And this is why we need this blog!

People have often argued with me about why do you need a special blog about Indian Muslims. People argue that we present muslims as being victims and build our whole argument on it. They think we should blend better with the majority and stop raising this issue of muslims, basically be like other minorities. Do sikhs or jain have a blog? No, right? So why IM? I have collected various pieces of information available that shows why we need this blog.

Muslims are worse off than Scheduled Castes when it comes to education, they significantly trail behind Other Backward Classes (OBCs) virtually across the board: education, employment, poverty levels and landholdings. I have tried to collect the striking features of the leaked Sachar committee report. I had argued about the lack of modern education among muslims in India

A run-down through the Civil List 2006 (as on January 1, 2006) shows that Muslims constitute barely 2.2 per cent of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS).

Of the population above 20, barely 3.6% of the Muslim community are college graduates — the minimum requirement for an opening in the civil service — according to 2004-5 data from the National Sample Survey Organisation.

Saying that he personally never experienced any bias, Habibullah, who has been director of the IAS academy in Mussoorie, says: “Low representation of Muslims in the government is a complex issue that goes beyond education levels in the minority community. I think it has got to do with the minority syndrome, where Muslims do not aspire for the all-India services presuming there will be bias against them.�

It’s the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) where the Muslims are the most under-represented at barely 1.6%.

Siddharth Varadarajan has few interesting points to make especially against the media’s prejudice against muslims (Perhaps rediff.com will lead this brigade)

Terrorist crimes such as the Mumbai blasts are prosecuted energetically and this is a good thing. But no one is able to explain what happened to the cases stemming from the killing of Muslims in Mumbai in 1992 and 1993 nor why the Srikrishna Commission recommendations against erring policemen remain unimplemented.

In the U.S., the old journalistic adage was `Jews is News’. In India, it seems, anything that shows Muslims as ignorant or fanatical helps propel TRP ratings, while rational comment is frowned upon as unhelpful. A Muslim MP was asked recently to take part in a TV debate on whether there should be reservation for Muslims. He agreed, but added that he would argue against it. The channel’s reporter then tried convincing him that “surely your community needs reservation.” When he didn’t agree, the channel lost interest in putting him on air. One studio guest recently advised Muslims to shed their `persecution complex’ and to not forget that theirs were the “hands that built the Taj Mahal.” Though no one would dare accuse Dalits of “doing nothing” to uplift themselves, Muslims are blamed for their poverty and poor education. They are gratuitously advised to study hard, as if the problem of lack of schools, delinquent teachers, inadequate books, and poverty can be remedied by will power alone.

With less opportunities, crime is a vocation

I sometimes wonder why a muslim is involved in every social crime, irrespective of quran teachings but when it comes to education and being open minded, he quotes distorted islamic verses to stay away from them!!

• In Maharashtra, the percentage of Muslim jail inmates in all categories (see chart) is way above their share in the population (Muslim share in population is 10.6%, share in the total prison inmates is 32.4%.

• When it comes to those in prison for less than a year, Muslims contribute 40.6% of all prisoners in Maharashtra.

• In Gujarat, the percentage of Muslims in the state is just 9.06% but they make up over a quarter of all jail inmates.

• Assam, the second highest Muslim populated state in the country, after J&K, has 30.9% Muslims, and here, the percentage of Muslim jail inmates is 28.1.

• Even Karnataka, which did relatively better than other states in providing jobs to Muslims, shows the same trend: 17.5% of its jail inmates are Muslim as compared with 12.23% of its population.

Others say poverty is one main factor behind this trend. According to the Sachar committee findings, the poverty level in Muslims in urban areas is as high as 44% compared to the national figure of 28%.

Says former bureaucrat and now Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah: “The higher numbers of Muslims in jails is also a reflection of the fact that Muslims are poorer generally and are more likely to get picked on by the police because they are easy prey due to fewer entitlements. Prejudice against them also exists but gets compounded because of their poverty.�

Be it Education, Health, Transport, or Home, in virtually all departments of state governments, the share of Muslims employed is way below their share in the population. That’s one of the key findings of the Prime Minister-appointed Justice Rajinder Sachar panel looking into the state of the Muslims in India, as first reported in The Indian Express today. But, arguably, in no other wing does this under-representation raise as many questions as in the state judiciary.

Ironically, in two states that have high Muslim population share, West Bengal (25.2%) and Assam (30.9%), the percentage of Muslim employees in key positions in the state judiciary is barely 5 and 9.4 respectively. This is in tune with West Bengal’s dismal overall Muslim employment data as well.

When it comes to Public Sector Units (PSUs), often discussed by parties as the “built-in economic safety net,� the figures are equally dismal. The highest percentage of Muslims in “higher positions� in state PSUs is in Kerala with 9.5 percent and the lowest is West Bengal which has reported 0 (zero) percent of Muslims in higher positions in state PSUs.

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