Status of Muslim Education in Purulia Municipality, Purulia, West Bengal, India

Abstract

Islam is the second largest religion of India. Muslim community is also a substantial minority and second religious group of West Bengal. But even after such huge sharing of population, in maximum cases Muslims are living in a state of economic insufficiency, poor health and educational status. There are many reasons for backwardness among Muslims in Indian such as low income level, high illiteracy and dropout rates, ignorance and negative attitude especially towards girls education, large family size, child marriage, poor health condition etc. It is imperative here to quote the statement of Mahatma Gandhi where he said that A civilization can be judged by the way it treats its minorities. Thus for overall development of the nation Muslims should get basic needs of life and living. In this regard education could play a pivotal role to revive them from within. In this juncture the paper investigates educational status of Muslims and probable causes of lack of educational standards in three most Muslim dominated areas of Purulia municipality under the jurisdiction of Purulia district, West Bengal, India. In fine, the paper prescribes some remedial measures for the improvement of education level among Muslims of the municipality.