People's Democracy

HUNTER COMMISSION TO SACHHAR COMMITTEE

Socio-Economic Condition Of Indian Muslims

Moinul Hassan

IN May 2005, the prime minister had formed a high-powered committee under the chairmanship of Justice Rajinder Sachhar, with the mandate to assess the socio-economic condition of Indian Muslims. The Sachhar Committee has already submitted its report to prime minister which was subsequently tabled in the parliament. 

THE BACKDROP

Before commenting upon the findings and recommendations of the Sachhar Committee, let us take note of some historical facts since this is not the first time that there has been an effort to ascertain the socio-economic condition of Indian Muslims. In 1870, the then Viceroy Lord Mayo formed a commission under Sir William Hunter to find out the reasons behind the resentment among Muslims against the British government. William Hunter, using his anthropological knowledge and skills prepared a Report named “Our Indian Musalmans”. The facts brought out by the Hunter Commission Report, which was based on undivided Bengal, brought forth the gross under representation of the Muslims in government jobs for the first time. Data from the Report show that within Grade-3 assistant engineers there were 14 Hindus and 2 Muslims; among sub-engineer and supervisors: 24 Hindus and only 1 Muslim; overseers: 63 Hindus and 2 Muslims; in the finance department: 50 Hindus and 0 Muslims; among lawyers: 239 Hindus and only 1 Muslim. Other Muslims who were working in the government departments were either gatekeepers or peons. It appears from the findings of the Sachhar Report that the situation has not changed much.

A Minority Commission was established in post-independent India in 1978, and subsequently in 1980 a high-powered committee was formed under the chairmanship of Dr V A Syed Mohammad. Later Dr Gopal Singh (parliamentarian and a noted diplomat) took over as the chairman with Khurshid Alam Khan as the secretary. 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 wide-ranging short and long-term recommendations, but the Report never saw the light of the day. Then in 1995, the Minority Commission on its own collected substantial amount of data and information which 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 while raising the concern over the deplorable condition of minorities 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.” 

However, since the advent of the BJP-led NDA government at the centre, the efforts to ascertain the condition of the minorities, especially the Muslims, and undertaking corrective steps received a big setback. It was only after the defeat of the BJP-led NDA in 2004 and the formation of the secular UPA government at the centre, supported from outside by the Left parties, that such efforts were initiated once again in the form of the Sachhar Committee.

OBSERVATIONS BASED ON CENSUS 2001 

According to the Census 2001, the ratio of Muslims in total population is 13.43 per cent, which implies that total Muslim population in India is second only to Indonesia. The states with large number of Muslim population are Uttar Pradesh (31 million), West Bengal (20 million), Bihar (14 million), Maharashtra (10 million), Kerala (8 million), Andhra Pradesh (7 million) and Jammu & Kashmir (7 million). In J&K and Lakshadweep, Muslims are in majority. There are 43 districts in UP, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, J&K, Jharkhand, Haryana and Uttaranchal where the Muslim population is substantial (over 30 per cent of total population in most of these districts). Within these districts, 10 are in UP, 5 in West Bengal, 4 in Bihar, 10 each in Assam and J&K, 2 in Jharkhand and 1 each in Haryana and Uttaranchal.

The relative backwardness among Muslims is evident from the literacy level itself: while the national literacy rate is 64.8 per cent, among Muslims this rate is 59.1 per cent. Moreover, if we look at state-wise break-up, literacy among Muslims is 47.8 per cent in UP, 42 per cent in Bihar, 48.4 per cent in Assam, 57.5 per cent in West Bengal and 47.3 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir. 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.

MAIN OBSERVATIONS 

The findings of the Sachhar Committee completely blow the myth of “Muslim appeasement” propagated by the RSS-BJP. Through painstaking and meticulous work the Sachhar Committee has established how Muslims have fallen behind the rest of the population, especially in employment opportunities and education. The Committee found that the representation of Muslims in government jobs is far below their proportion in total population. This clearly comes out from the table compiled by the Sachhar Committee (see Table A) 

The state wise break-up of Muslim representation in government jobs is given in Table B. The situation is particularly grim in the states of Assam, West Bengal, UP and Bihar. Delhi and Maharashtra also fare poorly. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have a better record than the other states in this regard. As far as Muslim representation in jobs in PSUs is concerned, Kerala and Karnataka have a better record than the other states. West Bengal, UP, Delhi and Maharashtra have poor representation of Muslims in PSU jobs, especially in the higher positions. Table B

The Sachhar Committee has also looked at Muslim representation in specific areas like the judiciary and bureaucracy. Within the judiciary, from the Advocate General to District and Session Judges, there are only 5 Muslims in West Bengal and 9 in Assam. In J&K where Muslims are 66.97 per cent of the population, Muslims account for only 48.3 per cent jobs in the judiciary. The same figure for Andhra Pradesh is 12.4 per cent. The Sachhar Committee has remarked that under-representation of Muslims is one of the major reasons for judicial bias against Muslims. Representation of Muslims is only 3 per cent in IAS, 1.8 per cent in IFS and 4 per cent in IPS.

The situation of Muslims vis-à-vis education is equally dismal. Relative educational backwardness among Muslims exists from literacy to higher education. Currently, out of the total Muslim population of around 14 crore, only about 4 crore Muslims have received some education — 192 lakh are educated till primary level, 105 lakh till secondary, 73 lakh till higher secondary and 24 lakh till graduate level. The Sachhar Report discusses the issues related to educational backwardness among Muslims in some detail. The situation can be clearly seen with the help of its two tables (Table C & D).

In the age group of 6-14 years, 25 per cent of Muslim children are either dropouts or have never attended school. The share of Muslim children is lower compared to the SCs and STs as far as enrolment ratio in schools is concerned. The dropout ratio at every level – primary, secondary and higher secondary – is the highest among Muslims. Only 3 per cent of Muslim children attend madrasah. A sizeable section among the Muslims is Urdu-speaking, but the infrastructure to teach Urdu is very dismal. Even after recommendations by various committees, no substantial action has been taken by successive governments to improve the situation vis-à-vis teaching Urdu. The situation in primary teaching in Urdu with regard to infrastructure in states like UP, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar is pathetic. In comparison, states like Karnataka and Maharashtra have done better.

The Sachhar Committee has brought out the backwardness faced by the Muslims through various other indicators. In almost every three Muslim-dominated villages, one does not have a school. Nearly 40 per cent of the Muslim-dominated villages do not have any health facility. The maternal mortality rates, incidence of underweight children and anaemic mothers are comparatively higher among Muslims. Their nutritional status in terms of per capita calorie intake is also lower than the rest of the population. The Sachhar Committee has observed that Muslims are not only the victims of poverty, but have come to accept inequality and discrimination as their inevitable fate.

(To be continued)