Bangalore, 18/2: As the row over the hijab ban intensified, the state government has silently set out to collect data of students belonging to the minority community from both private and government educational institutions, especially those enrolled in classes 1 to 10.
According to the data accessed from the Department of Public Instruction on Thursday, there are 17,39,742 Muslim students in the various government-run schools across the state. The data further revealed that Bengaluru South reported the highest number of minority students at 1,55,104, followed by Kalaburagi with 1,31,802 and Bengaluru North with 1,22,993 students. Chamarajanagar district reported the lowest number of Muslim students at 9,603.
Meanwhile, some private colleges in Bengaluru also told DH that they have been also asked to submit data on the number of Muslim students enrolled in their colleges. “We had assumed that the exercise could be to categorise colleges as sensitive zones keeping in mind the ongoing hijab row and deploy additional security personnel,” opined a principal of a pre-university college in Bengaluru South.
However, when questioned about the reason behind the collection of students’ data, the officials justified the move pointing at the ongoing legislature session and high court hearing. “Elected representatives may demand the data on the floor of the House as also the high Court as part of the ongoing hearing,” an official from the education department said.
Clarifying the issue, Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh told DH that the data is being collected to counter the daily media reports with misleading numbers. “Every day, both the electronic and print media are reporting on the issue with varying figures on the total number of students sent back home for defying the HC’s interim order. Our objective was to see if the students are actually disturbed by the issue or focused on studies. We only wanted to know how many students are actually attending classes unmindful of what is happening around,” the minister said.
Also read: Hijab: Confusion over HC interim order, students continue protest in Karnataka
The department data showed that on Thursday, a total of 162 girl students were sent home for defying the HC’s interim order in the state at 14 schools. “In Bidar alone, as many as 114 students from seven schools were sent back home for defying the HC direction and refusing to remove the hijab inside the classroom. Similarly, 20 students from three schools in Shivamogga, 18 girls in two schools of Chitradurga, and eight students at a school in Chikkamagaluru and two in Chikkaballapur were sent home,” an official said.