The story so far: Allocations for educational schemes for Muslims have been completely slashed in the past four years, revealed the Centre on Monday (March 17, 2025). In a reply to Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien’s query on budgetary allocations for madrasa and Waqf schemes and its expenditure in the past four years, the Centre revealed that allocation for Scheme for Providing Education in Madrasas/Minorities (SPEMM) had dropped from ₹174 crore in 2021-22 to ₹0.01 crore in 2024-25. Apart from 2021-22, the allocated funds remained unutilised.
“Ministry of Minority Affairs implements two waqf schemes namely Quami Waqf Board Taraqqiati Scheme (QWBTS) and Shahari Waqf Sampatti Vikas Yojana (SWSVY) through Central Waqf Council (CWC). Since Central Waqf Council has not been fully constituted, less expenditure was incurred,” stated Union Minster of Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju in his written reply.
Moreover, SPEMM was transferred from the Education Department to the Minority Affairs Ministry in 2021. “As the scheme was approved only up to 2021-22, the Ministry of Minority Affairs implemented this Scheme only for FY 2021-22,” stated Mr. Rijiju. In 2021-22, SPEMM allocation was ₹174 crore of which ₹161.53 crore was spent. In the following years, allocation dropped to ₹30 crore in 2022-23, ₹5 crore in 2023-24 and ₹0.01 crore in 2024-25, while expenditure also slumped to ₹0.08 crore in 2022-23 to zero in 2024-25.
Similarly, allocation for QWBTS dropped from ₹10 crore in 2021-22 to ₹3.06 crore in 2024-25 of which only ₹ 6.72 crore was spent in 2021-22 and ₹0.06 crore in 2024-25. For SWSVY, the allocation itself ranged between ₹ 2 to ₹5 crore between 2021 and 2025, while expenditure dropped from ₹1 crore in 2021-22 to none in 2024-25.
What is SPEMM?
Restructuring the existing education schemes for Muslims to include more minorities, SPEMM was launched by the Modi government in 2014-15. Noting that madrassas mainly provided religious education, SPEMM was launched to provide Muslim students access to education in modern subjects, teacher training, strengthen state-run madrassa boards, strengthening school infrastructure in minority institutions and raise awareness among Muslims about education programmes.
Funding pattern for SPEMM was similar to other central schemes — 90:10 for North-Eastern States, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand, 100% for UTs without legislature and 60:40 for the other States. Madrassas affiliated to any recognised school education board, with a valid Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) code and mapped on Geographical Information System (GIS), were eligible for financial assistance.
Graduate teachers covering modern subjects are offered up to ₹6,000 per month while post-graduate teachers are offered up to ₹12,000 per month. As per norms of Samagra Shiksha, SPEMM also offered in-service training, remedial teaching, assessment and enhancement of learning outcomes. Madrassa boards are offered upto ₹5,00,000 for strengthening administration, supervision and monitoring the programme.
Allocation for SPEMM began at ₹194 crore in 2014-15, remained constant at ₹120 crore in 2016-17 and 2017-18, rose to ₹120 crore in 2019-2020 and to ₹175 crore (2021-22), before drastically dropping to none in 2024-25.
Low literacy in Muslims
The slashed allocation to Muslim educational schemes comes at a time when literacy rate among Muslims is below the national average. As per another written answer by the Minority Affairs Ministry (dated March 10, 2025), Muslim literacy rate is 79.5% for persons aged seven and above, while literacy rate for all religions for the same age group was 80.9%. When asked whether the Centre had any plans to address the issue, the Ministry stated that it was “mandated to formulate policies for welfare and socio-economic development of six notified minority communities namely Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Parsis and Sikhs”, without going into details.
The annual Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) reports between 2019 and 2024 show that literacy rate among Muslims has marginally increased from 75.9% in 2019-20 to 79.5% in 2023-24. Through these years, the community’s literacy rate remained below the national average.
This trend has been consistent for the past two decades; as per Census 2001, the literacy rate among Muslims aged 7 and above was 59.1% while all-India literacy rate for the same age-group was 64.8%. Subsequently, Census 2011 reported that the literacy rate among Muslims was 68.5% as compared to all-India literacy rate of 73.0%. Even in 2021, the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) Survey 2020-21 revealed that the Muslim community’s enrolment had declined by 8% in comparison to 2019-20.
Muslims fell below Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBC) in higher education, as per AISHE. With 1,79,000 enrolments fewer in 2020, the decline has been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, economic conditions of the community and higher shift from education to jobs.
A comprehensive report titled State of Muslim education in India, compiled by Arun C. Mehta, former Professor of National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, found that the enrolments by female students which was gradually increasing by 4.8% in 2016-17 to 5.33% in 2019-20, drastically fell by 4.5% in 2020-21.
Other findings of the report includes — falling percentage of Muslim students gradually starting from Class 6 to its lowest in Class 11 and 12, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh having the lowest enrolment ratio for Muslim students and Assam (29.52%) and West Bengal (23.22%) recording high dropout rates among Muslim students. The report also found that 18.64% Muslim students drop out in secondary level of schools compared to a national average of 12.6% drop out rate.
The report had made several recommendations — identifying and enrolling out-of-school children in age-appropriate classes, providing financial assistance to Muslim students, increasing number of scholarships, grants and seats reserved for the community.
Focus on Madrassas
Inspite of such a poor condition of Muslim education, several BJP-ruled States have targetted madrassas.
In 2021, the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam government enacted a law abolishing two madrassa education-related Acts (passed in 1995 and 2018 respectively), paving the way to close down all government and private-run but government-funded madrassas. These madrassas were converted into general schools under the supervision of the State Directorate of Elementary Education and later renamed as ‘Middle English’ schools in 2023.
Similarly, the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh — home to India’s largest Muslim population — is planning to amend the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004. The decision came days after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the Act on November 5, 2024. Holding that the law secured the interests of the Muslim minority community in U.P., then-CJI DY Chandrachud declared certain provisions pertaining to higher education at the levels of Fazil (under-graduate studies) and Kamil (post-graduate studies) as unconstitutional, as it wandered into the Centre’s exclusive domain. In March 2024, Allahabad High Court had deemed the 2004 Act as unconstitutional, ruling it breached Article 21A (right to education) of the Constitution and violated the Basic Structure principle of secularism.
Apart from these States, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), told the apex court that madrassas are “unsuitable or unfit” places for children to receive a “proper education”. Claiming the textbooks in these institutions “profess supremacy of Islam”, the NCPCR said that children from faiths other than Islam were also studying in madrassas in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, accusing madrassas of violating the right against forced participation in religious instruction or worship. It also listed issues such as curriculum, eligibility of teachers, opaque funding, violation of land laws and failure to provide children a holistic environment.
Currently, Parliament is gearing up to pass the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 which enhances the Centre’s regulatory authority over waqf properties and permits the inclusion of non-Muslim members in waqf boards. These boards, which are funded by religious and charitable trusts, run majority of the madrassas in India. Several properties owned by these waqf boards house madrassas, which will now come more under Central regulation, rather than the Islamic trusts.
Published – March 19, 2025 07:57 pm IST