Social media users are sharing posts which talk about Kerala, the prevalence of madrasas in the state, and the amount of money they receive.
What does it say?: The post aims to highlight the number of madrasas and its teachers, their salaries, as well as the amount the state spends on the centers of religious instruction, and so on.
How did we verify this claim?: This claim has been on the internet since 2021, when The Quint's WebQoof first debunked it.
We will address the claim by each point it makes.
1. Population of Kerala
The post claims that the population of Kerala is 3,56,99,443, but the official data shows a different figure.
As per the 2011 Census of India, which provides the last official figures for population, Kerala had a population of 3,34,06,061 people.
2. Muslim Population in Kerala
The 2011 Census and the claim carry the same figure for the number of people from the Muslim community in Kerala, which stood at 88,73,472, or 26 percent of the state's population.
3. Number of Madrasas, Number of Teachers in Madrasas
The viral post claims that the state has 21,683 madrasas, which employ 2,04,683 teachers.
In 2021, The Quint had reached out to the CEO of the Kerala Madrassa Welfare Board, Hameed, who told us that there were 27,814 madrasas in Kerala.
He added that as many as 1,70,816 teachers were a part of these madrasas.
4. Number of Panchayats in Kerala
The claim states that there are 941 panchayats in the state, which is the same number as mentioned on the Kerala Government's website.
5. Average number of Madrasas
The claim calculates the average number of madrasas per panchayat as (total number of madrasas)/(number of panchayats), which comes up to 23 according to the numbers in the post.
In reality, the figure is higher, with the state having approximately 29.5 madrasas per gram panchayat.
6. Salary of A Madrasa Teacher
The post pegs this number at 25,000 rupees per month, excluding those who make 300 rupees at an hourly rate.
However, when The Quint contacted Dr Moideen Kutty AB, Director of Directorate of Minority Welfare for the previous report, he dismissed the claim, saying that the state government did not pay any amount to madrasa teachers.
We had also contacted KT Jaleel's office, who is credited as the source of information and was the former Minister of Higher Education in the state.
They responded saying, “The salaries of madrasa teachers are paid by the respective madrasa committees. They are paid according to the financial capacity of the madrasa committees.”
7. Monthly Salaries of Madrasa Teachers
The claim calculates this amount to be a little over 5.1 crore rupees per month, by multiplying the number of teachers in madrasas by the amount of salary mentioned in the post.
Since both figures in the claim were incorrect, the amount mentioned is also wrong.
8. Pension For Madrasa Teachers
As per the post, madrasa teachers allegedly receive 6,000 rupees as pension after retiring from their posts.
We ran a keyword search to look for relevant information, which led us to a report by The New Indian Express from July 2024.
It mentioned that the Kochi High Court had asked why the state's government was funding pensions of madrasa teachers, to which the state's representative said, "initially a corpus was given, which is permissible," and the Kerala Madrasa Teachers’ Welfare Fund's members and madrasa teachers had contributed to it.
A report by The Hindu said that committee members and teachers contributed Rs 50 each month to the Kerala Madrasa Teachers’ Welfare Fund.
It only disbursed funds to teachers who had completed 60 years of age and had contributed for a minimum of five years, it added.
KT Jaleel's office clarified that the amount that these beneficiaries received was not more than Rs 1,000 per month.
Dr Moideen Kutty AB said that around 411 retired teachers were receiving pensions from the government, but it did not exceed Rs 1,200 per month.
9. Total Expenditures on Salaries and Pensions for Madrasa Teachers
The post mentions that the amount spent by the Kerala Government on salaries and pensions for madrasa teachers annually amounts to over 7,500 crore rupees.
However, from the facts and figures seen above, we can conclude that this amount has no basis in facts.
Conclusion: Most of the claims made about the Kerala government's expenditure on madrasas and their teachers in the state are false.
(With inputs from Siddharth Sarathe.)
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