Why are children of minority communities dropping out of school? The government replied in the Rajya Sabha

In the last few years, the Central and State Governments have implemented many schemes for the welfare and upliftment of the people belonging to the minority communities. Especially the Union Ministry of Minorities has made efforts to empower the students of this community in the field of education by implementing schemes like pre-matric, post-matric, scholarships etc. But after listening to the reply given in the Rajya Sabha by the Ministry of Minorities of the Central Government, it seems that the measures being taken for the welfare of the minorities are proving futile in many ways.

In fact, the question posed to the Ministry of Minority Affairs in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday was, What is the dropout rate of students from this community in class 10 and what are the reasons for minority students dropping out at the higher secondary level?

Minister Smriti Irani replied

In a written reply to this question of Communist Party of India (CPI) member Vikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, Union Minority Welfare Minister Smriti Irani said that the government has done many things for the social, economic and educational development of the 6 notified minority communities. As the Ministry of Education has developed an integrated district information system, states have also provided a system for Education Plus to record data on school education indicators. But still dropout of students from this category is a matter of serious concern.

The biggest reason for dropping out of school

The Union Minister said that financial difficulties and involvement in economic activities at an early age are the major reasons for such a large number of minority community students dropping out of school. However, the government has taken many steps to reduce the dropout rate like reduction of fees, establishment of more institutes, scholarships, priority etc. However, the dropout statistics are staggering.

Congress government had the highest dropouts

If we look at the school dropout data for the year 2021-22 of the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, Chhattisgarh has the highest number of 54 percent minority students who dropped out of their studies in this academic year. It is worth mentioning that at that time it was the Congress government which consistently claimed to be the biggest supporter of minorities.

Indifference towards minorities

The fact that such a large number of minorities dropped out during Bhupesh Baghel's tenure raises questions about his then government's indifference towards minorities. However, apart from Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim also have dropout percentages from minority communities above 40 percent.