SACHAR COMMITTEE

 

The Rajinder Sachar Committee is a high - level committee appointed by Manmohan Singh during his tenure as Prime Minister to prepare a report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community in India. The committee was formed on March 9, 2005. [1] The report, tabled in the Lok Sabha on November 30, 2006, 20 months after the Terms of Reference were received from the Prime Minister's Office, is 403 pages long. This document outlines the recommendations and remedial measures to bring Indian Muslims into the mainstream.

 

This is the first report of its kind [3], outlining the appropriate steps to be taken to ensure equality of opportunity for Muslims in employment, education and accommodation. According to the Sachar Committee, the condition of Indian Muslims is lower than that of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. There is still a lot of discussion and debate about the Sachar Committee report

Further action is being taken based on the findings of this committee. For example, the Ministry of Finance has allocated special funds to the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC).

 

Formation of committee

Edit key findings of the committee

The Sachar Committee report is available for download on various websites. The following are some of the findings of the committee.

 

Literacy among Muslims is much lower than the national average. 25% of Muslim parents' children between the ages of 6-14 are out of school or out of school.

Muslim parents are not opposed to mainstream education or refuse to send their children to affordable government schools. Admission to government schools is limited for Muslim children.

Social security must be ensured for beedi workers, tailors and technicians. The participation of Muslims in the managerial and professional categories is very small.

Only two-thirds of the average bank loan spent on other minorities is spent in the Muslim community. The credit facilities of the Reserve Bank of India as part of the Prime Minister's Fifteenth Program of 1983 have been of great help to other minorities.

There is a very clear and crucial inverse ratio between the Muslim population in small villages and the availability of basic educational facilities for them. Villages with a large Muslim population do not have good access roads or even local bus stops.

Representation of Muslims is 3% in IAS, 1.8% in IFS and 4% in IPS.

Muslims make up 4.5 per cent of the Indian Railways. 98.7 per cent of them are in low positions. The employment representation of Muslims in universities and banks is very small. Their share of police constables is only 6 per cent. The health sector accounted for 4.4 per cent and the transport sector for employment at 6.5 per cent.

The fund of Maulana Azad Education Foundation needs to be increased to Rs 1000 crore.

During the four years from 2002 to 2006, only `106 crore was set apart for the Madrasa modernization project. Information about this project has not reached the grassroots enough. The participation of Muslims in elected institutions is also very limited. Elected Muslims and others in these institutions can participate in critical decision-making processes through innovative technologies.

 

The work participation rate (WPR) is significantly different from the Muslim OBC rate than the Hindu OBC (67 per cent) rate.

He owns 6 lakh acres of land and a total of five lakh Waqf properties worth Rs 6,000 crore.

Findings

The Sachar Committee report has also been instrumental in exposing the vulgarity of the molds used by right-wing communal organizations as part of their propaganda. Below are some of the finds in this area [8]:

 

Initially, only 4% of Muslims attend madrassa education. That is because the primary government schools are not even very far away. Therefore, the argument that Muslims give priority to madrassa education is not correct.

There are suggestions from the community itself for controlling reproduction and adopting modern contraceptive methods. The Muslim population has also declined as a result of declining fertility. "

Wherever Muslims are told of the problems they face, they are branded as duplicitous "anti-national" and "pleased".

But Muslims as a community have never been involved in anti-national activities. The information about the Muslim situation brought out by this committee is very clear.

 

Summary of recommendations

The committee puts forward some recommendations to eradicate the current plight of Indian Muslims. By uplifting the minorities and implementing these proposals, not only will the secular structure of Indian society be strengthened but their progress will also increase patriotism in them.

 

It includes the following suggestions.

 

Take steps to create equality of status and equality of opportunity and eliminate discrimination.

Establish a National Data Bank that stores relevant information about all socio-religious groups.

Establish an autonomous "Assessment and Monitoring Authority".

An Opportunity Equality Commission should be set up to study the issues of the neglected sections

Avoid imbalances through constituency redetermination like reserved constituencies.

The process of examining the contents of school textbooks needs to be initiated and institutionalized.

 

UGC for colleges and universities. When the money is set aside, a part of it is VidOne should look for a way to connect with the pluralism of the Yarti community.

Priority should be given to providing hostel facilities at low cost to minority students.

Policy decisions should be initiated to improve the participation and transaction of the Muslim minority in the transactions of ordinary commercial banks.

The community should be adequately represented on interview panels and boards.

Helping the marginalized sections of the society to take advantage of new opportunities through education and skill development should be intensified.

In areas where Muslims are concentrated, they should be given financial and other support to find employment [6] [9].

Although the Committee does not recommend for reservation, the same backward (occupationally and socially) sections of the minorities as in the case of the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes of the Hindu community should be divided into the Most Backward Castes and given the same treatment as the Constitution gives to these backward sections of the Hindu community.

Responses to findings

 

There have been mixed reactions to the findings of the Sachar Committee from different parts of India.

 

Follow-up

 

Fifteen Minority Welfare Plans

The Prime Minister has announced a comprehensive plan for the upliftment and welfare of minorities. The project aims to help minorities by increasing educational opportunities. These include ensuring adequate participation in economic activity and employment, improving the living conditions of minorities, and controlling and preventing communal violence and intolerance.

 

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) or Education for All program is designed at the national level to provide quality primary education to children between the ages of 6 and 14 in a timely manner. Based on the information available through the Census and the District Information System for Education, the government has made several interventions in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for the education of minority students. During the year 2006-07, the government sanctioned 6918 new primary schools and upper primary schools in the minority majority districts.

 

Facilities for minority students

Textbooks for Muslim students in classes one to eight are provided free of cost. Urdu text books are also provided free of cost to Urdu medium schools. According to the 1981 census, 93 (now 99) districts in 16 states have been selected as areas of special interest. The focus will be on Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Assam. Of the 1180 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs), 210 schools were allotted to minorities. 1430 Minority Girls have joined KGBVs till 31-03-2006.

 

Criticisms

Dasu Krishnamurthy, a media expert, [13] has criticized the media's handling of the Sachar Report, saying that it is an emotional style of journalism to highlight Muslims as ours rather than as theirs. According to an article by Sunil Jain in Reddiff, the Sachar Committee was based on the total Muslim population ‌ Preliminary information was to be prepared but only Muslims with degrees were considered. This means that it is partial.

 

In addition, members of the Indian Army and the right-wing BJP have strongly criticized the Sachar Committee 's demand for special consideration in appointments to ensure decent representation of Muslims in the Indian military. Anil Atale, a retired Colonel in the Indian Army, has said that the Indian Defense Forces are secular, that it does not give special consideration to religion, and that the Sachar Committee seeks to undermine this tradition. But Dr. Sachar has responded to these criticisms. Sachar responds to this allegation by saying that it is an unnecessary attempt to communalise something that is not problematic:

 

In my opinion this argument is hollow. Are other all India service sectors in India, including railway services, banking and services, not secular? We have been able to find Muslim representation in the Administrative Service and the Police Service in India without controversy. So are they saying that secretaries and joint secretaries are less secular than those in the military?

 

Then Sachar says:

 

We conduct factual study on Muslim representation in all services. This is not limited to the military. It includes the police, the judiciary, the IAS, the state services and Muslim representation in all other areas.

 

The BJP, a political party, has said that the Sachar Committee report was prepared for election purposes. Was later charged.

 

Responses of various political parties

 

Syeda is a former Janata Dal MP Shahabuddin talks about the Sachar Committee The Sachar Committee has collected more statistics than it needs. But if things like minority reservation are needed, it means that it has to put forward definite decisions.

The BJP Representative Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said: The Sachar Committee was formed for the purpose of vote bank.

Some other BJP The leaders said this by issuing statements of communal stance. "It is distorted, politically motivated and dangerous" [18]. BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi commented: The tone and structure of the Sachar Committee bears a striking resemblance to that of the pre-independence Muslim League. Unfortunately, the Indian government is pursuing an irrational and blind stance that divides the country. "The BJP is currently the only political party that openly opposes the Sachar Committee's findings. Their 2009 manifesto included a number of minority welfare programs similar to the recommendations of the Sachar Committee.

 

Sharad Yadav, a senior member of the BJP-led NDA alliance and chairman of the Janata Dal (United), strongly endorsed the Sachar Committee report and demanded that it be implemented immediately.

Another NDA. The Akali Dal, an ally, made it clear that it was not wrong to treat marginalized minorities in particular ways. The Sikhs of the lower castes have been the beneficiaries of affirmative action since 1956. [23]

The findings of this committee have not been challenged by the mainstream community. In fact, according to a poll conducted by a leading media agency, 40 percent of the population wants these recommendations to be fully implemented.