Jan. 11, NEW DELHI (Reuters) - According to an official on Thursday, the most populous state in India has stopped paying some 21,000 professors of science and math in Muslim madrasas, or religious institutions. These teachers may even lose their employment completely.

The decision comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bid for a third consecutive term in a general election that is scheduled for May. The teachers are employed by the Hindu nationalist party that controls madrasas in Uttar Pradesh.

According to Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, head of the madrasa education board in Uttar Pradesh, "over 21,000 teachers are set to lose their jobs," as reported by Reuters. "Muslim students and teachers will go back by 30 years."

Muslims comprise about a fifth of the population of Uttar Pradesh and are a minority inside predominantly Hindu India, making up 14% of the country's 1.42 billion inhabitants.Human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch claim that under Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), nationalist groups have intimidated and harassed Muslims and other religious minorities with impunity; the party refutes these claims.

As per a document obtained by Reuters, the initiative known as the Scheme For Providing Quality Education in Madrasas was no longer funded by the federal government as of March 2022.

According to a document from the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Modi's administration closed the initiative entirely in fiscal years 2020–2021 after failing to accept any additional state applications during that time.In the fiscal year ending in March 2016, the Modi administration increased funding for the initiative to a record of almost 3 billion rupees ($36 million). When contacted for comment, his office did not provide one.

The initiative was formerly run by India's Minority Affairs Ministry, which did not reply to demands for comments regarding its termination. Perhaps the reason is a 2009 law requiring free obligatory education in government schools. When the initiative was first implemented in 2009–10 by the previous government led by the Congress party, it included around 70,000 madrasas. Participating in a government panel on minority education, Shahid Akhter promotes the program's revival, highlighting its advantages for Muslim pupils.

He is trying to keep the program in place and observes the prime minister's support for a modern and Islamic school curriculum. According to a letter from Uttar Pradesh madrasa official Javed to Modi last Wednesday, the federal government notified states about the program's termination in October.

Since April, the state has not paid teachers, and this month, payments were completely discontinued. It has been six years since the federal portion was last paid. In a letter, Javed, who is also the BJP Minority Front's national secretary, stated that teachers were hopeful about a solution despite obstacles. Information officers in Uttar Pradesh did not immediately have a comment. In the past, teachers received up to 3,000 rupees ($36) a month from the state through its budget, with an additional 12,000 rupees coming from the federal government.

Samiullah Khan, a 14-year madrasa instructor, voiced worry, saying they don't have any other job possibilities. Madrasas in Assam are in danger of becoming regular schools, which has sparked protests from the opposition. While some madrasas rely on donations from the community, others are dependent on government support.