Calling the abrupt termination of Pre-matric scholarship to minority students ‘a blatant injustice with minorities,’ The NGO Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ) said a committee will be formed to pressurize the government for revocation of the decision by the BJP led government and protests will be planned on the sideline of the world Minority Day soon.
It is not out of place to mention here that lakhs of minority students, most of them from poor and vulnerable sections of the society, are pursuing their education by utilizing the opportunity being provided by the center under the Pre-matric scholarship scheme. However abrupt closer of the scheme leave the parents of lakhs of minority students high and dry while more than half of them are from poor Muslim families.
While addressing the consultation meeting called to review the situation at the Press Club Mumbai recently, the former Chairman Planning Commission Dr.Bhalchand Mangeshkar said, “It is a blatant injustice meted out to the students from minority community. We must stoke up a united fight against this move with a sheer dedication that ensures revocation of the ban.”
“As per the sachar committee report, graduates constitutes 4 percent and under graduates forms only 2 percent in Muslim community,” he said adding that “The scholarship scheme was introduced chiefly to overcome the increasing school dropout rate of minority minorities.”
“Most of the applications seeking benefits under the scheme come from rural areas where students from poor families solely count on such scholarships to continue studies. The move will harm these vulnerable sections of students,” argued Mangeshkar.
Explaining that the decisions like this will only turn the next generation into labourers, Sunil Kadam, another guest, said “Only serving pleas to the government against the move will not ensure our rights. A united campaign should have to be stoke-up again to realise the same.”
