Question

Why poverty, not religion, is the cause of non attendance of Muslim girls in school?​

Answer 1

Answer:

A question paper, purportedly set for Class VI students of a Central government-run school, went viral on social media on Friday. Two multiple-choice questions caused much consternation.

Question no. 17 read: “What do you mean by Dalit?” and choices for answers were: (A) Foreigners (B) Untouchables (C) Middle Class (D) Upper class. Question no. 18 read: “What is the common stereotype about Muslims?” and choices for answers were: (A) They don’t send their girls to school (B) They are pure vegetarian (C) They do not sleep at all at the time of Roza (D) All of them.

Only one page of the question paper was circulated, and it is learnt that this were based on the Class VI Social Science textbook, published in 2018-19, by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (ISBN 81-7450-511-3).

The questions are based on Chapter 2 — ‘Diversity and Discrimination’ under two subheads — ‘On being discriminated against’ (page 18) and ‘Inequality and discrimination’ (page 19). Both paragraphs are highlighted to improve understanding of misconceptions.

Explanation: