Focus

MUSLIM EDUCATION in the Project area has many issues to be attended to including illiteracy, high dropout, women education, technical education, moral and Islamic education, etc. The state came under many fast developments just after the partition. The major victims of the zamidari abolition act were the Muslim landlords of then the United Province (later on named as Uttar Pradesh). Benefits of the pre-Partition education in employment were denied to the Muslim youths with de-recognition of Urdu and Persian as the official languages. The state, which was the hinterland of Urdu, grew generations after generation youths with little knowledge of the language. The aversion of the Muslim rank and file against the British rule distracted them from learning English for a long time. The creation of Pakistan was also considered to be a conspiracy of the Muslim leadership having deep roots in the Province. Added with a number of other factors, the situation went enormously against the community at least in Uttar Pradesh for some decades. Consequently, the general Muslim masses remained confused, devoid of roots, impoverished and uneducated in the modern sense of the word. This is the reason, why the Muslims who were forward on the front of literacy and general education before Partition with 42% literacy rate registered just 9% literacy in 1951. The state has yet not come out from the unfortunate situation and the Muslims of the state rank quite low even among the Muslims of various states in term of educational attainments. 

The historical developments of the last one and half centuries have brought the Muslim community of the state to the worst imagined stagnation and retardation. Only recently the community has shown some signs of revival and rejuvenation. They have realised their electoral strength in changing the political elite in the state, especially after the demolition of Babri mosque in 1992 and have started enjoying democratic rights since than. Sincere efforts of many organisations have also convinced the rank and file of the community that for sustained and lasting progress what the Muslims should emphasise as their agenda is the education uplift of the community rather than their ad hoc responses to the situation. The area under focus is not an exception to the least to the overall situation obtained in the state.

The post-Partition developments have made it clear to the Muslim rank and file that no progress of the community is possible without its own initiatives. Therefore, voluntary organisations should be formed and organised in various parts of the state for reinforcing the governmental efforts in this regard. The political class will do something for the community only when it is prepared to compete with others in enjoying the fruits of the national progress. The NGOs and voluntary organisations can do wonders in this regard. This is also a fact that gradually the government is receding from its role as the welfare state as noted from as much as 48 % share of the private sector in the promotion of school level education.

The education of Muslim women is another challenge both for the policymakers and the Muslim leadership. As stated earlier the Muslim women are lagging behind their counterparts, both the general women and the Muslim men, what to speak of education even at the level of literacy it self. The following table places some of the facts for understanding the sate of Muslims in the province.

Table-3
Demographic and Educational Data of UP in 2001

 
According to the census 2001, the literacy rate of the Muslim community in the state is 47.8% and the literacy rate of Muslim women is 37.4%. The situation in the area of the project might be understood in the light of above discussion and from these data. Already the sex ratio of 918 among the Muslim illustrates a positive trend as regards the female population as compared to other communities. The sex ratio of girl child noted in the 2001 census has been 935. That means there will be more girls in the area to be taught in future as compared to their present ratio. Muslims parents generally disregard sending their daughters to coeducational or far-flung schools and colleges. In the process, many talented girls have to drop out at an early stage of their education. The presence of exclusive institutions for girls in a nearby locality most of the time increases Muslim girls’ participation beyond primary level to manifold. Hence, it would be an effective strategy to enhance Muslim women’s education by establishing more and more exclusive and accessible institutions for them. The proverbial statement “Educate a boy educate an individual, educate a girl educate a nation” must be a tested strategy for the overall educational progress of the community. A noteworthy challenge in this regard has been the parents’ apathy towards the education of the girl child, which could be dome away with by systematically launching of awareness campaigns in the community. It is the Islamic Society that has designed, for the first time in the area, their action plan for the educational uplift of the local Muslim community on these lines.

One of the gravest challenges for the local activists engaged in the field of Muslim education is the rampant use of children as labourers in the carpet industry and Bidi (a sort of local cigarette) making cottage industry, which is very much prevalent in the whole district. Mirzapur-Bhadohi belt has a pure cottage based export oriented carpet industry. There are four major types of handmade items: Durries, Cotton Carpets, Woollen Carpets and Silk Carpets. The district contributes about 80% of the Indian carpet market, of which one-fourth is exported. Strangely enough the soft fingers of tender age play a very important role in quality production, attracting child labourers apart from the advantage of cheaper wages. According to the 1981 census, the population in the age group of 0-14 years was about 43 percent of the total population of which 17 percent of the population below 14 years was working. With the total population of children at 8,69,034 and an estimated 1,36,432 working children and further assuming 60,000 working children in the carpet industry, it has a share of 44 percent of the working children in the district. Although the movement against child labour has greatly reduced the phenomenon, however, its ill effects even today cannot b denied. Since the Muslims dominant the carpet industry at least at the production stage involve a large number of Muslim boys in the industry who have the tendency to drop out from the schools for taking up a mature role of earning livelihood for the family. The area requires a number of schemes for the education of the working children leading them to join again the mainstream education via bridge courses.

The poverty of the local Muslims is another major impediment in the way of their faster progress. Although carpet and Bidi industries are providing good sources of employment for the local people but the share of income of common men from it is very small and the brokers and then capitalists take the lion’s share. Moreover, the occupational diseases inflicted by these industries render the workers gradually impaired, bringing their early retirement from the life and devoid of hopes and purpose. In such as situation the vicious circle impoverishment and educational backwardness remains actively operative and the very survival becomes the highest value in life for such families. The prevailing situation strongly deters younger generations to aspire for higher education and some respectable and safer employment.

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