Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Umakant Sharma has urged Hindu families who identify as Sanatanis to withdraw their children from Christian convent schools and Muslim madrasas, saying the move would serve the interests of society.
Sharma, who represents the Sironj Assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh’s Vidisha district, made the appeal in a Facebook post. He did not name any specific school or madrasa or suggest alternative educational institutions for parents.
“True Sanatani brothers, mothers and sisters should immediately withdraw their children from schools following the Christian convent tradition. Similarly, if their children are studying at a Muslim madrasa, they should remove them from there as well. This is in the interest of society,” Sharma wrote.
His remarks come amid a separate development in Sironj, where operators of 11 madrasas have applied to the School Education Department to close their institutions, citing low student enrolment.
11 Madrasas Seek Closure Over Low Enrolment
According to a departmental letter, the Janpad Shiksha Kendra under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in Sironj has written to the District Education Centre, requesting that the institutions be recorded as closed on Education Portal 3.0 and the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) portal.
The letter lists all 11 madrasas and their UDISE identification numbers. It states that their operators submitted applications seeking closure because of the low number of students enrolled.
The document indicates that the process of updating the institutions’ status on the portals began after the applications were received. It does not, by itself, establish that all 11 institutions have completed the closure process.
NHRC Member Claims Hindu Children Were Studying in Madrasas
Priyank Kanoongo, a member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), shared the departmental letter on social media and welcomed the development.
“Good news! In my home district of Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, action has been initiated to close 11 madrasas over the past year. There were also cases of Hindu children being kept in madrasas in Vidisha,” Kanoongo wrote.
He claimed that the district administration had conducted an awareness campaign to promote school education and ensure compliance with the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, commonly known as the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
According to Kanoongo, these measures enabled children to enrol in regular schools, leaving the madrasas empty. He also congratulated the district collector and the Education Department, saying the measures would help children access their educational rights and prevent the waste of taxpayers’ money.
However, Kanoongo’s post does not specify how many Hindu children were allegedly studying in the madrasas, where they were subsequently admitted or which institutions were involved in the cases he mentioned.
