By TCN News,
Mumbai: On the International Minorities Rights Day, Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) has demanded more scholarships and benefits for Muslim students at par with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes’ students.
AMP had organised a conference to mark the International Minorities Rights Day.
Aamir Idrisi of AMP said, “This conference seeks to highlight the glaring differences in the scholarships that have been provided for Schedule Castes who constitute about 16.2% of India’s population whereas there is no financial support for students of Muslim Community to pursue higher education, although they constitute the largest group of socially and educationally backward sections @ 13.4%. In the absence of education, they are unable to compete for jobs with those who have acquired good quality education, thereby affecting their income.”
Maulana Mustaqeem Azmi, Presiden JUH Maharashtra said, “We appeal to all fair and just minded individuals to join us in appealing to the Prime Minister of India, Central Government of India and State Governments to quickly enhance the scholarship amount for Muslims, bring parity with regard to eligibility criteria as well as promote Top Class education, Overseas and Higher education on par with those granted to Schedule Castes.”
Demands:
a) Allocate more funds for Scholarships Schemes for Muslims as have been made available to the Schedule Castes, as per their size of the Muslim population, i.e. 13.4% (Source Census 2001).
b) Bring in uniformity with respect to eligibility criteria and other standards as applicable to Schedule Castes.
c) Introduce other schemes for higher and specialised education like Top Class Education, Overseas education, Post-doctoral scholarships schemes on par with those made available for Schedule Castes with the same eligibility criteria; so that students beginning their education in Academic Year 2014-15 can benefit from this.
AMP has appealed to the Prime Minister to act upon the counsel of his ministers and provide remedial measures to correct this more than five decade old discrimination between two socially and educationally backward communities and also give the Muslim community its rightful due as per provisions made in the Constitution.