Upliftment of Muslim minority under UPA government with special reference to Sachar committee

Transcription

1 International Journal of Academic Research and Development ISSN: , Impact Factor: RJIF Volume 2; Issue 4; July 2017; Page No Upliftment of Muslim minority under UPA government with special reference to Sachar committee 1 Rauoof Raja Dar, 2 Deepak Kumar Sharma 1 Ph.D. Scholar, School of Studies in Political Sciences, Jiwaji University, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India 2 Assistant Professor, Jiwaji University, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India Abstract The protection of minorities is the hallmark of a civilization. The status of minorities should ideally be lifted from the outdated communalism versus secularism, and the nationalism versus sectarianism, and placed in the context of democracy, goals of equality and rights jurisprudence. Though the Muslims are in majority only in Lakshadweep and Jammu and Kashmir, there are six states where the Muslim population is above the national average. There are 110 so called minority concentrated districts-areas where Muslims account for at least 20% of the total population. No party can afford to ignore the community s problems as the voting pattern of the Muslims influences the outcome of the elections; yet, no party has done much to uplift and integrate the community into the mainstream. However the minority welfare has been one of the cornerstone of the UPA s agenda of inclusive growth. It had appointed the Rajinder Sachar committee to study the socio-economic and educational status of Muslim. So this paper tries to through light on UPA s efforts towards Muslim minorities and the results of the same explained as above. Keywords: minorities, UPA, sachar committee Introduction Democratic consciousness and the concern for protection of human rights in every nook and corner of the globe have brought in focus the state of minorities including religious minorities particularly in recent years than in the past. The nation-states are now increasingly being judged by the treatment they mete out to their minorities. India too is being watched the way it is treating its various minorities be it religious, cultural, ethnic and linguistic. India is committed to the ideals of liberal democracy and secularism as enshrined in its Constitution. Considering that there persist feeling of inequality, insecurity and discrimination among the minorities, the Government of India set up a Minorities Commission through a government resolution in January 1978.The National Commission for Minorities is a quasi-judicial autonomous body now working under the National Commission for Minorities Act 1992 which was enacted by Parliament fifteen years after the initial establishment of a Central Minorities Commission by a Government Notification issued on 12th January 1978.Under the said Parliamentary Chapter of 1992,the First Statutory Commission was set up in May India s designated religious minorities, as identified under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act 1992, are Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsees which constitute 18.4% of the total population of the India, while Hindus are the majority group. Among these various religious minorities, Muslims occupy an important position in Indian society, constituting 13.4% of its population, as according to Census Valid in its part iii of Fundamental rights, the Constitution of India guarantees to all sections of the society freedom to profess their religious beliefs, to establish and preserve their educational and cultural institutions, and safeguard their traditions and ethnic identities. Regrettably, this constitutional guarantee is quite often subverted and flouted, particularly in the case of Indian Muslims. There is no denying the fact that the Muslims community in India has experienced extensive marginalization and disempowerment since independence. They suffer from acute marginalization, backwardness and continuous are targets of hate, discrimination, victimization, Islam phobia and creation of fear psychosis. In recent years a systematic campaign of vilification and stagnation against the Muslim community has been carried out. Mosques, Madrasas and shrines have been targets of malicious insinuation and hateful propaganda. More often than not, the state administration and the police have played a blatantly partisan role during the outbreak of communal riots. Several commissions of inquiry and official reports as well as reports of human rights groups have documented and highlighted the partiality and even collusion on the part of the local administration and the police during communal riots. Infect, the brutalization and communalization of the police have become a grave national problem. These have a crippling effect on the community causing constant alienation and ghettoization. In such a situation, they can hardly participate in economic growth and development as free citizens unless they are empowered politically. Nevertheless, in the face of formidable challenges and trying circumstances Muslims have not given into despair and despondency nor have they taken to the path of violence. They are determined to face these challenges with courage and perseverance and are confident that they will ultimately secure their rightful place in the Indian Society. Over several decades following the Independence religion based demographic data for development was not collected in India, and previous five year plan have suffered as a consequence of not being able to plan adequate interventions for religious minority communities. While much more disaggregated data needs to be continually collected in the coming years, the 11th Plan did have the benefit of insights from data generated by the Census 2001 as well as from analysis of several rounds of National Sample Survey 565

2 Organization (NSSO) and from other sources. The economic, social and educational backwardness of the Muslim community in India has been established and highlighted by a number of official reports such as the Gopal Singh Minority Panel Report, the Reports of the 43rd Round and the 55th Round of the National Sample Survey, and the Programme of Action under the New Educational Policy 1986.The various schemes launched by the government to ameliorate the economic and educational conditions of Muslim have remained mostly on paper. The benefits of various government schemes, aimed at improving the socio-economic condition of the weaker sections of the society, have not accrued to Muslims in any significant measure. However, on the eve of the general election of 2004 the BJPled NDA unexpectedly lost power and a Congress-led UPA coalition formed government at the Centre with eminent economist Dr. Manmohan Singh as the new Prime Minister. Congress Party, out of power since long, made a promise in its election manifesto that on assuming the reins of the country it will constitute a National Commission to examine and report on the issue of reservation for the Muslims, which the community had been demanding since long. It was an electoral compulsion, since in the past the party had always been averse to the idea. The integrity of the new PM Manmohan Singh however saw the promise translated into action, and setting up of a Commission was announced not too long after his coming to power. The Report of the Prime Minister s High Level Committee (popularly Sachar Committee, 2006) on the social, educational and economic status of Muslims propelled the community to the Centre of the development debate. The Sachar Committee Report (SCR) outlines that Muslims across most parts of India, as a community are deeply impoverished and suffer from huge illiteracy, a high drop-out rate, depleting asset base, below average work participation and lack of stable and secure employment. Their deplorable situation is further compounded by their limited access to government schemes and programmes, poor credit flow from public banks and other financial institutions and meager share in public employment. Regional variations notwithstanding, Muslims, as a whole, have performed only a shade better than scheduled castes and tribes (SCs/STs) on most indices of development, while they have lagged behind the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). A year later, the report of the Commission on Linguistic and Religious Minorities (Ranganath Misra Commission, 2007) also reached a similar conclusion regarding the status of Muslims. As a follow up exercise, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre had introduced a series of ameliorative measures especially educational and financial to address the development deficits faced by Muslims, in particular, and religious minorities at large. Measures such as Multi-Sectoral Development Programme, scholarship schemes for pre-matric, post-matric and technical education, enhanced credit flows to minorities through public sector banks, strengthening National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation, Madarsa Modernization Scheme, Prime Minister s 15 Point Programme were initiated. The Muslims in India Highlighted in the Sachar Report The Sachar Committee was the first time that the government of India commissioned a body with the task of investigating social, economic, and educational conditions in terms of socio-religious identity. Its findings revealed that government policy since Independence was increasing the social exclusion of the Muslim community. Specifically, Muslims have experienced increased deprivation compared with constitutionally guaranteed and institutionally supported policies and programmes (reservations) for SCs and STs that have enabled these groups to improve social and economic development outcomes. That is, programmes that improve access to employment in the public sector, development credit, higher education, political participation via voting and public office, guaranteed employment in the third tier of governance such as the panchayats and municipalities and participation in civil society have benefitted SCs and STs, but have excluded Muslims and other religious minorities. The Sachar Committee was an eye opener as the problems was brought out, not in vague, but with the support of concrete facts and statistics. This report was probably the first attempt to analyze the conditions of the Muslim community using large-scale empirical data. The real status of Indian Muslims as revealed in the Sachar Report, the following deserve special attention: Population The Muslim population was reported by Sachar Committee 138 million out of a total population of 1029 million as per latest census 2001.Percentage wise, Muslims were about 13.4% of the total population, as compared to 80.5% Hindus (including SCs/STs) and 6.1% other minorities (Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Jains),and by 2006 the Muslim population is around 150 million-the annual growth rate among Muslims between , has averaged 2.7%, which is well above the national average population growth of 2.1%.The growth rate for others are: Hindus and Christians, 2%; Jains, 1.8%; Sikhs and Buddhists, 2.2%. The report states, In India, populations of all major religions have experienced large growth in the recent past, but the growth among Muslims has been higher than average. Between 1961 and 2001 the percent of Muslim population increased from 10.7% to 13.4%.The Committee estimates the proportion of Muslims to rise to 18% to 21% by 2101 under different scenarios. There has been a decline in the growth rate among all groups between 1991 and 2001, including for Muslims in most states. The states with the highest percentage of Muslims include Jammu & Kashmir (67%), Assam (30.9%), West Bengal (25.2%), and Kerala (24.7%).Though the sex ratio among Muslims at 936 girls per 1000 boys is only marginally better than the national average of 933, the figure for the 0-6 age group is better at 950 (927 for all religions). Educational Conditions The literacy rate among Muslims in 2001 was 59.1%, below the national average (64.8%) with the gap greatest in urban areas. In many states, Muslim literacy levels were higher than those of SCs and STs. However, the highest increase in school enrolment rates over the past five years have occurred among SCs/STs (with 95% increase) followed by Muslims (65%).The report also noted that despite a common belief that a large number of Muslim children attend madarsas for primary education, only 3% of Muslim children among the school going age go to madarsas. Instead, many Muslim children are enrolled in Maktabs, which provide supplementary religious education in addition to enrolment in public schools. 566

3 According to the 2001 Census, 7% of the population aged 20 years and above are graduates or hold diplomas, while only 4% among the Muslim population does. The Committee Report notes that the gap between Muslims and other Socio Religious Categories (SRCs) increases as the level of education increases, and that unemployment rates among Muslim graduates is the highest among SRCs both among the poor and the non-poor. Economy and Employment & Government Employment and Programmes Worker population ratios for Muslims are significantly lower than for all other SRCs in rural areas, but only marginally lower in urban areas. The lower ratios are mainly due to much lower participation in economic activity by Muslim women. DSSSS According to the Committee Report, the most striking feature is the relatively high share of Muslim workers engaged in self-employment activity, primarily in urban areas and for women workers. Participation of Muslim salaried workers in both the public and private sectors is quite low (as is true for SCs/STs), and the average salary of Muslim workers is lower than others (possibly, as more Muslims are in inferior jobs).participation of Muslim workers in the informal sector is much higher than the average population, and the percentage of Muslim women working within their homes (70%) is much higher than all workers (51%).Muslims participation rates in traditional manufacturing and trade (especially wearing apparel, auto-repair and electrical machinery) is much higher than for other groups, while their participation in the agricultural section is lower. Also, Muslim participation rates in security related activities, such as the police, was 4% as compared to SCs/STs at 12% and OBCs at 23% each. According to the report, the overall participation of Muslims in Central Government departments and agencies is abysmally low at all levels. There is not one state in which the representation of Muslims in the government departments matches their population share. Access to Bank Credit The Committee reports that the access of Muslims to bank credit is low and inadequate. The average size of credit is low compared with other SRCs. The 2001 Census shows that the percentage of households availing banking facilities is much lower in villages with high Muslim populations. Some banks have identified a number of Muslim areas as negative geographical zones where bank credit and other facilitates are not easily provided. The average amount lent per account to Muslims is about half that of other Minorities, and one-third of others. The Committee Report states, The financial exclusion of Muslims has far-reaching implications for their socio-economic and educational upliftment steps should be introduced to specifically direct credit to Muslims, create awareness of various credit schemes and bring transparency in reporting of information. Access to Social and Physical Infrastructure:-There is a clear and significant inverse association between the proportion of the Muslim population and the availability of educational infrastructures in small villages. Studies found that, compared to the Muslim majority areas, the areas inhabited by fewer Muslims had better roads, local bus-stops, pucca houses, sewage and drainage and water supply facilities. The Committee highlighted the following points: About one third of small villages with high concentration of Muslims do not have any educational institutions. About 40% of large villages with a substantial Muslim concentration do not have any medical facilities. Poverty, Consumption and Standards of Living:- Muslims face fairly high levels of poverty. Their conditions on the whole are only slightly better than those of SCs/STS, though slightly worse in urban areas. According to NSSO data, overall 22.7% of India s population was poor in (251 million people), with SC/STs together as the worst off (at 35%), followed by Muslims at 31%.The report shows comparisons between consumption expenditures across SRCs. Relative deprivation of the Muslim community in terms of consumption expenditure is much higher in urban areas than in rural.a substantially larger proportion of the Muslim households in urban areas are in the less than Rs 500 expenditure bracket. Poverty among Muslims has declined in rural areas by 12%, whereas the economic conditions of Muslims in urban areas have not improved as much as other of other SRCs.The report compares the status of Muslims who are not listed as OBCs and thus do not qualify for reservations with Muslim OBCs. At least 82 different social groups among Muslims were declared OBCs by the Mandal Commission. According to the last round of the NSSO survey, 40.7% of Muslims are Muslim OBCs, which is 15.7% of the total OBC population of the country. According to the report, the abysmally low representation of Muslim OBCs suggests that the benefits of entitlements meant for the backward classes are yet to reach them. The conditions of the general Muslim category are lower than the Hindu- OBCs who have the benefit of reservation. However, the conditions of Muslim- OBCs are worse than those of the general Muslim category. The three groups of Muslims in India- ashrafs, ajlafs and arzals, (in order of caste hierarchy) require different types of affirmative action. Recommendations of Sachar Committee The Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee report has highlighted the deplorable socioeconomic plight of the mass of the Muslim community. It has served to highlight the urgent need to adopt special measures for the upliftment in their social and economic conditions. It has also effectively rebutted the false and motivated propaganda about minority appeasement. In the light of the Sachar Committee report, the Central government must frame a concrete programme backed with adequate financial allocations to address the discrimination faced by minority communities, in particular the Muslim minority community in the economic, social and educational sphere. It is essential to immediately identify Muslim areas and conduct concrete surveys, so that the assistance can be concretized. This exercise must be done in a time-bound framework. The Committee strongly suggests that the policies to deal with the relative deprivation of the Muslims in the country should sharply focus on inclusive development and mainstreaming of the Community while respecting diversity. There is an urgent need to recognize diversity in residential, work and educational spaces, apart from enhancing inclusion of the really deprived SRCs in spaces created by public programmes and policy interventions. The need for equity and inclusion in a pluralistic society can never be overemphasized. But the mechanism to ensure equity and equality of opportunity to bring about inclusion should be such that diversity is achieved and at the same time the perception of discrimination is eliminated. This is only possible when the 567

4 importance of Muslims as an intrinsic part of the diverse Indian social mosaic is squarely recognized. To constitute an Equal Opportunity Commission to deal with the concern of deprived groups. b) The process of evaluating the content of school text books should be initiated and institutionalized. To work out mechanism, so that Madrasas can be liked with the higher secondary school boards that will ensure the pass outs from Madrassas to enter the mainstream education. Madrassa degrees should be recognized for the eligibility in the competitive examinations. To establish legal mechanism which will deal with grievance of discrimination against minorities on the issues of employment, housing, schooling and obtaining bank loans. To ensure diversity in the student population at college and university level, the UGC should link financial allocation to these institutions with the diversity in the student s population. An alternate admission criterion should be devised so that the admissions to the most backward among the all SRCs (socio-religious categories) in the universities will be ensured. To set up delimitation procedure that rules out reserving constituencies with high minority population for the SCs. To set up National Data Bank, which will act as a source and maintain relevant data related to various SRCs. Within the Muslims Arzals should be designated as SCs or Most Backward Castes and affirmatives actions should be targeted towards this group. Dominant Political Measures of UPA-I & UPA-II Governments after Summoning the Report: The formation of a Congress-led UPA government in 2004 marked a new critical juncture in the efforts of India s religious minorities to establish a more substantive framework of equality of opportunity. The new critical juncture held the promise of redefining the constitutional settlement by addressing the long-term demands of the minorities; especially Muslims who suffered significant discrimination and disadvantage in the post-1947 period and carry the burden of being stigmatized as outsiders and more importantly the children of India s Partition. The election of the UPA government in May 2004 was followed by a raft of policy initiatives aimed generally at minorities but more specifically at Muslims. These measures came on the heels of highpowered commissions and committees that investigated the conditions of the minorities or were charged with examining new, alternative approaches to equality of opportunity. The core framework of policy formation was provided by reports of one committee, one commission, and two experts groups: the Sachar Committee Report(2006),the Ranganath Misra Commission Report (2007),a report by the expert group on Equal Opportunity Commission (2007), and a report by the expert group on Diversity(2008).The most notable of these committees was Sachar Committee Report (2006),which single-handedly transformed the discourse on Indian Muslims from identity to security and equity by drawing attention to the serious need to address the development deficit suffered by most of the community. Understanding the crucial fact that welfare of Minorities needs special attention in order to bring them to the mainstream of development, UPA government carved out a new Ministry in 2006 called Ministry of Minorities Affairs. This has exemplified the commitment of UPA government that they are determined to do everything possible to look after the special needs of minorities for this development. The Ministry of Minority Affairs under the leadership of Shri K. Rahman Khan has developed a more focused approach towards the welfare of minority communities by introducing new schemes and toning up the existing ones to reach out to a larger number of minorities. There have been phenomenal efforts made by the government for the all-round development of Minorities in almost all the areas like Education, Area Development, Economic Empowerment, Protection and Development of Waqf properties. The Prime Minister s New 15 point programme and various other flagship schemes has helped uplifting the Minorities in the country. Some of the monumental achievements for Minority Welfare implemented by UPA governments are highlighted as follows: The Ministry of Urban Development was implementing Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT). The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation implemented programmes like Integrated Housing Slum Development Programme (IHSDP), Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP), Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SJSRY). The Ministry Labour and Employment industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). The Ministry of School Education and Literacy implemented, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Kasturba Gandhi Balika, Vidyalaya (KGBV), and Madrassa modernization programmes. The Ministry of Women and Child Development implemented Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Department of Finance implements the Priority Sector Lending (PSL) to Minorities. The Ministry of Minority Affairs implements five scholarship schemes apart from the Maulana Azad Education Foundation. These schemes include, Pre-matric, Post-matric, Merit-cum-Means scholarships, Free coaching and allied scheme for competitive examinations, and Maulana Azad National Fellowship for minority students pursuing M.Phil. and Ph.D. Loans for more than Rs. 1, 99,000 crore extended by banks to minority communities under Priority Sector Lending. 24,000 schools constructed and 33,000 new schools opened lakh additional classroom constructed. 555 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas sanctioned. More than lakh houses constructed for minorities with an expenditure of Rs crore under Indira Awas Yojana ( to ). Projects of Rs. 21,230 crore sanctioned under different components of JnNURM in the cities/ towns having a substantial minority population. 70,000 Anganwadi Centres operationalized in minority concentration blocks under ICDS. Conclusion There is truth in the fact that these 10 years have been quite productive for the Muslims. UPA-I s de-saffaronisation was a 568

5 great achievement and no future secular government will have the luxury of having as strong and determined a Human Resources Development Minister as Arjun Singh. Text books were changed under the National Democratic Alliance rule, but the National Council of Educational Research and Training s present curriculum is a tribute to Mr. Singh s strong secular approach. Muslims, in their criticism of the UPA government, must understand that the responsibility lies with the States; the Central government cannot be blamed for all problems. Central allocations remain unspent in many States. Moreover, at the ground level, minorities have to overcome bureaucratic prejudices and at times even communalism. Minority welfare has been one of the cornerstones of the UPA s agenda of inclusive growth. It had appointed the Rajindar Sachar committee to study the socio-economic and educational status of Muslims, whose findings exposed the hollowness of the oft-repeated appeasement-of-muslims argument of the BJP and other right wing organisations. In top government jobs, representation was minuscule 3 per cent in the Indian Administrative Service, 1.8 per cent in the Indian Foreign Service and 4 per cent in the Indian Police Service. The UPA government also appointed another commission under the chairmanship of the late Justice Ranganath Mishra, which submitted its report in Most of its recommendations including reservation have not been implemented. The 4.5 per cent minorities reservation within OBCs was announced to woo Muslims but once the U.P. election was over, the UPA did not send any senior lawyer to defend this reservation before the Andhra Pradesh High Court. References 1. Jawaid MA, Jehangir KN, Shankar Bose. Minorities of India. Problems & Prospects. Manak Publications Pvt. Ltd Delhi, 2007, Khan ZM. Political Empowerment of Muslims in India. Institute of Objective Studies New Delhi, 2010, Ibid Ibid Prakash Lousis, Rights of the Minorities in India.Manak Publications Pvt. Ltd. Delhi, 2014, Tahir Mahmood. Minorities Commission Minor Role in Major Affairs.Universal Law Publishing Haryana , Dr. Tanveer Fazl. Millennium Development Goals & Muslims of India Oxfam India Working Paper Series, 2013, Ibid Abusaleh Shariff. Development, Diversity and Equal Opportunity in India A background paper circulated at a Public Lecture at the University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, 2015, Tasneem Shazli, Sana Asma. Educational Vision of Muslims in India Problems & Concerns. International Journal of Humanities & Social Science Invention. 2015; 4(3): Execute summary-centre for the Advanced Study of India@ files/iit/minority%20report.pdf.p Summary of Sachar Committee Report prepared by Priya Parker Summary_of_Sachar_Committee_Report.pdf.p2, Ibid.p Ibid.p Prakash Louis. Rights of The Minorities in India. Manak Pulications Pvt. Ltd. Delhi, 2014, Andrew Dawson. The Politics and Practice of Religious Diversity: National contexts, global issues. Published by Routledge, rd Avenue London,