The United Nations, in order to strengthen the cause of the minorities, promulgated the “Declaration of Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities” on 18 December 1992, proclaiming that, “States shall protect the existence of the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity.” In this regard, the Constitution of India has provided protection of rights of minorities and their welfare. Article 14 proclaims equality before law whereas Article 15 prohibits discrimination on the ground of religion. Articles 29 & 30 protect the interests of minorities and their right to establish administrative/ educational institutes.
According to the 2001 Census, religious minority groups constitute around 19 per cent of the total population in India, which include Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis. Among the total minority population in India, the Muslim community comprises the largest share – more than 70 per cent. The analyses of socio-economic condition of minority groups reveal a lot of variation in terms of development indicators among them.
In this regard, the socio-economic situation of the Muslim community reflects poorly as compared to the other religious minority groups. While on the one hand it is argued that the level of backwardness among Muslims is owing to their having kept from modern education (English education, science) and modernity during pre- and post-Independence, on the other, there has been a continued neglect on part of the Central and State governments to address the problems of minorities, especially with regard to the Muslim community. There had hardly been any concrete policy measures for improving the conditions of minorities until 2006-07.
In 2004, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in its Common Minimum Programme (CMP) promised to promote modern and technical education among all minority communities. Further, for social and economic empowerment of minorities, systematic attention to education and employment were to be accorded priority. The UPA government also intended to enact a model comprehensive law to deal with communal violence and encourage the States to adopt the same to generate faith and confidence among minority communities. In order to translate these promises into action, a High Level Committee was constituted on 9 March, 2005 under the chairmanship of Justice Rajinder Sachar. The objective was to prepare a comprehensive report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community due to non-availability of authentic information on the same. Such information was needed for concrete policy action. The Sachar Committee submitted its report on 17 November, 2006, which was tabled in both the Houses of Parliament on 30 November, 2006.
The Committee recognised at the very outset that Muslims, like other minorities, faced multi-faceted challenges related to security, identity and equity. The report analysed the differentials between Muslims and Socio Religious categories (SRCs) in terms of demographic characteristics, level of education, conditions of employment, credit flows, participation in public programmes and access to infrastructure. The overall findings of the Committee reveal that the Muslim community lags in every aspect of socio-economic development. In response to the recommendations made by the Sachar Committee, the central government formulated several policy responses.
With almost seven years having been elapsed, the process of implementation of those policies is still tardy with important areas of intervention for welfare of Muslims, such as providing employment and economic opportunities, still not getting due attention of the policy implementing agencies. Added to that, the low budgetary support to the minority related programmes paints a disappointing picture and questions the sincerity of the government towards welfare of the minorities.
The article largely focuses on examining the socio-economic condition of minorities in India with special focus on the Sachar Committee Report and examines the gaps in implementation of several policy initiatives.
1. SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND EDUCATIONAL STATUS OF MINORITIES IN INDIA
Poverty
A critical indicator assessing the socio-economic condition is the incidence of poverty within a group. The percentage share of poverty among the Muslims in urban areas is 44 per cent, while the comparable estimate for other minority groups is 16 per cent. A distressing trend observed is that poverty among urban Muslims is higher while for other minority groups it is lower as compared to their rural counterparts.
Education
Education is the building block for improvement in socio-economic and educational status. Literacy is another critical dimension to assessing social development. Muslims lag behind all the religious groups in this regard. This is also substantiated by the findings of the Sachar report that Muslims in India have less access to education than other religious groups. The literacy rate among Muslims is only 59.1 per cent while the national average is 64.8 per cent. Female literacy rate is also found to be lower in the Muslim community than other religious groups.
Based on the findings of the Sachar Committee Report, it emerges that the Muslims, as a minority group, are among the most marginalised communities in India in terms of economic and educational indices as well as political empowerment. Further, having the largest share among all the religious groups and spread across the country, they cannot be overlooked by the state and the policy-makers. It has been stated that the dropout rate of the Muslim students from the secondary level onwards, which tends to peak at senior secondary level, is an important factor for the huge gap between the representation of the Muslims in higher education and that of other communities.
Among various reasons for discontinuation or dropping out, the three most important reasons identified in the survey (NSS 64th Round) are lack of interest on the part of parents, lack of interest on the part of children, and financial constraints. These three factors together accounted for at least half of the cases of discontinuation or dropouts across all social groups and also among Hindus and Muslims in the case of religious communities. By and large, financial constraint was the most important factor for discontinuation/ dropping out for all other social groups and religious communities.
Health
As per the National Family Health Survey–3 (2005–2006), the Infant Mortality Rate by community is as follows: Buddhists/Neo-Buddhists (53), Muslims (52), Sikhs (46) and Christians (42). All the figures are better than the national average of 57. Christians and Sikhs have relatively lower mortality rates at all ages under five years. With respect to Perinatal Mortality, the figures are 47 for Muslims followed by 40 for Christians and 31 for Sikhs. The figure is 49 for all-India. As per Census 2001, the sex ratio of 1,009 for Christians, 953 for Buddhists, 936 for Muslims and 992 for other religious groups is above the national average of 933 for the entire country.
WORK PARTICIPATION AND EMPLOYMENT
The Work Participation Rate (WPR) for all religious communities was 39.1 per cent in the Census of 2001. Buddhists had 40.6 per cent WPR (31.7 per cent for women), Christians 39.7 per cent (28.7 per cent for women), Sikhs 53.3 per cent (20.2 per cent for women) and Muslims 31.3 per cent (14.1 per cent for women). The gender gap in the work participation rate is large among Muslims (33.4 per cent points) and Sikhs (33.1 per cent points). The gender gap in WPR is 26.1 per cent points at the national level.
According to the High Level Committee to Examine the Socio-Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community in India, the participation of Muslims in salaried jobs is low at only 13 per cent. In urban areas, less than 8 per cent are employed in the formal sector against a national average of 21 per cent. More than 12 per cent of Muslim male workers are engaged in street vending as compared to the national average of less than 8 per cent. Muslim workers are also found to be in a majority in the industrial sectors of tobacco (41 per cent), wearing apparel (30 per cent) and textiles (21 per cent).
The data shows that Muslim workers are largely concentrated in the informal sector which is characterised by low wages, bad working conditions and little or no social security. Despite having several dedicated schemes for the minorities, it is disquieting to see that the socio-economic and educational status of the Muslim community is abysmally low against the national average figures or even against the other minorities.
Table 1: Key Findings of the Sachar Committee Report
Variables Muslims (%) National Average (%)
Share in Population (2001) 13.4 –
Share in total OBC population 15.7 –
Urban Population 36 28
Literacy (2001) 59.1 64.4
Total drop out of children 25 –
Graduate 3.6 6.7
Diploma 0.4 0.7
Street vending 12 4
Worker – Population Ratio 54.9 64.4
IAS 3 –
IPS 1.8 –
IFS 4 –
Poverty (2004-05) 31 22.7
Infant Mortality Rate 59 73
Source: Sachar Committee Report, 2006
Further, another vital indicator that assesses the extent of being marginalised is the level of exclusion from the mainstream employment pattern. Table 2 reveals that the share of Muslims in government jobs is merely 6.4 per cent. The situation is worse in States with a greater share of Muslim population. For example, in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Assam, while the Muslim population is 25.2 per cent, 18.5 per cent and 30.9 per cent of the population, respectively, their representation in government jobs is 4.7 per cent, 7.5 per cent, and 10.9 per cent respectively. Only 4.5 per cent of railway employees are Muslims, and of these 98.7 per cent occupy lower-level positions. India’s elite civil service corps has a miniscule 3.2 per cent of Muslims.
Table 2: Muslim Representation in Government Jobs
States Muslims in Muslim Representation
Total population (%) in Govt. Jobs (%)
Assam 30.9 11.2
West Bengal 25.2 4.2
Kerala 24.7 10.4
Uttar Pradesh 18.5 5.4
Bihar 16.5 7.6
Jharkhand 13.8 6.7
Karnataka 12.2 8.5
Delhi 11.7 3.2
Maharashtra 10.6 4.4
Andhra Pradesh 9.2 8.8
Gujarat 9.1 5.4
Tamilnadu 5.6 3.2
Total 15.4 6.4
Source: Sachar Committee Report, 2006
2. POLICY INITIATIVES VIS-À-VIS IMPLEMENTATION
Broadly, the Sachar Committee formulated several policy measures and made specific recommendations covering four key dimensions. First, mainstreaming and inclusiveness were to be the cornerstone of the development policy framework for the Muslim community. Second, an urgent need to increase the diversity in residential/ work places and educational institutions by incorporating Muslims was felt. Third, more equity-based measures are needed to reduce the sense of discrimination that the community perceives. Fourth, availability of detailed information and formation of data bank to facilitate action and monitoring of schemes and programmes meant for minorities.
In response to the Sachar Committee recommendations, the Central Government’s newly created Ministry for Minority Affairs has taken the initiative to follow up the recommendations. It prepared a policy response to be implemented to improve the condition of Muslims especially in the area of education and economic empowerment.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs initiated a few schemes with scant budgetary allocation to implement Action Taken Report (ATR) in 2006-07. That apart, the extent of backwardness of the Muslim community requires greater budgetary allocation. A special scheme called Multi-Sectoral Development Programme has been initiated for overall development of community. The scheme is being operated in 710 blocks of 196 minority-dominated districts. Considering the coverage and level of backwardness of minority concentrated districts, this scheme needs more budgetary allocation for better implementation.
The major focus of the government policy in terms of implementation has been on education related issues like scholarship schemes for students and opening additional primary and upper primary schools in minority concentration areas. Scant attention has been given to providing employment and economic opportunities. Even before the submission of the report, the Ministry of Human Resource Development had announced some measures to improve the educational condition of the community through Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA). It had proposed a Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme for Muslims, OBCs, SCs/STs and the girl child. A total of 1.2 crore post-matric scholarships were given during the 11th Plan period from 2007-12. Of this, 30 per cent was reserved for women. The scholarships are also awarded to those fulfilling the merit-cum-means criteria and those studying in any registered educational institutions like schools, colleges, vocational institutes and universities.
Fund utilisation under three schemes, i.e. Pre-Matric, Post–Matric, and Merit-cum-Means, continued to report inadequate utilisation in the 11th plan. The low rate of utilisation is mostly reflective of the government’s inability to make these schemes popular among the beneficiaries. Rigid procedures in filling up applications and a large number of documents such as opening bank accounts, income, castes and domicile certificates make schemes less accessible to beneficiaries.
The government has also proposed to earmark 15 per cent of financial and physical targets in some select schemes and programmes in the Union budget for religious minorities, including Muslims, for implementation of Prime Minister’s 15-point Programme. The programme stipulates that wherever possible, 15 per cent of outlays under various schemes will be earmarked for the minorities. During 2006-07, various ministries like Human Resource Development, Labour and Employment, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Rural Development, and Women and Child Development have made separate allocations for minorities in their schemes.
However, it is unclear how such an onerous task has been undertaken in the absence of suitable guideline and mechanism at district and block levels within the institutional setup. Further, no separate statistical profile for minorities in the proforma, application forms and monitoring tools in schemes guidelines have been provided.
Focusing on the field of economic empowerment of Muslims, credit facility provided by commercial banks for the minority community will be increased by 15 per cent in the coming years. But there is no disaggregated data available on the benefits availed by Muslims. A review on employment carried out by the Central Government itself has found that the minority community members figure a mere 5 per cent of the total direct recruitment made by different ministries during 2007. The Prime Minister’s 15-point Programme for welfare of minorities gave special consideration to recruit minorities in Central and State services along with public sector undertaking. A group of secretaries formed to review the selection process said that only few ministries are serious about the government directives. The whole recruitment drive seems farcical.
3. POLICY GAPS AT IMPLEMENTATION LEVEL
The Sachar Committee recommendations were aimed at bringing about systemic changes in the institutional functioning and improvement in governance, essential to improve inclusiveness of the Muslim community. But the poor performance of the government, to say the least, is shocking; notwithstanding some token increases, it has failed to deliver in areas such as institutional reforms, appropriate policy initiatives and concrete action plans. In the field of education, there has been progress made through SSA and the Scholarship scheme. However, there is no specific strategy for promoting education among Muslim girls at primary level, including measures to reduce school dropout rates, an easier admission process in higher and vocational education, better hostel facilities and teacher training.
A separate Ministry (Minority Affairs) was created to ensure the implementation of a large number programmes by different ministries and departments to alleviate poverty and improve overall human development. Practically speaking, it is impossible for a single ministry to deal with so much, efficiently and holistically. The larger malaise of exclusion has to be addressed by all ‘regular line departments’ and Ministries at the National and State levels, taken together.
The policy appears to be largely unclear and vague and fraught with confusion. First, the government recommends 710 blocks of 196 minority concentration districts with “substantial minority population concentrations” to provide basic amenities and employment opportunities identified on the basis of poor developmental parameters which cover only a few infrastructure related programmes.
Second, the Sachar Committee has highlighted the status of Muslims in a comparative perspective, but the policy refers to “Minorities” thus diluting the Muslim focus. Third, there is clear vision for universalisation of education among the minority community. Besides, no mention is made about promoting higher education among Muslims. Fourth, no clear strategy and appropriate mechanism has been devised to improve the representation of Muslims in the legislature/ Parliament, Central/ State administrations and Public Sector Undertakings.
4. SUGGESTIONS
In the light of the recommendations of the Sachar Committee, the policies to deal with the relative deprivation of Muslims should focus initiating policy reforms and creating an appropriate institutional mechanism at all levels of government for better implementation of newly launched schemes for minorities. It also requires a definite timeline, a programme-specific strategy at planning and implementation level and clarity with respect to monitoring mechanisms and tools.
Enhancing access to credit and economic support programmes, better access to education, improved employment opportunities and conditions, and support for community initiatives is required on an urgent basis. A clear strategy and appropriate mechanism has to be devised to improve the representation of minorities in the legislature, defence establishment, police services, Central and State administrations and Public Sector Undertakings.
The reform in 15-point programme on the lines of Scheduled Caste Sub plan and Tribal Sub Plan is the pre-condition for an inclusive development and mainstreaming of the Muslim community while respecting its diversity. For minority related programmes, there should be better coordination between all ‘regular line departments’ and Ministries at the National, State and District levels. Also, concrete steps are to be taken in the process of programme implementation and monitoring and evaluation.