By Twocircles.net Staff Reporter
The Sudheer Commission on `Socio-economic and educational conditions of Muslims in Telangana,’ India’s newest state, has shown that the condition of Muslims in the state needs a lot of improvement, and recommended a maximum reservation of upto 12% and a minimum of 9% for vulnerable sections among Muslims in government jobs and professional educational institutions to address the same.
Telangana has 12.68% Muslims (44.64 lakh). The highest population is registered at Bahadurpura Mandal in Hyderabad district, which has around 3.76 lakh Muslims. Other Mandals with over one lakh Muslim population are Asifnagar, Bandlaguda, Charminar, Saidabad, Golconda, Rajendranagar and Nizamabad. Except Nizamabad Mandal. It is important to point out that although Muslims are spread out in all the 10 districts of Telangana, over half of them are concentrated in the two districts namely of Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy.
The commission, headed by former IAS officer G Sudheer, was appointed on March 3, 2015. It submitted its recommendations to the state government in August this year. The government on Saturday made the report public, and the full report can be accessed here.
The Commission analysed various studies that used Government data to show “how Muslims have been left behind because the reservation policy has not included them.”
“Evidence from NSSO data shows that although Hindu OBCs started off marginally lower than the average citizen in 1999, they are almost on par with the upper castes now. However, Muslims who were on par with OBCs then have fallen way behind…between 1999 and 2011, the least change in per capita incomes was seen among the Muslims. This is half the rate for SCs and STs and OBCs,” the report says.
Educational levels
The report points out that the STs and Muslims top the list of large populations that have never attended any school. “STs (17%) and Muslims with (16%) have never attended any educational institution. In the age groups of 18-20 years and 21-29 years, 7% and 9% of Muslims fall under the never attended category. The State’s literacy rate is lagging behind the national average….(the) dropout ratio is very high among Muslims and when it comes to higher education, Muslim proportions are abysmally small…data collected from the Universities in Telangana shows a really low number of Muslim students across all courses,” the report says.
Women
There is a huge gender disparity in education across all Socio Religious Categories (SRCs), the report points out, but gender disparity among Muslims is lower than among Hindus. Among Muslims, the drop-out rates for women are high within these two age groups 21-29 and 18-20 (71.5% and 52.8% respectively). But, the contrast is noticed that while male drop-out ratio outnumbers the female drop-out ratio in the age group of 21-29 years, the opposite happens in the age group of 18-20 years where female dropout ratio is greater than male drop-out ratio. “In the age group of 21-29 years, the Muslims women top the list with 85.2 % of dropout ratio, followed by other minorities (82.3%). Muslim women drop out from educational institutions on a large scale. A majority of rural Muslim women are engaged in tailoring activities. Muslim female populations are engaged in craft and related trade, agriculture and fishery, etc. In the urban areas also craft and related trade works dominate the occupations for Muslim females. Very few of the female workforce are engaged as professionals and technicians. Access to housing, health facilities, to secondary and high schools and to institutions of higher learning are what Muslim women almost unanimously demand,” the report says.
One positive in the report was that the health outcomes among Muslim children are definitely better than other Socio religious groups. This is primarily because of the better treatment of the girl child which means lower Infant Mortality Rates, lower Maternal Mortality Rates and better nutritional levels. However these early advantages get dissipated when adult health is analyzed.
This is on account of poor access to health facilities, poverty and slum like conditions of living.
As a result of these factors, anaemia among pregnant women is higher among Muslims (66 per cent) as compared to Hindus (62 per cent), Christians (49.6 per cent) respectively. The study found that Muslim women are more aware of family planning practices and contraception methods than others. Among children the level of wasting, stunting and malnutrition are lower among Muslims. Muslims prefer Government hospitals over private healthcare providers. Muslim males suffer more from high sugar conditions than other SRCs. It is in housing however where Muslims suffer the most. A large percentage (43%) lives in rented accommodation. There is a strong feeling of discrimination in the housing market and this is one policy aspect that needs to be looked at closely.
Employment and economic conditions
Work participation of urban male is lowest among Muslims as compared to all Hindus and other Minorities in urban Telangana, the report says. “This is due to lowest participation rate among Muslim upper caste population. It is only 64% among Muslim upper caste. The female work participation is only 8 percent among Muslims, lowest among SRCs in urban areas. More than one third of female are participating in economic activity among SCs, STs and other Minorities,” the report added.
While 61% of all Hindus work as regularly employed, 26.5% of the Muslim households members work as casual labour in the non-agriculture sector. 26.4% and 26.8% of the Muslim BCs and Muslim others respectively are casual workers. The proportion of male workers working in the public sector is lowest among all Muslims both in rural and urban areas. Only 19.2% of the Muslims are regular salaried and 16.4% of the Muslim workers are self-employed in non-agricultural activities.
“Our survey shows that 40.6% of the Muslim households have no savings at all and this figure is far lower than any other group. The average asset value of a Muslim household (Rs 5479) in bank is relatively less than that of the Hindu (Rs 9937) at both state and all India levels. Loan amounts from the money lenders (agricultural and professional) are very high for the Muslims in Telangana in comparison to the National average. Muslim households in the state even when compared to Muslims in other states, receive relatively lesser amount of loan from institutional sources (banks, cooperatives, SHGs) and higher amount from noninstitutional sources (moneylender – agricultural & professional),” the report said.
Key recommendations
The following are some of the recommendations that the committee believes must be done on an immediate basis:
1. Telangana state should be the first to appoint an “Equal Opportunity Commission” (EOC) to oversee recruitment and training and other developmental programmes. This Commission will ensure that all communities in the state have equal opportunities in all fields, both in the private and the public sector. The Commission would be an independent body that would look into any possibility of bias or prejudice against any group, be it social, religious, caste, linguistic or any other. The Commission recommends that the EOC should cover all levels of education, employment, housing, healthcare and access to development schemes; all other issues and provide remedies. This will address the feeling that exists, of being discriminated in the credit, housing and the education markets, etc.
2. The Government should implement the ‘diversity index’ already suggested by Sachar Committee (2006) and Kundu Committee (2014). The Telangana Government should be the first to set up a Committee to suggest how best the diversity index can be implemented. Any institution within the state would be evaluated for its diversity and given a ranking according to the diversity its human resource composition displays. The Commission recommends that the Diversity index should cover all institutions and establishments within the state. The Diversity index works in a secular fashion giving all vulnerable groups an assurance that their representation in various spheres will eventually be proportional to their population fi gures, without disturbing any existing scheme. Affi rmative actions have helped disadvantaged sections to develop fast and have contributed to greater diversity in the various institutions, places of work, etc.
3. Certain Muslim communities like Mehtar should be included in the Scheduled Castes (SCs) list and can be given reservation under the SC status. These communities continue to do work that is done by their SC Hindu counterparts and continue to be acutely discriminated in the society.
4. Urdu-medium schools are badly staffed. The quality of teaching is poor. Students in Urdu schools should be given the option of learning English as a language paper. This way a growing number of students who switch their medium of instruction at the high school level will not face severe problems they face today. A quick step that the Government can take is to fi ll all vacancies for Urdu language teachers and take steps to appoint Urdu teachers where posts are lying vacant on account of the inability to find teachers among the SC/ST category. These posts should then be filled through increasing numbers among teachers in other subjects.
5. The data gathered by the Commission shows that among the criteria the Indra Sawhney case looks at, Muslims are below the state average in many of them and are socially and educationally backward and severely deprived. Therefore, Government may provide reservation to them. Given that more than 81 per cent of the Muslim population is already categorized as backward, there may be an increase in the reservation percentage to 12 percent or a minimum of 9 per cent based on their social and educational backwardness and deprivation. The Government can do this quickly as about four fifths of the Muslim populations already have been placed in the BC-A, BC-B and BC-E categories.
6. Recognise madrasas as schools by inducting them into the mainstream school systems without interference in their core syllabi in collaboration with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan on a voluntary basis. A Madarsa Board could be set up. Mid-day meals schemes must be rigorously implemented and monitored. Mid-day meals must be provided to all students, whether in recognized or non-recognised schools, mainstream or community institutions.