Syed Ali Mujtaba

The Central Government’s decision to discontinue the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF), that provided scholarship to minority students in higher education, is being vehemently opposed by the National Federation of Girls Islamic Organization, the daughter organization of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.

Ms. Sumayyah Roshan, President National Federation of Girls Islamic Organization condemned the Central Government’s move to abolish MANF and called it a blatant injustice to Muslim students in the country.

“By eliminating minority scholarships, a concerted effort is being made to institutionally exclude socially backward communities from the education sector,” Ms. Sumayyah said at a press meet.

The GIO General Secretary, Ms. Samar Ali added, “The previous action of the Central Government to revoke pre-metric scholarships for students up to class 8 is also part of the same discrimination agenda.”

Both office bearers of the GIO equivocally said that the decision to discontinue the scholarship indicates the government’s ignorance about the socio-economic conditions of the Muslims in India and urged the government to reverse the decision immediately and reinstate the scholarship at the earliest.

The MANF scholarship was implemented in 2009 on the recommendation of the Sachar Committee report, to facilitate the inflow of minority students to the premiere institutes and central universities, enabling the presence of minority voices on these campuses.

Earlier, the Union Minister Ms. defended the government’s decision to discontinue minority scholarships saying that the MANF scheme overlaps with several other governments’ schemes and hence being stopped.

Girls Islamic Organization of India (GIO) is a student organization for girls.          It actively works in various states including Rajasthan, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka besides several other states of India.