India

Discrimination against Muslim Children

BeyondHeadlines Special Correspondent

This year, low admission to nursery classes in Delhi Private Schools has raised many doubts among the Muslims community. Of 92 schools which provided some sort of information on their websites, as many as 20 admitted no Muslim child while 17 admitted only one Muslim child each.

There are a very few schools which are willing to reveal the numbers of Muslim applicants that makes it difficult to establish the prevalence of bias. For example, against 170 available seats, the Pusa Road branch of Springdales School received 2,443 applications of which 155 were from Muslim children. The school admitted two Muslim children in the Economically Weaker Section category. Delhi Public School, East of Kailash, received 2997 applications of which 269 were from Muslims-against 180 vacancies. This school, which is close to many Muslim neighbourhoods, admitted five Muslim children in all.

In this regards, Abdul Khaliq, General Secretary of Lok Jan Shakti Party had written to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, few days ago alleging that these skewed figures amounted to denial of quality education to Muslim children. In a letter to Dikshit, copies of which were sent to Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal and principals of all major private schools in the Capital, he stated, “Data collected by us on the number of Muslim children admitted to nursery class this academic year in the city’s popular private schools indicate dismally low numbers. Although Muslims comprise about 15 per cent of the population, less than 0.5 per cent of Muslim children have been admitted.”

Distressed Muslim parents are approaching to community leaders as well as concerned people to raise voice against the discrimination. At lest 87 schools failed to upload admission details on their websites as mandated by the Directorate of Education.

The Kirti Nagar branch of Springdales School admitted no Muslim child while the school’s Dhaula Kuan branch admitted one Muslim child. Of 150 children admitted by Blue Bells, Lajpat Nagar, two were Muslims. The ratio for Indian School, Sadiq Nagar, was three of 120. The best figures were posted by Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, which admitted 65 Muslim children against 240 available seats-23 and 42 in general and Economically Weaker Section category. All three schools are located in neighbourhoods with large populations of Muslims.

What explains such a large variation in the numbers of Muslim children admitted? Why are so many schools entirely unable to admit Muslim children when a school like DPS seems to have had no difficulty on this count? As Khaliq pointed out in his letter, the problem appears to be an offshoot of the widely-varying points system followed by school managements: “Indian School has earmarked 30 points for those living in the neighbourhood and Blue Bells 40 points, whereas Cambridge Primary School has only 10 neighbourhood points.”

The current admission policy of Private School in Delhi have not only given mental agony to parents, but also provided an opportunity where the Minority Community start feeling that their children are being discriminated.

The following table gives the details of admission of the students  

S. No. School  Name Total No. of Seats in School No. of Muslim children Selected
1 Springdales School, Pusa Road 170 0
2 Springdales School, Kirti Nagar   0
3 Bal Bharti Public School, Rohini 184 0
4 Bal Bharti Public School, Dwarka 147 1 in EWS, 1 in General
5 Mount Carmel School, Anand Niketan 85 0
6 Maharahja Agarsen Model School, Pitam Pura 160 0
7 Bharti Public School, Mayur Vihar(Pre Primary) 80 2 in General
8 Saint Marks School, Janak Puri 252 0
9 Salwan Junior Public School, Naraina Vihar Not available on school website 0
10 Shah International School, Paschim Vihar 70 0
11 CRPF Public School, Dwarka 105 0
12 Prabhu Dayal Public School, Shalimar Bagh 200 0
13 N K Bagrodia Public School, Dwarka 180 0
14 Shiksha Bharti Public School, Dwarka 100 0
15 BGS International Public School, Dwarka 104 0
16 Mata Jai Kaur Public School, Ashok Vihar-52 176 5 in EWS
17 Air Force Bal Bharti School Lodhi Road   0
18 DL DAV Model School, Shalimar Bagh 86 0
19 Mirambika Reserch Centre for Integral Education & Human Values 14 0
20 Brilliant Convent Sr Sec School, Pitampura 80 0
21 Venkateshwar International School, Rohini 69  in first list 0
22 Bloom Public School, Vasant Kunj 96 0
23 Remal Public Sr Sec School, Rohini (PREP Class) 19 in 1st  List 0
24 Springdales School, Dhaula Kuan 136 1
25 The Heritage School, Rohini 140 3
26 Kulachi Hansraj Modern School, Ashok Vihar 300 3
27 DPS, Vasant Vihar 216 3 in General, 1 in EWS
28 DPS, East of Kailash 180 3 in General, 2 in EWS
29 DPS, Vasant Kunj 175 2
30 DPS, Dwarka 180 3 from EWS
31 Mount Carmel School, Dwarka 60 1
32 Tagore International, Vasant Vihar 134 3
33 Ahlcon International School, Mayur Vihar 160 2
34 ASN School, Mayur Vihar 200 2
35 Bal Bhavan Public School, Mayur Vihar   3
36 Gyan Bharti School, Saket 150 5
37 Blue Bells School International, Lajpat Nagar 150 2
38 DAV, Dayanand Vihar   1
39 Nirmal Bhartia School, Dwarka 60 2
40 Sneh International School, Vikas Marg 100 6
41 Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Lodhi Road   1
42 Bhai Parmanand Vidya Mandir, Anand Vihar   1
43 Laxman Public School, Hauz Khas 105 4
44 The Indian School, New Delhi-49 120 3
45 Bal Bharti Public School, ,Karol Bagh 150 7
46 Lilavati Vidya Mandir,Shakti Nagar 250 5
47 PP International School 90 1
48 The Pinnacle,Panchsheel Enclave 120 3
49 St George’s School, Alaknanda 200 8
50 The Mothers International School 120 2
51 Birla Vidya Niketan, Pushp vihar 80 2 in general, 1 in EWS
52 Shaheed Rajpal DAV Public schoolDayanand Vihar 150 1
53 DAV-Pushpanjali, Pitampura 160 2
54 St. Thomas School, Dwarka 427 5
55 Hansraj Model School, Punjabi Bagh 500 1 in General, 6 in EWS
56 The Heritage School, Vasant Kunj 40 2
57 Apeejay School          Pitam Pura 180 1 in General, 2 in EWS
58 Apeejay School,            Saket 90 4 in General, 2 in EWS
59 The Srijan School, Model Town 120 1 in EWS
60 Gyan Mandir Public School, Naraina Vihar 90 3 in General, 1 in EWS
61 G D Goenka Public School, Vasant Kunj 76 +42 EWS 1 in EWS
62 G D Goenka Public School, Dwarka 200 3
63 Red Roses Public School, Saket 100 2
64 Don Bosco School, Alaknanda, GK   5 in 2nd  List, 1 in EWS
65 Vasant Valley School, Vasant Kunj 90 1 in General, 1 in EWS
66 G D Salwan School,  Old Rajinder Nagar 80 2
67 Salwan Public School, Mayur Vihar Not available on website 2
68 N C Jindal Public School, Punjabi Bagh 200 4
69 Chinmaya Viodyalaya, Vasant Vihar 160 2 in EWS
70 Dwarka International, Dwarka 140 3 in General1 in EWS
72 Modern School, Vasant Vihar 120 3
73 Lilawati Vidya Mandir, Shakti Nagar 268 8 in General1 in EWS
74 Kulachi Hansraj Model School, Ashok Vihar 500 4
75 New Era Junior School, Rajouri Garden/ Narayana Vihar 500 2
76 Tagore International,    East of Kailash 176 16
77 Montfort School,       Ashok Vihar, ND-52 49 from Draw 1
78 Carmel Convent School, Chanakyapuri 100 5 in General
79 The Shri Ram School, Vasant Vihar 112 3
80 DPS, Rohini 140 1
81 DAV Sreshatha Vihar Delhi-92 250 1
82 Bal Bharti Public School Pitam Pura 368 1
83 Bosco Public School Pashim Vihar 90 2
84 Birla Vidya Niketan,  Pushp Vihar 80 1 in EWS
85 Adarsh Public School, Vikas Puri 180 1 in EWS
86 Bal Bhawan International School, Dwarka List  of 250 on Website 1
87 Suraj Bhan DAV Public School, Vasant Vihar 120  1 in General1 in Waiting List
88 Adharshila Vidyapeeth, Pitampura 200 2 in EWS
90 Venkateshwar International School, Dwarka 160 2
91 Veda  Vyasa DAV Public School, Vikas Puri 47 candidates in first list 0

4 in General, 3 in EWS

92 Poorna Prajna Public School, Vasant Kunj 120 1

(Information taken from School Website)

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