Kerala Cabinet alters minority students scholarship ratio

The State authorities has altered the proportion of ‘merit-cum-means’ scholarships for needy and educationally deprived minority neighborhood students.

As per the revised ratio, the minority scholarship quota for Christians is eighteen.38%, Muslims (26.56%), Buddhists (0.01%), Jains (0.01) and Sikhs (0.01%). The Cabinet, which met right here on Thursday, mentioned it had primarily based the modification on the 2011 census.

Moreover, the High Court had in February struck down the 80:20 ratio for minority students. It had discovered the unique allocation legally unsustainable and favouring a specific neighborhood.

The HC had directed the State authorities to concern orders to rectify the anomaly and bestow scholarship to students from notified minority communities equally and as per the most recent inhabitants census endorsed by the State Minority Commission.

Heated debate

The HC order had precipitated a heated socio-political debate within the State within the run-up to the 2021 Assembly elections in April.

Muslim organisations, representing an important demographic within the State (58.67% of the minority inhabitants), feared that the stricture would severely drawback Muslim students and rob them of their instructional rights. They wished the federal government to enchantment the choice.

In distinction, Christian organisations, claiming to symbolize 40.6% of the minority inhabitants, welcomed the HC order. They claimed that the court docket had ended the closely pro-Muslim bias in distributing the benefit scholarship meant to present a leg-up in life to needy students from all minority communities.

The earlier LDF authorities had arrange an knowledgeable committee to check the problem. The second LDF Cabinet has now tried to steadiness the pursuits of Muslim and Christian communities throughout the authorized framework of the HC order. The new determination was reportedly the result of hectic parleys within the LDF.

Political quagmire

The Indian National League (INL) was initially against decreasing the Muslim scholar scholarship quota. It had argued that the minority scholarships solely targetted the academic empowerment of backward Muslim students. However, the 2011 LDF authorities had “erroneously prolonged it to different communities, turning the problem right into a authorized and political quagmire.

The Kerala Congress (M), an LDF accomplice with a sizeable Christian constituency, was initially not on the identical web page because the INL. However, each companions had reportedly agreed to the amended minority scholarship ratio.

The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) of the UDF has stoutly opposed the Cabinet determination. The Kerala Congress (Joseph), one other UDF accomplice, is but to disclose its thoughts on the problem.

The authorities mentioned the present allocation wouldn’t infringe on the schooling reservation advantages loved by different communities.

The benefit scholarships will price the federal government ₹23.51 crore. The authorities has allotted ₹6.2 crore moreover to satisfy the expense.