Karnataka withdraws condition of minimum number of students for tag of religious minority institution

A representational photo of students and their parents waiting in queue to submit admissions forms at a college in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit: Murali Kumar K

Following the guidelines of National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions of Higher Education, the Karnataka Government has withdrawn the criteria of a minimum number of students from a minority community at an education institution to get the tag of Religious Minority Institution. A decision on the criteria was taken in the State Cabinet on March 12, and an order issued on March 16. 

The Department of School Education and Literacy had a criteria that at least 25% of the students in these institutions had to be from the minority community that is running the institution. This was even higher — 50% — for Technical Education, Higher Education, and Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood Department institutions. Now, these condition have been removed. 

According to a copy of the order, this decision was necessary due to a decline in enrollment of minority students at these ‘religious minority institutions’. Citing 2011 census data, the order stated that Karnataka has 96.01 lakh people from the minority community, of which 78.94 lakh are Muslims, 11.43 lakh are Christians, 28,000 are Sikhs, 95,000 are Buddhists, 4.40 lakh are Jains, and around 1,000 are from the Parsee community. There isn’t enough population of many minority communities to get students as per the minimum requirement prescribed earlier. 

However, other criteria — the institution has to be established by members of the particular minority community primarily for the benefit of that community and should be administered by members of that community — for an institution to be declared a religious minority institution will continue.