Many call madrassa survey during Ramzan ‘useless’

Mumbai: The response to Saturday’s survey of madrassas was cold. Many called it ludicrous, faltu (useless) or natak (drama), mainly because madrassas are on leave for Ramzan and most kids are home.
Normally Madrassa Darul Uloom Azizia near Mira Road station is abuzz with kurta-pyjama-clad students memorizing the Quranic verses or learning Arabic language by rote. But when an enumerator, a school teacher, visited on Saturday morning, an almost eerie silence “greeted” him.“The enumerator asked for the number of kids aged between six and 14. I told them there are 70 in this age group, out of a total of 350. He jotted down their details and left,” said the madrassa supervisor Maulana Abdul Khaliq who didn’t know why the information was sought.
Maulana Khaliq is not alone among people associated with madrassas who expressed ignorance about the state government’s one-day survey that has even counted madrassa kids as “out of school children”.
Most madrassas in the city said enumerators either didn’t visit them and the few who did couldn’t have seen much as all are closed for Ramzan. “We will open in August. This is a farcical exercise,” said Maulana Mazhar Alam Qasmi, Madrassa Azizia’s general secretary. He added that the few students (around 25) currently at his madrassa are either hafizs (who have memorized the Quran and lead special tarawih prayers in the night during Ramzan) or those too poor to travel home.
Maulana Moin Ashraf who heads Madrassa Jamia Ashrafia Qadria at Grant Road said till 5pm no enumerator visited his madrassa that has over 150 students. “Even if they had, they would not have found children. We prepare maulvis who are carriers of values established by patriotic clerics who suffered during the freedom struggle,” said Ashraf.
Madrassa Darul Uloom Mohammadia at Mohammed Ali Road did get a few enumerators, but they just met the management as students are on leave. “I don’t think much will come out of this survey. The government should focus on upgrading madrassas that are willing to introduce Maths, Science, Social Science and English with the condition that there would be no interference in the day-to-day running of the Islamic seminaries,” said Darul Uloom Mohammadia’s general secretary Maulana Athar Ali. “Does the government want to say that those who study in madrassas are jahils (illiterates)?” asked Maulana Khalilur Rahman Noorie who teaches at Madrassa Gharib Nawaz in Andheri.