AIMPLB hits out hard at Right to Education Act

NEW DELHI: In what could come in the way of the Congress' Muslim outreach, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board ( AIMPLB) has come down heavily against the Right to Education Act. The Muslim body has alleged that minority institutions, including Madrasas, will lose their identity on account of the Act.

This is not the first time that AIMPLB has come out against the central elementary education law. Over the last two years, the Muslim law board has repeatedly argued that the Right to Education undermined the protection accorded to minority education under Article 30 of the Constitution. Initially, the government countered this criticism by stressing that the legislation would only affect regular schools and not education provided by religious establishments such as Madarsas.

However, in December, with the UP polls around the corner, and in a bid to placate the state's sizeable minority population particularly its influential clergy, the government rushed through a proposal to amend the Right to Education. The amendment exempted all religious institutions imparting school education, such as the madarsas from the provisions of the Right to Education.

The government's intention, however, could not be carried through as the amendments to the Right to Education were not taken up by Parliament.