By Rajeev Ranjan Roy, IANS,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s coalition may be sincere but it has not done enough to better the conditions of Muslims, India’s largest minority, community leaders say as the government enters its fifth and final year in office.
Opinions, however, vary on how well the government has performed – or not performed – vis-à-vis the 140 million strong community. One leading Muslim said the government scored just four out of 10 points. Another was somewhat more generous in his assessment.
“In the past four years the government made a series of promises and conceptualised schemes like hostels for Muslim girls. But how much has been delivered?” asked S.Q.R. Iliyas of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB).
The welfare of minorities was a major theme in the common minimum programme (CMP) – the Congress-led and Left-supported United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) charter of governance.
But Iliyas appreciated the government’s move to assess the socio-economic status of Muslims through a committee headed by retired judge Rajinder Sachar. “However, it is saddening that the report has not yet been discussed in parliament.”
The Sachar panel, set up in March 2005 to evaluate the socio-economic and educational status of Muslims, brought out the widespread illiteracy and poverty among them.
Abu Baker, a former chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) and a leading educationist, felt the need for social auditing to see if the benefits of the schemes were percolating to the target groups or not.
Baker said that Justice Rangnath Mishra Commission’s recommendation favouring a quota of 8.4 percent in jobs for minorities within the 27 percent meant for other backward classes and reservation to Dalit minorities should be implemented.
Rizwan Quaiser, a professor of history at the Jamia Milia Islamia university here, told IANS that the government was sincere but a lot had to be done to make Muslims feel they were equal partners in the system.
“There is sincerity in the government’s approach towards the welfare of minorities. It was good for the community to have the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI). More efforts, however, are needed,” Quaiser said.
He said the problems of minorities were manifold and acute and hence a proactive approach was needed to address them.
“Nevertheless the UPA government has done a lot. The absence of fear among minorities is a major achievement of the present dispensation. This has also raised the people’s aspirations,” he said.
Niaz Farooqui, secretary of the New Delhi-based Jamiat-i-Ulama Hind, a non-profit social organisation, said the government should set up an independent parliamentary mechanism to review the schemes meant for minorities.
National Commission for Minorities member Harcharan Singh Josh thinks the government is being unfairly targeted.
“The UPA government might not have been able to solve all the problems of minorities but it has certainly set the tone for their development,” he said.
“The Sachar committee was a historical development. It gives us an insight into the problems faced by minorities and Muslims in particular. The government has earmarked Rs.10 billion for 2008-09 for the ministry of minority affairs,” he said.
“A multi-sectoral development plan for 90 districts with over 40 percent minority population is being drawn up at a cost of Rs.37.8 billion. Of this, Rs.5.4 billion will be spent in 2008-09,” he said.
“A lot of serious efforts have gone into ameliorating the woes of minorities in the past four years. Things cannot be changed overnight,” Josh added.