Understanding the Challenges of Minority Communities in India: A Study of Educational Status of Muslims

Abstract

Education is the single most important instrument for social and economic changes in any community. India has a spectrum of religions, castes, classes and communities. The educational outcomes of each religion and communities are not the same, and thus, it raises the issues of the challenges of the education for such minority communities. This paper is concerned with the status of the Muslim minority in education. Muslims constitute the second largest religious group in India and the largest minority community. Despite having several schemes and initiatives for their educational development, Muslims in India are deprived, marginalised and educationally backward. Based on the secondary sources, the paper tries to understand the status, issues and challenges of Muslim education in India. It identifies the causes and factors affecting the low higher education of Muslims in India. It also studies the role of minority institutions for the higher education of Muslims. It further analyses the initiatives taken by the Government of India for their educational development.