Role of Madarsa in Promoting Education and Socio-economic Development in Mewat District, State of Haryana, India

Madarsa education is very common among the Muslims in India. Hundreds of thousand Muslim children acquire their primary, and perhaps the only formal education in these madarsas. As a result they are quite backward in science education. A section of scholars held madarsa education responsible for the poor socio-economic conditions of Indian Muslims. Due to the absence of modern education the madarsa trained persons are unable to improve their own material prosperity or to provide proper leadership to their Muslim community.Mewat District about a hundred kilometers away from the National Capital Territory of Delhi, is the most backward both educationally and economically and falling at the abysmal level of the development. Besides other socio-economic reasons, lack of scientific education and rigid traditional culture are held important reasons of backwardness.The purpose of the present study is to analyze whether madarsa education becomes a barrier in promoting modern education or whether institutions did help improve socio-economic conditions of madarsa trained persons.In the absence of secondary data, the present study is based on the primary data collected through both extensive and intensive field work at the household level covering 2350 households.