The Maharashtra government will introduce Urdu as an optional language in schools to increase the intake of students from the minority community, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday. A special degree college for minorities has also been approved by the state government and it will soon be established. Fadnavis made the announcement on Monday at an event organised by the Maulana Azad National Urdu University’s Vice Chancellor Zafar Sareshwala to discuss hurdles in empowering Muslim youth through education. The conference, titled ‘Taalim ki Tauqat’ (Power of Education), discussed the need to educate the Muslim population, specially women, to provide a boost to the economy and to ensure better employment opportunities. “Whenever I discuss about education in minorities, there will be one or two ministers opposing me saying that government should not interfere in religious matters,” Fadnavis said, adding that there is a “trust deficit” in government and policies will have to be formulated to finance education among minorities to improve existing conditions. “In madrasas, the focus should also be there on mathematics, science and other subjects. But ministers also need to understand that education needs to kept apart from politics,” he said. The government has also taken a decision to increase the annual income limit of scholarship to students belonging to the minority community from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh. This was approved last week. Aiming to bridge the gap between the BJP government and minorities, Fadnavis said that the whole country is perceived as backward if even one caste or community is backward. “We are ready to finance schemes if ideas are brought to us,” he said.
