Owaisi slams Union govt. for scrapping scholarships, cites gaps in Muslim education

HYDERABAD Hyderabad parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday criticised the Union government for discontinuing the pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means scholarships, describing the move as an injustice to students. Mr. Owaisi was speaking at the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) headquarters in Darussalaam where he distributed educational kits and provided assistance towards examination fee for approximately 1,700 students studying in government Urdu-medium schools.

“By withholding scholarships for the last four years, you are doing injustice to students. The CBI has not asked the government to stop scholarships. I strongly condemn this action of the Union Government,” Mr Owaisi said.

The AIMIM president also spoke about dropout rates in the Muslim community and cited data to highlight the gaps in educational access. According to data from 2014, 15% of Muslim children did not attend school, he said. Citing UDISE data, he said minority students accounted for 14.5% in Class X in 2020-21, with the figure increasing to 24.4% in the subsequent year.