Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said here on Saturday that the school dropout rate among Muslim girls, which was earlier more than 70 per cent, had now been reduced to about 35 to 40 per cent, owing to awareness and educational empowerment programmes of the Government.
“The Government is now working with a mission to bring it down to zero per cent in the coming years. Education is an effective step towards empowerment The ‘educational empowerment” is an effective step to stop political exploitation of the minorities,” Naqvi said.
While laying foundation stone for a new school building, library, lab and other facilities at the Anjuman-e-Islam-run Dr. MIJ Girls High School and Junior College at Bandra (West) here, Naqvi said the Government’s efforts for educational empowerment of all weaker sections including the minorities have shown results at the ground level.
The Minister said that this year, the Government had launched”National Scholarship Portal Mobile App” (NSP Mobile App) to ensure a smooth, accessible and hassle-free scholarship system for students from poor and weaker sections.”Scholarships have been given directly into bank accounts of the students though DBT mode in a transparent manner free from middlemen,” he said.
He said that during the four years of the NDA, more than 3.11 crore students of minority communities, including 60 per cent girls, have been provided scholarships.
Maintaining that the Narendra Modi Government was moving forward towards educational and social empowerment of all weaker and backward sections of the society, Naqvi said that his ministry was committed to “3E- Education, Employment & Empowerment”.
“During the 2 years, thousands of educational institutions of all minority communities including madarsas, have been included in the mainstream education system by connecting them with ‘3T-Teacher, Tiffin, Toilet’ “, the minister said.
Naqvi said that more than 5.43 lakh youths and 1.5 lakh artisans had been provided employment and employment opportunities through job-oriented skill development schemes.
Anjuman-e-Islam chairman Jahir Kazi, Maulana Azad Education Foundation, Minority Affairs Ministry Govt of India, Secretary R Rehman, Foundation’s Vice-Chairman Ashfaq Saifi and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.
The 144-year old Anjuman-e-Islam was founded by Dr. Badruddin Tyabji in 1874, who was the third President of Indian National Congress, and the first Indian Barrister to practice law at Bombay High Court, where he rose to become the first Acting Indian Chief Justice.
From a solitary school then, Anjuman-e-Islam has grown into a mega-educational institution running around 90 schools, colleges, professional courses colleges, sports complexes, etc, in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra benefitting over 1.10 lakh students of all communities.
