New Delhi, India - The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has set up a high-level committee to prepare a comprehensive report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community in India. The seven-member committee — headed by the former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Rajindar Sachar — has been asked to submit its report by June 2006.
The committee has been set up to address the absence of "authentic information about the social, economic and educational status of the community.'' The absence of such data, according to the Government, came in the way of planning, formulating and implementing specific interventions, policies and programmes to address the issues of socio-economic backwardness of the community.
Though there is no mention of it in the terms of reference, the report will be used as an input to help the Government take a view on whether there should be reservation for Muslims in education and employment. In its Common Minimum Programme, the United Progressive Alliance said efforts would be made to see how best the welfare of socially and economically backward sections among religious and linguistic minorities, including reservation in education and employment, is enhanced.
Social indices to be examined
Besides looking at the demographic spread of Muslims and the community's record vis-a-vis various social indices such as literacy, dropout, Maternal Mortality Rate and Infant Mortality Rate, the committee has been asked to dwell at length on their economic status.
It will examine Muslims' relative share in public and private sector employment, and whether they have adequate access to education, health services, municipal infrastructure, bank credit and other services provided by the Government and the public sector.
Besides, the committee will look into the proportion of Other Backward Classes from the Muslim community in the total OBC population in various States and whether Muslim OBCs are listed in the comprehensive list of OBCs prepared by the National and State Backward Classes Commissions and adopted by the Central and State Governments for reservation for various purposes.
Briefing mediapersons here on Tuesday, Mr. Justice Sachar said: "The committee has to consolidate, collate and analyse the information to identify areas of intervention by the Government to address the problems faced by the community.''
The other members of the committee are the Chancellor of Hamdard University, Saiyid Hamid; sociologist T. K. Oommen; Senior Director of the Planning Department of the Karnataka Government, M. A. Basith; economist Rakesh Basant; Dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Hamdard University, Akhtar Majeed; and Chief Economist at the National Council for Applied Economic Research, Abusaleh Shariff.