Uttarakhand madrasa regulatory crackdown

The Uttarakhand government has intensified its regulatory crackdown on madrasas, specifically targeting institutions lacking official accreditation. Following the dissolution of the state’s Madrasa Board and the repeal of the 2016 Madrasa Board Education Act, the newly established Uttarakhand State Authority for Minority Education (USAME) now oversees institutions for six notified minority communities: Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians, and Parsis.

Under these new regulations, madrasas must affiliate with the Uttarakhand Board of School Education or District Chief Education Offices and adopt the National Curriculum Framework as prescribed by the National Education Policy 2020. Authorities have begun sealing institutions that fail to meet these requirements.

Recent enforcement actions in Dehradun and Haldwani have resulted in the closure of 20 unrecognised institutions. Specifically, authorities sealed 17 madrasas, including Madrasa Jamia-Tus-Salam Al-Islamia in Dehradun and Madrasa Jamia Nooria Barkate Amina in Haldwani. Three other institutions, including Madrasa Dar-e-Arqam and Madrasa Darul Uloom Rahimia, voluntarily submitted written undertakings to cease operations after failing to produce valid recognition documents.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has maintained that the state will operate according to constitutional norms and the rule of law, asserting that the era of “appeasement for the sake of votes” has ended. He has directed that no educational institution operate without fulfilling prescribed rules and recognition requirements to ensure academic standards.