In a bid to impart both Islamic and basic education equally to girl children in the state, the management of the Madrasa Quadria, in Missarwala village on Nahan-Paonta Sahib road is working on a plan to start a separate madarsa, informed an official.
M Kabiruddin Faran Mazahiri, nazim (head) of the Madrasa said: “If we are talking of saving the girl child and have declared female foeticide as qatal (murder), then should we not be thinking of educating the girl child. To begin with, we will start a madrasa — the first in Himachal Pradesh. We propose to accommodate 100 girl students in the first batch maybe next year.”
There were lack of resources that attributed the delay in initialising it, according to Mazahiri. Muslims make up just two per cent of the state’s population and Mazahiri say that fewer families are sending girls to schools.
Beside Missarwala, the three other madrasas in the state are in Shimla, Chamba and Nalagarh. The madrasa in Missarwala caters to students from other states as well.
“We have a strength of 586 students and the highest number of them are from Sirmaur district (179). There are 151 students from Bihar and another 77 from UP. Students from Punjab, Jharkhand, Haryana and Nepal are also getting their education here,” Mazahiri said.
The students study all subjects, including Hindi till class V, after which the curriculum focuses entirely on religious education. The management is also reluctant to accept government grants under the centrally funded scheme for modernisation of madrasas fearing that it would lead to interference in their education pattern.
“We are ready for modernisation but will seek details from the government on the funding pattern and will study everything before deciding if we want to take the Central grants,” he added.
