Author: R L Francis
Publication: Vijayvaani.com
Date: August 2, 2010
URL: http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1343
Justice Ranganath Misra Commission report has caught the attention of the
entire country. It has strengthened the demand of the Church and Christian
organizations to provide reservation for Dalit Christians. They are holding
rallies and meetings to pressurise the Centre to implement the Misra Commission
report.
The question arises whether the Church and
these Christian organisations have ever thought of first giving admission
to students and recruiting teachers from their own community in missionary-run
schools. The fact of the matter is that the percentage of Christian students
and teachers in these schools is negligible. They run the schools and educational
institutions just to do business and earn profits, instead of doing service
to their own community.
Interestingly, all governments at the Centre,
irrespective of the political party, have tried to appease the Church and
Christian organisations. The policies of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance
(NDA) and Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) have not been very
different regarding the Church and Christian organisations.
It may be mentioned that the "National
Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions" had recently proclaimed
its verdict that the number of students from a minority community is not a
valid basis for granting or taking away recognition of a minority institution.
The status of a minority institute will remain intact whatever be the number
of non-minority community students in the institution. This decision is contrary
to an earlier verdict of the apex court in which minority institutions were
directed to fill a certain limit of total admissions by minority community
students.
The UPA constituted the National Commission
for Minorities Educational Institutions (NCMEI) in 2004 for the sake of convenience
to minority educational institutions under the stewardship of former judge,
Justice M.S.A. Siddiqui. Minority communities have freedom under Article 30
of the Constitution to establish and run their own educational institutions.
Muslims, Sikhs and Christians are running a large number of minority educational
institutions under the Act.
The basic objective behind giving these special
rights under Article 30 of the Constitution was to promote the language, script,
culture and religious education of the community. However, Indian Church and
Christian Missionaries misused this right to fulfill their own agenda after
independence. They often used this right as a tool for expansion. The Church
has gained much by granting admissions to children of high profile politicians
and bureaucrats in their 5-star convent schools.
Lots of cases against arbitrary decisions
have come to the Supreme Court. The Court had said that minority educational
institutions will have to take care of students of minority communities to
a certain level. These institutions will be free to admit children of non-minority
community but in no circumstances can they overlook the interests of students
of the minority community. If a minority educational institution is found
violating this order, its minority status could be withdrawn. The Court even
said that if the State Governments want, they can decide a certain percentage
of seats for students of the minority communities for such institutions.
Complaints of Sikh and Muslim students not
getting admission in their own institutions are rare. Indeed this problem
persists only with institutions run by the Church. The Church has laid a web
of educational institution across the country. The influence of the Church
can be ascertained from the fact that the Christian community which is merely
2.5 percent of the population has a monopoly over 22 percent of educational
institutions - yet even then about 15 percent of Christian children in cities
and 40 percent in rural areas are illiterate! Convent schools administered
and run by the Church do not give admission to poor Christian children at
all.
At a programme organised by the Poor Christian
Liberation Movement (PCLM) in the national capital region of Delhi, a Dalit
Christian leader said, "The Christian educational institutions are here
to serve the rich, instead of the poor Christians. Even in metros like Delhi,
the number of Christian students in these institutions is negligible. The
special rights entrusted by the Constitution are being used to churn money
and for the expansion of the Churches." Had the Church played its role
honestly, it would not have to demand inclusion of its followers in the list
of Scheduled Caste and notifying of the Ranganath Misra Commission report.
Several complaints of this nature were constantly
made to the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions. Keeping
this in mind, The Telegraph, Kolkata, on March 7, 2010 published an article
quoting Chairman Justice M.S.A. Siddiqui, "The educational institutions
run by the Indian Church should have at least 30 percent Christian students
and if this is violated such institutions will loose their minority institution
status."
Echoing the same view, the Supreme Court had
said in its 2005 verdict that the benefit of minority education institutions
should necessarily percolate to those community students in the name of whose
progress they have been established. The NCMEI Chairman said, "Educational
institutions of Sikh and Muslim community are giving maximum benefit to the
students of their community. Here, the problem lies with the institutions
run by Christians. So the National Commission for Minority Educational Institution
has ratified this proposal that those Christian educational institutions that
fail to maintain minimum 30 percent Christian students will loose their minority
status."
The entire Indian Church establishment openly
stood against this order of NCMEI. The Catholic Bishops Conference of India
(CBCI), the Commission for Education and Culture, expressed serious disagreement
before the Prime Minister and Education Minister against the verdict of the
Commission fixing the minimum limit of minority students in church-run institutes.
The CBCI said Article 30 (1) of the Constitution gave them the right to run
their institutions and there was no percentage fixed to get minority status.
Since then NCMEI began looking for a way out
to change its decision, and got an opportunity after a controversy between
a Church-run school and the Odisha government broke out. The Odisha government
had alleged that the percentage of Christian students in the school was very
less and so the minority status of the school should be withdrawn. NCMEI smelt
an opportunity to change its earlier decision and in a single stroke stated
that no minimum percentage is required to run a minority school!!!
Human Rights activist Joseph Gathia believes
that the right to run educational institutions was given keeping certain responsibilities
in mind. The aim was to promote the interests of backwards and poorer sections
of the community by their own community, so that they could stand with equal
footing with relatively well-off communities. It will not be unconstitutional
to impose some restrictions in order to stop the misuse of this privilege.
Taking legal recourse on denying admissions to minority students falls in
the same domain. Joseph Gathia says that if the Indian Church does not want
to run these institutions for its own community, for whom does or what does
it want to run these institutions?
Should the decision of NCMEI and the flimsy
logic put forward by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India and Commission
for Education and Culture before the Prime Minister - that no percentage was
fixed in the constitution - be construed as a guarantee to open education
institutions in every nook and corner of the country by misusing constitutional
provisions for churning money? There are hundreds of convent schools like
Saint Columba's, Jesus and Mary, Mater Dei, Saint Thomas which are being run
in and around Delhi under minority status. Has the government ever bothered
to find out the percentage of the minority community in these educational
institutions?
One example will suffice. Saint Thomas school
in the national capital region has around 1500 students; the Christian students
are less than 50. Similarly, in Khatauli near Delhi, there are hardly any
Catholic families but there is a convent school. The question arises - if
students and teachers in these schools are not Christian, then for the conservation
of which religion, language and culture is the Church availing of minority
rights?
Vested interest groups are exploiting loopholes
in the constitutional provisions for their own expansion. The objective of
the constitutional provision was to promote the legitimate interests of the
minority and not to give vested interests the freedom to run commercial educational
institutions in the name of minority educational institutions.
The Church and Christian organisations should
introspect and evolve a road map for the betterment of poor Christians. Instead
of asking the Centre to implement the Report of the National Commission for
Religious and Linguistic Minorities (Ranganath Misra Commission), the Church
should first ensure adequate quota for students and teachers of its own community
in missionary-run schools. Otherwise, its credibility will be further eroded.
- The author is national president, Poor Christian
Liberation Movement
