A Catholic official in India has criticized as “politically motivated” a federal commission’s recommendations to curtail the rights of schools run by religious minorities such as Christians.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), in a study released last week, sought to bring minority schools, most of them run by Christian institutions, under its right to education and universal elementary education policies.
The federal government makes it mandatory to include underprivileged children in schools under its Right to Education (RTE) Act and provides elementary education to all children aged 6-14 under a universal education scheme.
However, the Supreme Court of India declared the RTE Act inapplicable to schools with minority status while upholding their right to establish and administer institutions of their choice.
“This study, which targets Christians and Muslims, may be politically motivated,” Father Maria Charles, secretary of the Indian Catholic bishops’ commission for education and culture, told UCA News.
He said minority-run institutions share the responsibility of offering good education to the poor and marginalized while reminding the government of its responsibility to provide good education to children who are deprived of it.
The NCPCR-mandated study has one agenda — to malign the educational services offered by Christians and to accuse them of making huge sums of money
The NCPCR has sought to assess the impact of the exemptions granted by the apex court with the view that they were “creating a conflicting picture between the fundamental right of children and right of minority communities.”
In its report released on Aug. 9, the commission said that exemption from RTE of minority schools is depriving children of benefits, including admission under reservation for underprivileged children belonging to socially and economically deprived groups.
It also suggested reservations for minority communities after finding that 74 percent of students in Christian missionary schools belonged to non-minority communities.
“The NCPCR-mandated study has one agenda — to malign the educational services offered by Christians and to accuse them of making huge sums of money because of the exemption given by the Supreme Court,” Father Charles said.
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“The study goes to prove that we run many schools and that a large number of our students are also of other faiths. Instead of appreciating the services offered by Christians to Indian society, the study seems to treat it as a fault.”
Christians comprise 11.54 percent of India’s minority population but run 71.96 percent of schools, the report said. Muslims who are 69.18 percent of the minority population run 22.75 percent of schools, while Sikhs who are 9.78 percent run 1.54 percent of schools.
The study highlighted that the largest number of out-of-school children, around 11 million, belonged to the Muslim community.
NCPCR chairman Priyank Kanoongo told media that there was a need to introduce strict guidelines on the minimum percentage of minority students that minority-run schools need to admit.
Other recommendations by the NCPCR include enacting a new law to ensure the right to education of children studying in minority educational institutions
The report also suggested looking at the proportion of schools run by a particular minority community in relation to the size of its population before the school is awarded recognition.
It sought a greater role for national and state education bodies to ensure “the fundamental right to elementary education to all children, especially children of minority communities.”
Other recommendations by the NCPCR include enacting a new law to ensure the right to education of children studying in minority educational institutions, the creation of an administrative system for effective implementation of linguistic minority rights, and protection of child rights.
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