DEHRADUN: Months after implementing the Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code Act, 2024, the state government is now looking to abolish the Madrasa Board.
The UCC, implemented on January 27, 2025, replaced religion-based personal civil laws in the state. The law also addressed practices such as child marriage, polygamy, triple talaq, halala and iddat.
Manu Gaur, a member of the UCC drafting committee and a key voice in the latest policy exercise, said the "reform process" could not stop at civil law.
“After the UCC, the next essential step was to ensure that every child, irrespective of community, receives access to quality modern education,” Gaur said.
“Educational deprivation cannot be allowed to continue under any framework,” he added.
On June 5, 2025, the Uttarakhand government constituted a Strategic Advisory Committee (SAC) under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister to deliberate on key policy matters concerning the state.
In its first meeting, Gaur, member of the SAC, proposed that special attention be given to children allegedly receiving limited exposure to 'mainstream education' in madrasas.
According to Gaur, the matter was also discussed with senior IPS officer Abhinav Kumar, drawing on his experience in Jammu and Kashmir during his tenure with the BSF and ITBP.
“There was a shared view that long-term social harmony requires meaningful reforms in education,” he said.
Following deliberations, Gaur and committee member-secretary Shatrughna Singh, a former chief secretary of Uttarakhand, examined the Uttarakhand Madrasa Education Board Act, 2016, and the Uttarakhand Non-Government Arabic and Persian Madrasa Recognition Regulations, 2019.
Inputs were also sought from Uttarakhand Madrasa Board chairman Mufti Shamoon Qasmi and Special Secretary, Minority Welfare, Parag Madhukar Dhakate.
The study, according to officials involved in the exercise, found that many madrasas were functioning without formal recognition.
Officials said only an estimated 2 to 4 percent of school-going Muslim children in the state were enrolled in madrasas, making it necessary to bring these students into a stronger modern education framework without denying them cultural or religious learning.
“The question before us was simple: do we want future generations to remain confined to limited opportunities, or do we want them to become doctors, engineers, civil servants and professionals who contribute fully to the nation?” SAC member, Gaur told this newspaper.
The government claim that the abolition of the Madrasa Board is not aimed at any community, but at ending parallel, religion-based educational structures and aligning all children with mainstream academic standards.
Emphasising the need for a major transition in minority education, SAC member Manu Gaur told TNIE that the panel examined key judicial pronouncements on minority rights.
"Supreme Court rulings, particularly TMA Pai Foundation and PA Inamdar, guided us. TMA Pai affirmed minority communities' fundamental right to establish and administer institutions, subject to reasonable regulations to maintain academic standards without diluting their minority character,” he said.
