Updated: January 14, 2013 02:10 IST
Six years after Sachar report, Muslim lot no better
Difficulty in implementing schemes, owing to conceptual confusion at multiple levels: Khurshid
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday attributed the
difficulty in administering and implementing welfare programmes for
Muslims to conceptual confusion evident at multiple levels — from courts
through policymakers and social scientists and experts.
Mr. Khurshid, who previously held charge of the Ministry of Minority
Affairs, said a Supreme Court interim stay had facilitated the
implementation of four per cent reservation for Muslims in Andhra
Pradesh. Yet the Centre had earned a reprimand from the court for its
decision to provide a sub-quota for Muslims within the OBC reservation.
“I had an altercation with the Election Commission because I spoke of
the government’s commitment to implement reservation for Muslims. When
this conceptual confusion takes place, you are called communal.”
Mr. Khurshid said the confusion extended to the ministries with madrasas
and Haj coming under the jurisdiction of two different ministries — the
Human Resource Development Ministry and the External Affairs Ministry
respectively.
The Minister was speaking at a seminar organised to review the progress
made in Muslim welfare programmes since the 2006 Rajinder Sachar
Committee placed the socio-economic and educational status of Muslims
below that of the Scheduled Castes. The highpoint of the seminar was the
presentation of a paper, “Six Years After Sachar: A Review of Inclusive
Policies in India,” by economist and chief scholar at the U.S.-India
Policy Institute Abusaleh Shariff.
The paper said there was no perceptible improvement in the status of
Muslims since the Sachar Committee made its recommendations: “Despite
the government’s publicised support for the Sachar Committee Report’s
recommendations to increase diversity in public spaces and to ensure the
minorities’ proportionate benefits from mainstream institutions, the
government’s record is notably lacklustre.”
Institutional reforms
Mr. Shariff’s paper noted that the rate of growth of education at all
levels had remained the lowest for Muslims between 2004-05 and 2009-10.
Matriculation-level enrolment was the least among both the OBC and
general category Muslims in both rural and urban areas, and lower than
the enrolment for the SCs and the Scheduled Tribes. At higher levels of
education, the distribution was even more skewed in favour of the Hindu
general population and other minorities. The paper said this level of
Muslim exclusion could only be addressed through institutional reforms
and not via “pro-Muslim policy statements and even Muslim-focused
programmes.”
The paper said Muslims had almost no presence in the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and they continued to be
excluded from formal development credit regimes despite specific
guidelines and circulars from the Reserve Bank of India.
The paper was critical of the functioning of the Ministry of Minority
Affairs. It said allocations for the much-publicised Minority
Concentration Districts [MCDs] aggregated to a total of Rs. 37,800 crore
until March 2011. Yet even this “meagre” allocation was underutilised:
“It was shocking to note that only Rs. 856 crore [which is 22.8 per cent
of central allocation] had reached the districts. Much lower amount was
found to have been taken to the grassroots...”
Further, “The MCD schemes have hit hurdles which appear insurmountable!
Close to the end of the 11th Plan period, just about 3.46 per cent of
all allocated funds have reached the intended beneficiaries either at
the level of individual or communities or geographic areas.”
Coordinating body
Mr. Shariff recommended the establishment of a coordinating body under
the Prime Minister’s Office to monitor implementation of socially
inclusive development programmes. He also controversially argued that
socially inclusive development efforts needed to move away from special
purpose vehicles — such as the National Commission for Minorities and
the National Minorities Financial Development Corporation — so that they
could be integrated into mainstream ministries. The suggestion was
strongly opposed by participants who felt this would amount to
“snatching away” whatever little Muslims got by way of welfare. The
research for the paper was partially funded by the Institute of
Objective Studies.
Source: Hindu
...and I am Sid Harth
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