The social, economic and political status of Indian Muslims has been a matter of intense debate since the British regime. Many committees were formed earlier to examine and recommend on the issue, but the situation remained unchanged This exercise started with Elphinston Committee in 19^th Century prior to 1935, continued by the Gopal Singh Committee in 1983 and renewed recently in 2006 by Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee.

It is the first systematic study of the Muslim community in Independent India. The Committee’s processes were based essentially on three types of issues relating to identity, security and equity with special emphasis on equity. Within this broad spectra, a host of issued were covered like perceptions about Muslims, size and distribution of the community’s population, indices of community’s income, employment, health, education, poverty, consumption and standard of living and the community’s access to social and physical infrastructure.

Observations

Conditions of Muslims as reflected by the Sachar Committee Report:

• Muslims have highest rates of stunting and second-highest rates of underweight children.
• 25% Muslim children in the 6-14 years age group have either never attended school or have dropped out.
• Only one out of every 25 Under-Graduate and 50 Post-Graduate students in premier colleges is a Muslim.
• NCAER figures show that only about 4% of all Muslim students are enrolled in Madarsas.
• Workforce participation rate among Muslim women is only 25%. In rural areas, 29% Muslim women particip ate in the workforce as compared to 70% Hindu women.
• 61% ofthe total Muslim workers are self employed as against 55% Hindu workers. 73% Muslim women are self employed as compared to 60% for Hindus.
• Only about 27% of the Muslim workers in urban areas are engaged in regular work as compared to 40% SC/ST, 36% OBC and 49% Hindu- UC workers.
• Less than 24% of Muslim regular workers are employed in the public sector or in government jobs as compared to 39% regular SC/ST workers, 37% Hindu- UC and 30% OBC workers.
• The share of Muslim male workers engaged in street vending (especially without any fixed location) is 12% as against the national average of less than 8%.
• Share of Muslims in Public Order and Safety Activities at the Central government level is only about 6%. Hindu- UC workers have a share of42% and both SCs/STs and OBCs have23 %each.
• The share of Muslim in defence workers is only 4%.
• Compared to other regular workers, a much larger proportion of Muslim regular workers have no written contract (73% vs 52%forHindu-UC and 63% each for Hindu-OBCs and SCs/STs) and no social security benefit (71% against national average of 55%).
• The report also highlights that some section of Muslims are more unequal than others. It draws attention to the presence of descent based social stratification on the lines of Hindu caste system among Indian Muslims and identified three social segments – Ashrafs, Ajlafs and Arzals. The traditional occupation of Arzals is similar to that of SCs. Ajlafs are engaged in occupations similar to that of OBCs and Ashrafs are converts from Hindu upper castes, so they have suffered no social deprivation.

On Positive side

• Community has an increasingly better six ratio than other socio religious categories. Child mortality rates are low. Infant mortality rate is only 59 among Muslims while it is 77 among Hindus. Muslims are at par with other communities in housing conditions and toilet facilities are better.

Suggestions

The Committee observed that Muslims have been left behind the growth and development process. It recommended setting up of an autonomous Assessment Monitoring Authority (AMA), creation of National Data Bank and constitution of an Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC). It also suggested provision of hostels facilities at reasonable cost, inclusion of minority aspects in the general curriculum for teacher training, setting up and strengthening of state run Urdu medium schools, linkage of Madarsas to Higher Secondary Board, recognition of the degrees from Madarsas for eligibility in competitive examinations, provision of financial and other support to Madarsas.