Uttarakhand mandates Sunday as weekly holiday for state-recognized madrassas

At a police commemoration ceremony in Dehradun, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami stated that madrassas receiving formal recognition from the Uttarakhand State Authority for Minority Education will now observe Sundays as their weekly holiday, aligning them with other schools. He emphasized the need for a uniform system across all educational institutions. The decision affects the 76 madrassas currently recognised by the Uttarakhand Minority Education Authority, with another 114 applications under review.

These schools must comply with the education department’s regulations or face closure. The policy follows recent legislation that merged separate minority school boards into a single state-monitored authority covering Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi institutions. The state has also been shutting down unregistered madrassas that were operating without approval.