Mohsina Malik, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: In a recent decision by the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA) of closing down the Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) on February 7 without providing any substantive rationale, it defended its decision in front of the Delhi High Court, saying, “It’s continued operation was ‘obsolete’ when there is a dedicated ministry, holistically executing schemes for the benefit of minorities, and it was established at a time when there was no ministry for the minorities.”
However, the decision has sparked controversy and condemnation within minority communities who see this as a “targeted attack” on them and minority educational institutions, with “religious bias” at its core.
They, particularly Muslims, who come from economically weaker sections (EWS), express concerns about its implications for educational access and opportunities while claiming that the decision itself reflects a wider pattern of targeting minorities and their institutions, stifling their contributions to society and erasing the names of schemes that are named after Muslim leaders.
The MAEF, which was established in 1989, has been instrumental in providing educational opportunities and scholarships to minority students who came from EWS across India. It was named after Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a prominent leader in India’s freedom struggle and the country’s first education minister. The foundation aimed to empower marginalised communities through education.
Commenting on the closure of the MAEF, Mohammad Haris, currently working as a chief operation officer at a Delhi-based NGO, says, “The closure of the MAEF can be seen as a plunge in the number of minority students enrolling in the institutions because of a lack of adequate funds to support their education. Despite the desire to help, the obliteration of the scheme would leave the students with inadequate funds who were sustaining their education through this foundation. It will impact minority students since the foundation was meant for their upliftment. Without such financial ease and support, the students belonging to the economically deprived sections would find it extremely strenuous to compete with those coming from privileged backgrounds.”
Lambasting the decision, he says, “The shutting down of the MAEF is a deliberate attempt to attack minorities in the country by causing hindrance to their access to education. It is purely religious discrimination against the minorities who are already marginalised. Their future is under threat. Lack of financial aid would spoil careers of students belonging to the minority communities and stop them from climbing up the social hierarchy.”
He further adds, “It is definitely a bias towards minorities, as when the government has enough to fund the building of statues, monuments, religious sites and myriad other amendments, cutting down on the minority fund is nothing but a move to make Muslims second-class citizens.”
On the other hand, Niranjan Azad, a law student from Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), says, “There is a lack in the number of educational institutions that provide quality education to minorities. Even such institutions have faced an acute fund reduction in the past few years. It is not just about the higher educational institutions but also about the school education, which is facing the biggest crisis.”
The MAEF aimed to establish residential schools, particularly for minority girls in rural areas. In 2017, it recommended the establishment of 167 central schools for minorities and a central school organisation under MAEF. However, the project was not completed.
Azad says, “One of the core motives of the MAEF was to provide financial and other aids or consultancy services to institutions or organisations engaged in the promotion of education among economically backward sections. The MAEF aided a lot of economically-starved minority institutions. Its closure will automatically abandon the mission of establishing more minority institutions all over the country. It will also leave the hundreds of educational institutions that were dependent on the MAEF in complete financial precarity.”
He further says these institutions encouraged minority communities to establish new educational institutions. The closure of the MAEF will discourage minorities who want to engage in providing education for their community.
In December 2022, the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF), which was funded by the MAEF, was scrapped by the central government.
“From the time of scrapping the MANF, the approach of the BJP on the policy of minority education was exposed. We could anticipate what else could happen. If we see the trajectory of minority education, we note a reduction of 38% in the budgetary allocation from 2022–23 to 2023–24. The closure of the MAEF is a continuation of this process of defunding minority education,” he alleges.
Emphasising the implications of the decision, Shoyeb Ali, who is pursuing masters from the department of education from the JMI, says, “This will severely affect access to education for minority students. From school education to research, minorities face a lot of obstacles. The move will increase dropout rate. I see this as a discriminatory move to weaken the educational opportunities for minorities.”
He describes the move as “politically motivated”. The current government, according to him, is making policies with the sole motive of benefiting big business houses and is privatising the education system through the public-private partnership (PPP), self-financing models, graded autonomy models, etc. When this process goes on, he says, the budgetary allocations for education are also reduced on a massive scale. “These attempts are clear attacks on minorities on a large scale that will create a polarisation between Hindus and Muslims, which can be understood by the narratives the government uses as a justification for cutting funds for minority education,” he alleges.
Commenting on the usage of the term “obsolete” to describe the MAEF, he says the government is trying to tell people that the minorities are being uplifted enough through the scholarships provided to them, and they are exploiting the resources of the country. When the MANF was scrapped, he says, the same narrative was spread. “When they spread this narrative, they deliberately hide the socio-economic backwardness of Muslims, whose conditions are more backward than those of the Scheduled Castes,” he adds.
The closure of the MAEF has also raised questions about the government’s commitment to minority rights and inclusivity. Many within the minority community see it as part of a brute pattern of targeting minority institutions and organisations with “religious bias”.
“The minority, particularly Muslims, are suppressed by the current government in the most reactionary manner, and through the closure of schemes and foundations named after Muslims, the government is trying to diminish and erase their contribution to society and their names from history,” he says.
Avinash Sethi, a political analyst specialising in minority issues, says, “The closure of the MAEF is not an isolated incident, rather a part of a larger agenda aimed at undermining minority institutions and eroding the rights of marginalised communities. It reflects a disturbing pattern of religious bias, which is a threat to the secular fabric of the country. It is a political move for exclusion and discrimination while sidelining the fabric of inclusivity, visibility and secularism of the country.”
With the foundation’s closure, many minority students fear that without financial support, the government will further widen the educational divide. Mahoor Jamaal, a bachelors student at one of the colleges in Delhi and a beneficiary of the MAEF scholarships, shared her concerns, saying, “I come from a humble background, and without the support of the MAEF, pursuing higher education would be impossible for me. I may have to drop out midway, and it will affect my dreams and career goals. The government’s decision to shut it down is a blow to students like me who rely on its assistance to fulfil dreams.”