Hyderabad

The overall enrollment rate of Muslims is lowest among the Religious minorities in India. Former chairman of the University grants commission Prof Sukhdev Thorat said that the Muslims had the lowest gross Enrolment ratio of 16.6% in the higher education. This is the lowest among all the communities of the country where the national average is26.3percent.

This shocking revelation regarding the educational backwardness of Muslims in the country was made by eminent economist and former President of the University Grants Commission Prof. Sukhdev Thorat on Sunday in a special online lecture on the occasion of the 25th founding day of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANNU). Where did Muslims lag behind in education? Lessons for policies - I did.

Prof Thorat, citing the latest figures from the 2017/18 National Sample Survey, said that 70% of Muslims are forced to drop out of higher education due to financial constraints.

Assessing the reasons for the alarmingly under-representation of Muslims in the sector, Professor Thorat, who is also Professor Emeritus of JNU, New Delhi, said that there was a lot of discrimination in the minds of Muslim youth over appointments to government and domestic jobs. The inbuilt anxiety also hinders access to higher education.

Thorat stressed the need for an aggressive and progressive policy at the government level to improve the proportion of Muslims in higher education. Referring to his long association with Urdu University, he expressed satisfaction and expansion over the extraordinary development of the university.

Thorat advised the Urdu University to take positive steps to increase the enrollment of girls and continue the education of poor students.

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The university may also start short-term courses to promote business and entrepreneurship as most of the students who are forced to drop out of higher education come from small business families. He said that the university should arrange special discounted fees to help such students. He also answered questions at the end.

Prof. Syed Ainul Hassan, Vice Chancellor in his presidential address termed the eye-opening lecture of Prof. Thorat as the best start of MANNU's celebration. He announced that Urdu is the identity of MANU as well as the medium and this will remain our identity.

Sheikh Jamia stressed the need for collaboration with other institutions for the development of the university and said that the guest speaker has spoken about gender equality and we are also trying to do so in MANNU.

The proportion of Muslims in higher education is very low at 16.6%. It needs to increase.

He said that although Mano's job was not to provide employment but for the cause of Urdu, the university had organized the first job fair on January 6 which had to be postponed due to code. He asked Professor Sukhdev for the selection of this topic and for this brainstorming lecture