Sachar panel for corporate support in Muslim uplift

A major role has been envisaged for the corporates and civil society groups by the Justice Sachar Committee to help raise the social, economic and educational levels of the Muslim community in the country.

The two along with the state would form the trisectional partnership recommended by the committee in its report submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today. The report is to be tabled in Parliament in the winter session.

The three sections are to focus on certain target areas of the country to facilitate education, employment, infrastructure and credit facilities to the community which forms 14 per cent of the population.

The committee headed by Justice Rajindar Sachar and including Saiyid Hamid, Dr T K Oommen, M A Basith, Dr Rakesh Basant, Dr Akhtar Majeed and Dr Abu Saleh Shariff has suggested concurrent evaluation of the representation of Muslims in various walks of life and a five yearly survey.

The committee, which has been asked to specifically find out the proportion of Other Backward Classes from the Muslim community in the total OBC population in various states as well as the share of the Muslim OBCs in the total public sector employment for OBCs in the Centre and various states, builds a case for extending SC quota for Muslims both in employment as well as in legislature. The report, however, stops short of making any recommendation on it.

The report points out that the Muslim representation in legislatures in the country is far below their proportion in the population. The SC quota often works against the Muslims in reserved areas which have a majority of Muslims and hence the report suggests that the category must include Muslims.

The poorest among Muslims have suffered because they are bunched along with the better off sections in the OBC category and the affluent usually get the benefit while the poor remain deprived, a member said.

The report asks for strong affirmative action for the community in the field of education, employment, credit facilities and infrastructure development through interventions in the Muslims dominated districts of the country. About 58 districts which have more than 25 per cent Muslim population as per the 2001 census would be targeted for this purpose.

"If you focus on these, at least 50 per cent Muslims would benefit," a member said.

The report points out the near absence of a middle class among the Muslims as a pointer to the backwardness of the majority. There is a creamy layer and a vast majority of underclass. They are negligible in the 300-million middle class in the country, the report says.

It urges the state to take invest in the cultural capital of the community to assist upward mobility of the largest numbers in the least amount of time.

The report also seeks to identify occupational gro-ups which have a predominant Muslim participation and has suggested measures to give fillip to these sectors.

In the field of education, the report has recommended special coaching centres for students competing for IITs, IIMs, medical and engineering colleges.

At the primary and secondary levels, the Muslims in poor localities like slums would have special spaces created for learning and tutorials. These would be modelled on the tutorials which were created in Ahmedabad after the Gujarat riots to provide educational aid to thousands of Muslim children who were displaced and confined to camps, a member said. The provision would be for space "" a hall "" as well as for teachers for children at both primary and secondary levels.

The report also points out poor representation of Muslims among beneficiaries of credit extended exclusively for minorities by banks as well as the state minority finance institutions.

The beneficiaries are far less than can be justified by their presence in the population, a member said.

Hence the report has also recommended a monitoring body to ensure equitable distribution of finance to Muslims from various financing bodies.

The report also recommends incentives to institutions found giving good representation to Muslims.

The all-male panel set up by the prime minister in early 2004 with the mandate of identifying "areas of intervention" to address relevant issues relating to the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community has also recommended support to women who work out of homes in the form of self help groups, marketing bodies and other institutional help.

Efforts to draw Muslim women and children into the purview of Anganwadi and other nutrition schemes have also been emphasised.