Indian Muslims Economic condition.
The Constitution of India, drafted by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, guarantees fundamental rights to all communities of India. Article 15(1) says, 'The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them."
After independence those who choose to stay back in India thinking it is their own motherland of opportunities were proved wrong later by the test of time, since the inception of AZADI Muslims had been a targeted community of discrimination by the ruling community, they had been discriminated not only in education but also economically as well as politically. It should be noted that every government that came in power claimed the welfare of Muslims, which they never did.
Before moving further let us understand that, Muslims has to improve on two front
1-Education
2- Economy
Both the above heads are interlinked with each other, if one wants to educate his children’s he has to be economically strong and if he can not educate them than he is loosing the chance of earning, share of jobs in government sector as well as private sector, so in my opinion educational backwardness is equal to economical backwardness.
Before marching ahead we should understand that Indian Muslims should not be treated as uniform society and community. They have sectarian, regional, caste and cultural differences Even in matters like literacy, family planning and economic development, there are regional and caste differences.
it should be noted that Muslims in Kerala are more educated and economically strong then the other parts of Indian Muslims same applies for the Ansari Muslims in eastern up as they are economically powerful than there other counterparts in the same region, the sub communities among Muslims like Ansaris , Qureshis, Baghbans have made economic progress but lack the education this situation is vice a versa with the upper caste Muslims. Similarly the other communities who claimed to be Muslims like the Bohras, Khojas and Memons of Gujrat have made more progress than common Muslims. So regional, sectarian and caste differences should be taken into account while talking about the economic condition of Muslims in India. Now every government has tried to study the problems faced by Muslims in India.
Lets have a look
Governments stand:
A Minority Commission was established in 1978, and in 1980 a committee was formed under the chairmanship of Dr V A Syed Mohammad. This Committee submitted its 119 page Report on June 14, 1983. This Report discussed the condition of minorities as well as other backward sections of our society. Dr Gopal Singh Committee made a recommendation that was never taken seriously. Again in 1995, the Minority Commission on its own collected substantial amount of data and information that reflected the fact that the condition of Muslims was quite deplorable and their representation in jobs much disproportionate to their population in various states. Again in 1996, a 12-member strong Sub-Committee of the Planning Commission observed that, “the representation of minorities, especially Muslims, in the states and at the central level is disproportionate to their proportion and to correct the imbalance till now no specific action has been taken.”
Again in May 2005, the Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh had formed a high-powered committee under the chairmanship of Justice Rajinder Sachhar, to assess the socio-economic –political condition of Indian Muslims.
According to the census of 2001
Muslims are 13.43% of total population
State wise:
Uttar Pradesh (31 million),
West Bengal (20 million),
Bihar (14 million),
Maharashtra (10 million),
Kerala (8 million),
Andhra Pradesh (7 million)
Jammu & Kashmir (7 million) and Lakshadweep, Muslims are in majority.
As I mentioned earlier economic backwardness is equal to educational backwardness so now the literacy rate among Muslims in various states.
National literacy rate is 64.8 per cent
Among Muslims this rate is 59.1 per cent.
In Uttar Pradesh [47.8 per cent]
Bihar [42 per cent]
Assam [48.4 per cent]
West Bengal [57.5 per cent]
Jammu and Kashmir [47.3 per cent]
Literacy rates among Muslim women stand at 21.5 per cent in Haryana, 42.7 percent in Jharkhand and 40.3 per cent in Uttaranchal. Among all states and union territories, Haryana has the lowest literacy rate among Muslim women.
As we all know that Justice Sachhar has tabled his recommendations according to his findings: Muslims percentage in government jobs is far below as compare to their population percentage following table shows that
| Institutions | Reported Number of Employees | Reported Number of Muslim Employees | Muslims as % of Reported Employees |
| State Level Departments | 4452851 | 278385 | 6.3 |
| Railways | 1418747 | 64066 | 4.5 |
| Banks & RBI | 680833 | 15030 | 2.2 |
| Security Agencies (CRPF, CISF, BSF, SSB and Others) | 1879138 | 60517 | 3.2 |
| Postal Service | 275841 | 13759 | 5.0 |
| Universities (129 Universities and 84 Colleges) | 137263 | 6416 | 4.7 |
| All Reported Government Employment (Excluding PSUs) | 8844669 | 438173 | 4.9 |
| Central PSUs (154 PSUs) | 687512 | 22387 | 3.3 |
| State PSUs | 745271 | 80661 | 10.8 |
| Total | 1432783 | 103048 | 7.2 |
| States | Muslims in Total population (%) | Muslim Representation in Govt jobs (%) | Muslim Representation in PSU jobs (%) |
| | | | Higher posts | Lower posts |
| Assam | 30.9 | 11.2 | No information | No information |
| West Bengal | 25.2 | 4.2 | 0 | 1.4 |
| Kerala | 24.7 | 10.4 | 9.5 | 11.1 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 18.5 | 5.4 | 6.2 | 5.3 |
| Bihar | 16.5 | 7.6 | 8.6 | 6.4 |
| Jharkhand | 13.8 | 6.7 | No information | No information |
| Karnataka | 12.2 | 8.5 | 8.6 | 9.9 |
| Delhi | 11.7 | 3.2 | 2.1 | 5.6 |
| Maharashtra | 10.6 | 4.4 | 1.9 | 1.1 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 9.2 | 8.8 | No information | No information |
| Gujarat | 9.1 | 5.4 | 8.5 | 16.0 |
| Tamilnadu | 5.6 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 2.6 |
| Total | 15.4 | 6.4 | 3.2 | 2.6 |
Representation of Muslims is only 3 per cent in IAS, 1.8 per cent in IFS and 4 per cent in IPS.
Sachhar committee recommendations:
Justice sacchar recommendations mainly has two parts of suggestions
1] Initiatives by State governments.
2] Role-played by Muslim leadership and common man.
State Initiatives:
State on it s part being a sovereign body has to collect data on social economic educational and political conditions, such information need to be quantitative comparative and qualitative and freely available. On the basis of collected true data state has to devise policy for the development of areas of minorities on the basis of population and sufficient funds should be floated. While doing so equal participation from the local people should be taken and their religious and emotional sentiments should be considered, we all will agree to the importance of financial support for running of developmental program so state also properly maintain the wakf and durgha properties and their earnings by taking necessary actions.
Role-played by Muslim leadership.
Muslim intellectuals think tanks and highly literate people should take this initiative to study the basic problems and devise their solutions by conveying it to the government, at the same time they have to set up Non governmental organization some time funded by state and self funded, they also have to take Madarsa education system into mainstream so as to reach to grass root level.
My point of view for economic policy :
India will be a super power by 2020 as per the vision of former president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul kalam,
To increase the share of Muslim community on Knowledge level the education system should be made flexible for Muslims.
India is growing but its share is not reaching specially Muslims, interestingly In Muslim community those who are getting share are low caste Muslims like gardener, butcher, weaver, craders bangle makers and Baghbans. As they get it by the fundamental requirement of community not by the state support.
Most of the Muslim population is urban or semi urban here state should come ahead to establish different technical institutes for skill development, once the skilled manpower comes out the state should provide jobs or if it is not possible for the state than it should impart entrepreneurship training later supported by bank loans, now it’s a state responsibility to take guarantee of Aspirant entrepreneur’s financial liabilities as they are not credit-worthy.
Special minority zones should be set up as like special economic zones for Muslim craftsman and artisans they should be imparted import and export training, and they should be provided marketing support to sell their product.
Government has set up Minority ministry its funds allocations should be increased to achieve the set targets, various other financial institutions may be formed in each state according to skill set like in Malegaon power loom operators financial corporation can be established the establishment will ask 90 funds from government and 10 percent will be generated by power loom operators only.
To increase the percentage of Muslims in government jobs the policy should be made flexible at least for the class three and four category and they can be directly placed.
One more option could be to ease out job burden on government is to allow Muslims to build operate the academic institutions like pharmacy, engineering, medical, and other courses and it should be mandatory for them to take at least 50% Muslim employees.
Muslims should be allowed to open Banks “Minority Banks” or Islamic banks under the Reserve bank of India guidelines this will help Muslim investor to deposit in interest free economy and will make enough funds available for the development on profit-loss basis.
Zakat funds should be collected by Muslims NGOs and to be utilized by Muslims only.
State should maintain wakf properties and invest its earnings into development.
Each year government supports in hajj pilgrimage by way of subsidy, now subsidy should be there and it should be gradually lower down by simultaneously motivating Hajj aspirants to invest there savings in Hajj board which should be set up and governed by state with Muslims intellectuals this will give enormous extra fund to government to utilize for benefit of Muslim community.
Reservation should be given; it is a right for Muslims.
According to Muslim population the seats for Member of Parliament and member of legislative assembly should be reserved to increase the political voice.
Special officers should be appointed to safeguard community interest in state and central government and union territories.
It is always said that doers are achievers so need is to come ahead and implement and execute the policies.
Now the curtain is falling on us.
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