In order to assess the implementation of Sachar Committee Report, Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) organised a programme at the headquarters of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind on 10 March. Speakers expressed grave concern over that even after the passage of 10 years, the report has been implemented less than 10 per cent all over the country.
Prem Singh, Professor of Delhi University, said 10 years have passed since Sachar Committee submitted its report but only 10 per cent of recommendations have been implemented as of now. Interestingly, apart from BJP and APP, all political parties included the promise of implementation of Sachar Committee Recommendations in their manifesto in every election. But no party has fulfilled this promise. There is a reason behind it. That is social pressure.
Explaining the social pressure, Singh narrated a story of one of his relations, saying he is a little influenced by RSS ideology. When Singh talked to him about Sachar Committee recommendations, his relation said that other communities are also backward; why is there talk only about Muslim empowerment? Singh replied that Sachar is all about Muslims. So it talks about Muslim empowerment.
Political parties don’t want to discourage their majority voters by implementing Sachar Committee Recommendations. On other hand, they also know that Muslims will not vote for any another party. In fear of BJP, they will remain with them at any cost. In this way, they took Muslim voters for granted. Muslims, Muslim leaders and Muslim organisations accepted this. They did not outrage over non-implementation of Sachar Committee Report.
Singh also said that earlier the backwardness of Muslims was felt in the society. But the Sachar Committee has made it authentic and documented on the basis of data provided by state and central governments.
Zafar Mahmood, one of the members of Sachar Committee, said that Sachar Committee Report was presented to then Prime Minister in 2006 and it was approved by Parliament and the cabinet in the same year. A committee was also formed to see whether or not this report was implemented in all states and universities. But besides the Waqf Board, the implementation of the report did not happen more than 10 per cent at the government level. Some minor work has been done but the big work has been neglected. It is a provision in the Constitution that the state shall promote with special care the educational and economic interest of the weaker sections of people. It is obvious that Muslims are backward and the Government of India knew it. But the Sachar Committee has documented it. Overall, the Sachar Committee Report said Muslims are backward and they are going backward.
Speaking on the present condition of Muslims, Mahmood, who is also chairman of Zakat Foundation of India, said that within the last 10 years, three intervening reports came about the condition of Muslims. The Government has not prepared these reports except in Maharashtra. In West Bengal, some people prepared this report together. A Nobel laureate released this report. And a report also came in Karnataka. The conclusion of these three reports is that Muslims have gone backward further.
Mahmood further said that the Sachar Committee also explained that Muslims are backward in every field. The basic reason is that Muslims are not in the rank and file of the government sector. They are few in the government in comparison to their population of 14 per cent. That is the fundamental reason that Muslims are backward. The basic and systemic effect is that Muslims have very little representation in Parliament, Assembly even Municipal levels. There are 543 seats in Lok Sabha and Muslims are 14 per cent of the population. If you take out proportion of this, Muslims should have 77 seats. But they have less than 25 seats. Sometimes it goes up to 40 or 45 seats. But the average is 25 seats. There is not even one-third representation.
Explaining the recommendations of the report, Mahmood further wondered what the reason for it is. Sachar Committee also explained it. It is known to very few. There are several reasons for it. Those are prejudices, discrimination, not getting tickets and not getting votes. The biggest and institutionalised reason is that in the constituencies where Muslims are present in larger number and scheduled castes are few there, those seats have been reserved for scheduled castes. It is in Parliament, Assembly and local levels too. This has been going on till now. In UP, Nagina is a constituency where 64 per cent are Muslims and Scheduled Caste is only 12 per cent. It is reserved for Scheduled Caste. In Karimnagar of Assam, this is the situation. There are a large number of constituencies where this same situation exists. For correcting this situation, the Sachar Committee said a delimitation committee should be formed. Election Commission was going to do the same thing in Saharanpur but Zakat Foundation of India opposed it and got it stopped. These things can be corrected only when we act over it.
Mahmood, a former bureaucrat, also said that due to these things Muslims are getting less representation and this is done by bureaucrats not by politicians. Politicians get fame and name. Ninety per cent of the government functioning is done by bureaucrats who comprise very few Muslims.
Talking on the definition of Scheduled Caste, Mahmood said there is no definition of Scheduled Caste in the Constitution. It is written in the Constitution that the Government of India will tell what the Scheduled Caste is. The Government of India defined the Scheduled Caste with the condition of being Hindu. And later Buddhism and Sikhism that also don’t believe in caste system were included in it.
Elaborating the recommendations of the report on education, Mahmood said for eliminating educational backwardness irrespective of religion and caste, the Sachar Committee recommended alternate admission criteria. The criteria divided marks into two ways – merit and backwardness. Sixty per cent is for merit and 40 per cent for backwardness. This was also not implemented. And nobody raised voice and talked over it.
In the concluding speech, Syed Sadatullah Husaini, Vice President of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, appreciated the talk of both the speakers and urged people to act for implementing the recommendations of Sachar Committee. He also urged people to act individually and collectively.