Hyderabad: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi shared a recent study that reports nearly 1,79,147 Muslim students dropped out of higher studies, an 8 percent decline from 2019-2021.
The report – All India Survey on Higher Education 2020–21 – by the Union Ministry of Education, stated that this decline has been observed not in states with higher population density but in smaller states as well.
Blaming poverty and discrimination for the decline of Muslim student enrollment, Owaisi said that the current Narendra Modi-led Central government’s policies on education have only made the situation worse by scrapping various fellowships such as MANF (Maulana Azad National Fellowship).
“Poverty & discrimination have barred Muslims from accessing higher education Add to this Modi govt removing even few support systems for minorities. In Karnataka, they scrapped 4% quota for poor Muslims. They’ve removed or restricted fellowships & scholarships for minorities,” he tweeted.
In December last year, the Centre decided to discontinue the MANF from 2022-23 for minorities as according to them, the scheme overlaps with various other fellowship schemes for higher education.
In March, the Centre tossed off four percent of the Muslim reservation and moved the community into the 10 percent Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).
