The Road From Minority Appeasement To Empowerment
By Warisha Farasat
04 January, 2007
Countercurrents.orgFrom the refrain of “Mile sur mere tumhara, to sur bane hamara” in the 1980’s to the slogan of “India Shining” in the 21st century India not much has changed. Not for the 138 million (13.4 %) Muslims in India. Special Economic zones, the middle class safely ensconced in big cars instead of the regular hatchbacks, or the profit from BPOS does not reflect the reality of the country’s Muslims. The High Level Justice Sachar Committee was appointed to examine the social, economic and educational status of the Muslims in India. It confirms the uncomfortable fact that comparing indicators of socio economic development, it’s evident that Muslims fare worst than even the SC/STs.
Prior to discussing the findings or the systemic recommendations it is important to contextualize the report. Who are the intended beneficiaries of the report? It is a community of millions who nurtured the dream of a ‘secular’ India and consciously made the unequivocal decision to become Indians. A community that relied on and signed its destiny to the words, ‘all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion.’ It has been repeatedly brutalized during the communal clashes and has learnt to live with the ‘justice and trust deficits’. A community that has been used for furthering the vote bank politics by the saffrons and the non-saffrons. And have been reduced to nobodies. Eduardo Galeano lines capture the essence of this marginalization: “The nobodies: nobody’s children: owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no ones, nobodies, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way…..Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the police blotter of the local paper. The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them.”
The grim statistics speak for themselves. Only 59.1 percent of Muslims are literate as opposed to the national average of 65.6 percent. In the premier under graduate and graduate institutions, Muslim students are only one out of 25 and one out of 50 respectively. 31% of the Muslims fall below the poverty line and record the second highest incidence of poverty across all groups. Using the method of Head Count Ratios (HCRs) they have the highest incidence of poverty in the urban areas (38.4%).
The share of government employment of Muslims in all sectors is extremely low. A mere 4.5% of Muslims are employed by the Indian Railways, which employs a total of 14 lakh persons. In the judiciary, the numbers reveal the starkness of the overall situation. With a dismal representation of 7.8%, they fall below the 23% of the OBCs and 20% of the SC/STs. The prestigious civil services consist of only 3% IAS and 1.8% IFS Muslim officers. Of the other major departments: 6.5% in Education, 7.3% in Home, 4.4% in Health and 6.5% in Transport. Following these numbers, their representation in the private sector is anybody’s guess.
The statistics are significant but the report in its scope and analysis goes beyond sheer numbers. The findings are important in reversing the general misperceptions about the Muslim community. For starters, the community is not blamed for its socio-economic backwardness, and rightly so. The low female literacy is attributed to the lack of access of the educational infrastructure in general by the community and the women in particular. Muslims live in areas with poor educational and medical infrastructural facilities. The argument that they are inherently regressive and opposed to educating their women is proven flawed by the report.
In a country where female foeticide is still widely prevalent, the sex ratios amongst the Muslim community are higher than the national average. The child sex ratio (between the ages of 0-5) of females per thousand males is as high as 986, which is much higher than that of any other group. The Hindutva machinery incessantly propounds that the Muslims will soon become a demographic threat. Analyzing the available data and the current demographic projections the report states that by the end of the century the expected rise would not exceed 20% of the total population.
Another contribution of the report is its emphasis on the often-ignored aspect of socio-economic rights. Previously most reports on the minorities emanating from the government appointed inquiry commissions focused primarily on the issue of communal violence. This approach overlooked the proclivities of the existing structure that is intuitively discriminatory against the Muslim minority. For instance the Sri Krishna Committee, which investigated the Bombay riots, established the complicity of the local police force in brutalizing Muslims during the communal riots. The inquiry commissions preceding it drew similar conclusions and certain wings of the police like the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) symbolize terror for the Muslims. This paradigm emerges from a deeper understanding of the various nuances of overt physical violence or increasing ghettoisation. It underlines that communal riots do not occur in a vacuum. In other words structural violence is not restricted to the PAC physically brutalizing Muslims but is causally linked to the under representation of the Muslim community in the police force and the security apparatus.
Identifying the intense marginalization of the community, the report proposes concrete steps forward. Apart from suggesting affirmative action in the form of reservations for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) Muslims, it steers clear of the controversial panacea of reservations. Instead it promotes targeted schemes that will provide greater financial support and opportunities for education. Policy initiatives should aim at enhancing access to credit schemes and participation of Muslims in the business of regular commercial banks. Recommendations include recognizing madarasa degrees for competitive exams, and providing hostel facilities for minority students. If the comprehensive recommendations are seriously implemented, they can go a long way in alleviating the condition of the Muslim community. Acting responsibly the various political parties must ensure that the immense value of the report is not lost in quota bickering.
The report gives the government an opportunity to fulfill its commitment made to the minorities years ago ‘at the stroke of midnight’. Let’s not disappoint them yet again.
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