After Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar recently announced an increase in the budget allocation for minority welfare in the state, observers from the state maintain that much more is needed to bring about a holistic development of minorities in the north-Indian state.
Sami Ahmad | TwoCircles.net
BIHAR — Bihar’s chief minister Nitish Kumar congratulated the minorities on December 18 on the occasion of the International Minority Day through an advertisement in newspapers where he reminded that his government had increased the budget meant for the welfare of minorities to Rs. 650 crores by 2021-22 from a meagre Rs. 3.5 crores back in 2005-06. However, the observers from the state have raised questions about the implementation of the budget for the minorities saying the state needs much more for the upliftment of the minority community.
As per the 2011 Census, Bihar’s has 17.3 per cent of its population belonging to minority communities, including 16.9 per cent Muslim.
Observers cite the example of the newly founded south-Indian state of Telangana, which has allocated almost the same amount just for its Minority Residential Schools while it has around one-third of Bihar’s minority population.
The actual amount of Bihar’s Minority Welfare Department in scheme head is Rs. 525 crores which extend to Rs. 562.63 crores if the Rs. 37.63 crores of establishment head are added to that. On the other hand, Telangana has allocated Rs. 561 crores for its 204 Minority Residential Schools alone. Telangana’s total budget for minority welfare is Rs. 1602 crores.
Telangana’s parent state Andhra Pradesh has a detailed Minority Action Plan of Rs. 3840.72 Crores which includes the Minorities Welfare Department’s budget of Rs. 1424.19 crores. What is impressive about this budget statement is that it clearly states the population of different minorities. According to this budget paper, Andhra Pradesh’s total minority population is 43.46 lakhs which is 8.8 per cent of the total population of the state. Bihar’s neighbour West Bengal runs a Minority Affairs and Madrasah education for which an allocation of Rs. 4777.82 crores was made in the budget of 2020-21.
TwoCircles.net talked to some minority welfare observers from the state about the budget. The observers, although holding different viewpoints, maintained that there is a need for a proportionate budget both in respect to community and area and the budget needs strict implementation.
Proportionate budget
Author and Professor in economics Dr Abuzar Kamaluddin told TwoCircles.net that it is good that Bihar’s budget for minority welfare has been increased by the state’s standard. “But we have to look at from other states’ perspectives on three bases—total budget, population and sector,” he said.
He argues that as the state’s in India demand grants keeping in mind the population and backwardness, the minority welfare budget should also be based on these factors. Citing the multidimensional poverty and poor developmental indices of Kishanganj, the only Muslim majority district of Bihar, by NITI Aayog, Dr Kamaluddin advocates a special budget for the district and the rest Seemanchal area.
Why Bihar’s only Muslim majority district Kishanganj is ailing behind on development indices?
Father Jose of Bihar Dalit Vikas Samiti told TwoCircles.net that “first of all the government should hold discussions with the members of minority communities to know their viewpoint.”
“An active minority commission is needed for that purpose,” he said.
Arshad Ajmal is COO of Sahulat Microfinance Society. “We should look at what is the budget of other deprived groups in Bihar such as the allocation for the SC/ST Welfare Department,” he said.
He said Nitish Kumar should be thanked for increasing the percentage of the Minority Welfare budget from 0.17 per cent to 0.29 per cent “but it is still much to be desired.”
For SC/ST welfare, Bihar has an allocation of Rs. 1803 crores, which is around 1.17 per cent of the state’s total budget.
Ajmal said the budget should be raised to at least 1.17 per cent for the minorities too.
Dr Kamaluddin comments that Nitish Kumar is a socialist and their slogan has been ‘Jiski Jitni Sankhya Bhari, Uski Utni Hisurveyoua ghly means that every group should have the share according to its population.
Need for empirical data-based budget
Dr Kamaludin said that the “Minority Welfare department should have a mandate to conduct a socio-economic survey of the minority population to ascertain their status and needs.”
“Because we don’t have viable data, we talk either out of ignorance or out of a certain impression of minority welfare,” he argued.
Prabhat P. Ghosh is the director of Patna based Asian Development Research Institute. He was the project director of ADRI’s ‘Socio-Economic and Educational Status of Muslims in Bihar’ back in 2004.
Professor Ghosh told TwoCircles.net that “since the Muslims form a sizeable number of minorities, such reports may help but they still needed to be updated.”
For noted surgeon and philanthropist Dr Ahmad Abdul Hai, the welfare of the minority community needs well planning. “Apart from our government, our society too should come forward for a more planned budget,” he said.
Schemes under Minority Welfare Budget
There are many educational schemes under the Minority Welfare budget like hostel construction, scholarship, coaching for different competitive examinations and Madrasa strengthening programme. There are also budgetary allocations for schemes of maintenance of Waqf property, help for abandoned/divorced Muslim women, Minority cum Haj house, building construction for minority welfare offices and buildings named after renowned Muslim personalities. It also provides a share capital for Minority Employment Loan Scheme and Minority Finance Corporation.
Scholars from the state maintain that the Bihar Minority Welfare budget needs to pay special allocation for the Minority Residential Schools. Till now, only one such school is under construction while there are 38 districts in Bihar and all the districts are expected to have at least one such school. Another demand is for special courts for clearing the Waqf properties from disputes and safeguarding those.
Strong case for Minority Residential School
There were just 12 Minority Residential schools in Telangana in 2014, said Afzal Hussain, adding, “By 2020 it added 192 more such schools with all the modern facilities. Importantly, half of those schools are meant for girls. That has made a huge difference there.”
Hussain said the progress of building Minority Residential Schools in Bihar is very slow. “If we get those schools with full facilities, it will bring substantial change in minorities educational status,” he maintained.
Prabhat P. Ghosh agrees. He said that educational upliftment is the most important thing to do for the minorities in Bihar. “And that means a substantial allocation of the budget should be for that,” he said.
Father Jose commented that the state needs such educational institutions in rural areas “for the comprehensive development of the minorities.”
Need for enhancement in loan provision
At present, there is a provision of loans for minorities up to Rs. five lakhs at an interest rate of 5 per cent yearly. Here too there is an income bar of Rs. 4 lakh per annum.
Arshad Ajmal said that the loan amount should be doubled and the government should appreciate the fact that the loan recovery rate is quiet for this scheme.
“While in other schemes for self-employment, the government provides up to ten lakh rupees with fifty per cent subsidy, no such provision is available for minority candidates,” Afzal Hussain remarks.
Scholarships for minorities need to be revised
There are scholarships meant for the minorities’ students in the state but their amount and the annual salary bar is a major concern as expressed by the stakeholders.
The annual salary bar for the family ranges from one lakh to two and a half rupees for minority students.
Afzal Hussain called for its revision “keeping in view the increase in education expenditure and relative price indices.”
Arshad Ajmal describes this as “fossilized” and asked, “When we have Rs. 8 lakh annual salary bar for economically weaker section, why we have a maximum of Rs. two and a half lakh for the minorities?”
Father Jose said that the process of availing scholarships should be eased for the minorities. He hoped that the government would initiate a scholarship for higher studies.
Expectations for 2022-23
Dr Ahmad Abdul Hai is hoping that that the Minority Welfare budget for 2022-23 should be increased. “It would be symbolically nice to get it to Rs. 1000.00 crore from the present Rs. 650 crores,” he said.
For Arshad Ajmal, an increase of no less than 20-22 per cent is the least expectation from Nitish Kumar.
Dr Hai, Father Jose and Arshad Ajmal, however, expressed concern about the way the budget is spent. “We need quality expenditure of the minority welfare budget for the upliftment of the minorities in the state,” Arshad Ajmal said.
Sami Ahmad is a journalist based in Patna, Bihar. He tweets at @samipkb.