Child Rights' Commission to visit madrassas

Kolkata: Besides visiting schools, West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights will also visit madrassas in connection with different aspects of child rights.

There was a consultation meet between the headmasters of different madrassas and senior officials of the commission.

The meeting was held at the office of the commission in the last month.

There were headmasters of around 20 madrassas, who attended the consultation meet and welcomed the proposal of the commission.

They urged its members to visit madrassas to have a close look at these educational institutions.

There was a detailed discussion with the headmasters about the visit of the commission to the madrassas and subsequently the decision was taken. Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti, Chairperson of the Commission said: "The headmasters welcomed us saying that the visit would bring a change in the conception about the madrassas."

She added: "The commission visit schools to look into matters related to child rights and it helps in creating awareness amongst people in similar connection. Similarly, visit to the madrassas will be also helpful for students of the educational institutions."

The commission will start visiting the madrassas from Wednesday and it will start with one such educational institution at Dankuni in Hooghly.

Members of the commission will be visiting almost all the madrassas in the state in phases.

There will also a member of a non-government organisation in the team along with the members of the commission.

Members of the commission will be speaking to students of the madrassas and at the same time interact with the teaching staff. They will also look into the infrastructure available for the children of the madrasas.

During interaction with the teaching staff of the madrassas, members of the commission will also speak about different aspects of child rights.

It may be mentioned that at present there are nine English medium madrassas in the state.

The setting up of English medium madrassas is helpful to a large section of people and the students are getting benefitted as they are learning English in a better way.

Infrastructure of the madrassas has improved a lot in the past few years.

Several initiatives were taken up by the state government and it include computer training programme at several madrasas across the state.