By Umar Kamal, TwoCircles.net
Standford, California: The Shorenstein APARC (Asia Pacific Research Center) Program organized a seminar on the topic “Education And Employment Among Muslims In India – An Analysis Of Patterns And Trends” by Dr. Rakesh Basant. The seminar focused on analyzing the data collected post Sachar Committee to identify the patterns of Muslim participation in education and workforce.
Dr. Rakesh Basant is a Professor of Economics & Chairperson at Center for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and was a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s High-Level Committee (aka Sachar Committee) to study the social, economic and educational conditions of Muslims in India.
The data collected among multiple Socio-Religious Categories (SRC) provides several valuable insights into the state of higher education (HE) in the Muslim community, among them:
– Enrollment and literacy rates among Muslims have been low but picked up dramatically post 2004-05.
– Drop-out rates continue to be among the highest for Muslims contributing to large gaps at the school leaving and graduating stage.
– Role of madrassahs as educational institutions is limited given that only four percent of the children enroll in these institutions.
– Participation differences across SRCs are not very significant in HE among ‘eligible population’, especially in rural areas.
– Ensuring eligibility for marginalized groups (including Muslims) results in significant improvements in participation in HE.
– Significantly, parental education plays an important role and enhances the chances of participation in HE, regardless of other factors such as income etc.
In the employment sector, Muslims tend to concentrate more in the self-employed activities (esp. women) and represented very low in the public, private and tertiary sectors. A larger proportion of Muslims engage in manufacturing and retail trade though they are in a more precarious position with lower wages and no contracts or employee benefits.
The studies show that while lack of education attributes explain the absence of marginalized groups (Muslims, Dalits), the access disadvantage is higher for Muslims compared to other SRCs. The data on socio-psychological measures also indicate that the perception of fairness was the lowest among Muslims in all spaces, including education and employment.
The presentation postulated that the factors influencing the participation of Muslims in education and employment are complex and that the policy interventions should appreciate the various links between the participation in different spheres. It also stressed the need to address the issues of security, identity and equity and explored non-quota based affirmative action options.
Various studies have identified that positive discrimination is effective when implemented properly, but the identification of the beneficiary remains problematic. Quotas are increasingly seen as competition between different disadvantaged groups, shifts in quotas lead to major resentment and politically difficult to implement. In addition, the shrinking State sector isn’t likely to provide the benefit of intervention in the scale that’ll be helpful to uplift significant amount of the population.
Some potential policy interventions that were identified for further exploration included:
– Pursue affirmative action in both education and employment, with complementary input (financial, human).
– Focus on crossing the threshold in both education/employment (such as better supply of schools etc.).
– Incentives for education institutions for diversity in student population (additional grants).
– Tax incentives for private sector for diversity in the workforce.
The seminar series was co-sponsored by Indian American Muslim Council. An earlier seminar on “The Political Presence of India’s Muslims” was presented by Wajahat Habibullah, Chairperson, National Commission for Minorities, Government of India.
Link:
Event website and link to the presentation