The
Road From Minority Appeasement To Empowerment
By Warisha Farasat
04 January, 2007
Countercurrents.org
From
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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