Muslim students comes from towns
such as Azamgarh, Jaunpur and Lucknow in the east and central parts of
the state. The western districts where their percentage is high
includes towns like Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Bagpat and Aligarh.

The letter has triggered howls of protest from the BJP, which termed it “politically motivated”.

Last
year, the UPA government had worked out a 15-point action plan based on
the Sachar recommendations. Instructions were issued to improve the
representation of minorities in government, public sector enterprises
and public sector banks.

The
education ministry had announced a special drive, in districts with a
substantial population of Muslims, to train primary, upper primary and
secondary-level teachers.