Speculation on 'Legal' and 'Illegal' Madrasas has vitiated atmosphere: UP Board Chief

Speculatory reports that labelled madrasas 'legal' or 'illegal' has vitiated the atmosphere and adversely affected education of children from deprived backgrounds enrolled in seminaries, UP Board of Madrasa Education chairman Iftikhar Ahmed Javed has said.

Javed, who is also the national secretary of BJP's minority front, sought to dispel unconfirmed reports that 2,500 madrasas in UP were taken off government records. "The survey work will continue till October 5 and report submitted to the government by October 25. So far, there is no information given either to the government or the board. However, rumours and labelling of seminaries has vitiated the atmosphere," he said. The list of 2,500 madrasas which did not appear on the portal were recognised madrasas. When the education portal was created in 2018, they could not be added for technical reasons. The survey, on the other hand, was to find the number of unrecognsied madrasas.

Currently, there are 16,513 recognised madarsas, 560 of which get grants from the government. There is no data on the number of unrecognised seminaries which are being surveyed.


"I would appeal to intellectuals, social workers and educationists to refrain from discussions which could hurdle the conclusion of a simple survey. Surveys of schools and colleges are common, though it is for the first time that a survey of madrasas is being conducted. Using adjectives like 'legal-illegal', 'genuine-fake' vitiated the atmosphere. It is well known that those enrolled in madrasas come from poor backgrounds and who do not get admission elsewhere. Such rumours will adversely affect their education," he said.

Javed had last Sunday said the UP government had neither accorded recognition to any madrasa nor upgraded recognition of any institute in the last 7 years. With rising population and creation of more madrasas, it was natural that their numbers would be high.