Concern over decline in Muslim higher education enrolment

Indian Government policies vis-à-vis the welfare of minorities, especially Muslims, have come under the scanner as a massive decline is noticed in the enrolment of Muslims in higher education in 2020-21 compared to figures for other communities, which have shown an upward trend, reports Clarion India.

The issue recently came to light as an article written by Professors Christophe Jaffrelot and Kalaiyarasan A in The Indian Express drew attention to the anomaly. They cited data from the Education Ministry’s report, All India Survey on Higher Education 2020-2021. Although the report was out in February, the article titled “Muslims in Higher Education: A sobering tale” on Tuesday 9 May focused on the decline.

“The recently released All India Survey on Higher Education 2020-2021 shows some contrasting trends,” reads the article. “Enrolment of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs in higher education has increased by 4.2%, 11.9% and 4% respectively compared to 2019-20. The upper castes, whose share in enrolment had been declining with the implementation of Mandal II since the late 2000s, have come back with the highest growth rate of 13.6%. On the other hand, the enrolment of Muslim students dropped by 8% from 2019-20 – that is, by 179,147 students. This level of absolute decline has never happened in the recent past for any group.”
Full report on the Clarion India site