The girl’s section of Calcutta Madrasah lacks the infrastructure to upgrade it to a deemed university. Picture by Pabitra Das

When the state government is all set to upgrade Calcutta Madrasah into a deemed university, a cloud hangs over the fate of the 35 girl students.

Three years after chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee opened Madrasah-e-Aliah for girls, the section lacks the infrastructure to achieve the status of a deemed university.

The section does not have permanent teaching staff, separate classrooms or hostels. To add to the woes, the girl students — mostly from the districts — have to use the boy’s toilet.

“We have asked the public works department to build a separate toilet for the girls, but there has been no response. So, the girls have no option but to use the boys’ toilet,” said Tanweer Ahmed, the officer-in-charge of the college.

Despite claims of setting up infrastructure in the girls’ section, the government has failed to even recruit permanent teachers.

“There are part-time teachers, but they don’t take classes regularly. Most of the girls are from the districts and they have to commute daily to attend classes, which are few and far between,” said a teacher of the boys’ section.

The girls are from poor families and most cannot afford to commute daily.

“My father is a daily-wager and my mother works as a maid. I am planning to give up education as I don’t have money to spend on transport daily,” said Salma Ismail, a student of first-year Kamil, (equivalent to BA).

The post of the principal of Calcutta Madrasah has been lying vacant for over 20 years, and the administration has been running the college with a part-time officer-in-charge.

But there seems to be a silver lining amidst all odds. The girls fare much better than the boys in all the examinations.

“All the girl students passed last year. They are doing better than the boys and we want to encourage them, but the conditions here make it difficult to do so. We hope things will change for the better once the college is upgraded to a university,” a teacher added.