Lip Service. That is what P Chidambaram has provided to the minorities (read Muslims) in the 2008-09 budget for India. Recommendations of Sachar Committee Report that highlighted the plight of Indian Muslims in terms of development have again been cold-shouldered. His remark that “Report of the Justice Rajindar Sachar Committee taken up for speedy implementation” sounds like a hollow promise. It is just an euphemism for “I didn’t do much in the past and I have no idea what I am going to do in future”.
Let me give you an example. Sachar Committee reports that 25% of Muslim children (6-14 years) drop out or never go to school. If you lose them in infancy then you lose them completely should have driven the Finance Minister to come up with some effective measures to alleviate the problem. Instead, he allocated only Rs. 71.9 crores for Pre-Matric Scholarship for Minorities. That comes to around Rs. 12.99 per child per year. If we assume that to get a decent education requires Rs. 2000 per child per year, his budgetary allocation would cover just 0.65% of the Muslim children in the age group of 6-14 years. On the other hand, Haj Subsidy, which only is useful to a fraction of a fraction of Muslim population has been allocated a whopping Rs. 413 crores for the year 2008 [pdf link]. The subsidy, which is often used to beat down Muslims, is unnecessary and should go. That amount should instead be channeled to primary education of Muslim children.Muslim girls are the most educationally disadvantaged of the lot as Sachar Committee noted in their report. There is non-availability of schools within easy access of girls. But there is no specific plan to address this issue either.Sachar Committee also reported the fact that it is much more difficult for Muslims to get loans than non-Muslims. Combining it with the fact that a substantial population of Indian Muslims are involved are artisans or involved in small businesses, he should have given a decent allocation to National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC). Last year, NMDFC was allocated Rs 70 crores and this year a mere Rs 75 crore. He also notes:
The National Minorities Development & Finance Corporation (NMDFC) operates through State Channelising Agencies (SCAs). These SCAs suffer from lack of infrastructure, manpower and resources to carry out their activities effectively. Grants-in-aid would be provided to SCAs to strengthen their capabilities and operations. [India Budget 2008-09]
One would think that the allocation to these SCAs would be increased when their activities are hampered by lack of resources. No. It was actually cut to half from Rs. 9 crores to Rs. 4.5 crores. A silver lining is the increase in development programs allocation to the 93 selected minority concentration districts to Rs. 485 crores from Rs 108 crores.Devoid of specifics and paltry allocation to important programs, Chidambaram is just playing along. A brouhaha was raised Prime Ministed Manmohan Singh suggested some time back that minorities have the first claim on national resources. As it turned out it was much ado about nothing.I will try to update this post tomorrow. Meanwhile, does anyone know how much Hajj ‘subsidy’ has been allocated for this year Updated.
Hindu society is based on castes system and i think the Budget should also be allocated according to the castes demographic representation. In fact right from the out set the Budget allocation and its apportionment is faulty based on illwill and discrimination. If you have a look over the Budget you will find it more directly favoured and boon to those operatives and Representatives, who form only 15-20% Upper Castes of the people falsly symboliing the Hindu Society. The remaining major proportion of the population, which have been catagarized as Scheduled, Tribal and Backword Castes(including Muslims) are virtually the deprived people in all the facades of India. The Budget does not entrust any privilege or allocation to the truly Representatives of the deprived people directly to take on the specific measures required for improving the plight of their people and this treachery openly exposes the so called mock Representation of the people claiming 60 years long Democracy in the country. Since the beginning, the control of the Budget is in the limited hands of Upper Castes people, which have been the ruling and affluent castes and dispense it with the same mentality to keep the other castes as their subjugates. I think the time is not far when these under privileged people in India will be rising to fight for the share of budget in their own hands and use it for their betterment as it needed by them.
1. concerns of the Muslim community:
Indeed the latest Chidambram budget flies in the face of the 12 month long repeated assertions from PM Manmohan Singh and Arjun Singh who have repeatedly assured the Muslim community that measures will be taken to allocate funds to remove the extraordinary educational backwardness of the community. The community leadership has lobbied for about a year to get financial allocations in the five year plan and budget to allocate funds to implement the key recommendations of the Sachar Committee. But to no avail.
Chidambram and Manmohan Singh are continuing to play politics with the Sachar Committee report and the Muslim community. As in the past Congress govt is playing emotive religious politics in increasing the Haj “subsidy” that the Muslims have not asked for, but decreasing the NDMFC- SCA allocation that negatively impacts the educational development of Muslims. Once again UPA is playing to the Muslim Cleric lobby in this respect and ignoring the secular Muslim lobby that has been demanding Sachar Committee implementation for one year.
The increase in allocation to the 93% Muslim concentration districts is very slight. And ofcourse this leaves out 70% of the Muslim community that lives outside these 93 districts. Also the refusal to allocate funds for improving education among Muslim women – a gnawing and pressing hardship- is another affront to the much hoped for Sachar Committee implementation.
We thought that after the 1985 blunder of the Shah Bano legislation the Congress party learned that in comparison to catering to the cleric lobby in the community, they should cater to the interests that are pushing educational development. But the Chidambran budget increasing the Haj subsidy yet giving short shrift to implementation of the Sachar Committee report indicates otherwise.
It appears that the Chidambram budget is looking to the next parliamentary election in playing emotive religious politics with the Muslims. It should be noted that many non-clerical leaders of the Muslim community have demanded that the Govt scrap the Haj subsidy, since Islam requires that a Muslim go on the Hajj pilgrimage only when he/she can afford it.
For the average Indian Muslims it is a matter of much regret that just as the Govt/Congress party played politics with the 1983 Gopal Singh Commission report on Muslim backwardness, it is doing the same with the 2006 Sachar Committee report.
2. Budget is pro-upper caste:
Mr Shahid has made this statement above. Could he please give specific examples to elaborate this comment which I am unable to umnderstand. I hope he appreciates that with the hefty reservation for Hindu SCs, STs, OBCs in education and jobs these segments of Hindu society are already receiving much economic benefit.
I think the Indian (i.e. both its Judiciary and Legislative wings) understanding of the term ‘socially disadvantage’ is incorrect.
A ‘social’ disadvantage should not be based on one’s birth or religion or even caste (please note: Santana Dharma does not define castes. It defines an ‘open’ varna system which philosophically is not by birth..that discussion for a later topic).
It should be on a set of ‘objective’ criteria that are judged at the FAMILY level not at the community level. Specifically my suggestions for these criteria should be:
- income
- level of education
- skill (to be gainfully employed) of each earning member of the family
- accessibility to primary and secondary education
- dependents
A scoring system with a defined threshold may be used to determine if FAMILIY is SOCIALY DISADVANTGEd. That family, then, DOES NOT to belong to a particular community to enjoy the reservation/income benefits.
Unlike communities families have a UNIVERSAL definition. SOCIAL DISADVANTAGE when determined using my criteria above will include every such FAMILY (not community) ‘rightfully’ in need of such benefits.
Do you think my plan can be implemented in INDIA? Psssst: I actually have a plan for this!
I agree with the Author and also the above comments from Shahid and Kaleej Kawaja.
Its a pity that Congress wants to keep the muslims backward and illiterate by starving them of real development in education and liefstyle…….BJP goes one step further and doesnt even care about the muslims…..
Its a very dangerous trend to keep one community backward by design….furthermore when that community is being promised help and brotherhood by India’s arch-enemy Pakistan….
But SRK, Aziz Premji and Abdul Kalam have proved that there is no absolute bias against muslims…..but people can turn this 180% degrees and say that these 3 examples have suceeded in spite of the bias…..
on the other hand….I guess muslims are also guilty to a lesser extent…coz they turn off other communities by protesting against Danish Cartoons, Taslima and Bush visits….not against any real issues thats affecting their life….making good money, getting nice jobs and providing for their children…..
i am tempted to draw the parallels between this and Malaysian Hindus….who protested against discrimination on development, education and real issues affecting their life….but again since i am a Hindu…people are goin to assume that i am trying to do upmanship with my religion…
but something has to be done on educating and providing more oppurtunities to muslims….that is a reality.
Mohib,
why is there this idea that money should be specially “marked” for Muslims. Will they then no longer be free to use any of the facilities that have been provided for Hindus or other groups, as these facilities were not “marked” for them?
I do understand that a large percentage of the Muslims in India are mired in poverty. But approaching them as Muslims, and only Muslims, is what created this mess for all of us in the first place.
Special budget provision to uplift backward Muslims:
1. The need for paying special attention to the extraordinary socioeconomic/ educational backwardness of Muslims is the same as is the need for SC, ST, OBC Hindus. Just as the Govt is convinced that the backwardness of SC, ST, OBC Hindus (Muslims, Christians excluded) was at such a level that the only viable means to uplift them is to institute special affirmative action plans, the same need exists for the Muslim community today. The Sachar Committee has with extensive survey established that the level of backwardness of Muslims is worse than that of OBC Hindus and at par with that of SC/ST Hindus.
2. Those that argue against reservation per se (whether Dalits or backward Muslims) must understand that when such economic/educational backwardness reaches a certain very low level, the only solution is to have special programs to fix the problem. Think of a few students who are doing badly in school and way below average. The only solution is to give them special and additional coaching. If the whole class is given that coaching, the poor performing students will not be able to come up. OR it will take them 100 years to come up to a level playing field with average students in the class).
Mr. Kaleem Kawaja,
I am not against reservation. I only against reservation that is based on ‘subjective’ criteria like race, religion, ethnicity, caste etc. These are factors an individual has no control over. If one has to belong to a particular community, race, religion, ethnicity or caste to receive reservation benefits then I think it is simply against the principle of ‘equal oppurtunity’. Equal opportunity is not just for education or employment but also such opportunity to ‘benefits’ provided for those as well.
Presently, individuals who are eligible to claim these benefits , therefore, WILL HAVE TO BELONG to a particular community to avail these benefits. That is what I am against.
If instead the families (not the community) they belong to are classified as backward based on a set of ‘objective’ criteria, like those I proposed in my earlier comment (which, in fact, is the basis for all human development assessment reports like the Sachar committee report), then no matter which community that family belongs to, it will still be eligible for the same reservation benefits.
If reserversation is based on ‘objective criteria’ then I am FOR it.
I would be a bit weary of minority-talk.
The moment you mention a minority, you imply a majority. Who’s the majority in India?
Should the majority – who rule India, India being a democracy and all – “protect ” the minority?
Lets formalize this in the constitution then. Lets tabulate minority communities formally. Lets also christen India as belonging to a particular majority community. As member of the majority community, you have certain privileges, but also certain obligations, such as protecting the minorities.
Every thing is right but what is happend many families of muslims belong to belove poverty land and they arent able to touch the electronic media so there is need of to do something phisical not verbal.
“Think of a few students who are doing badly in school and way below average. The only solution is to give them special and additional coaching. If the whole class is given that coaching, the poor performing students will not be able to come up.”
Do you mean to say that they be given reserved quotas also?..How about those who working hard to do well. Should they be discriminated against because of their hard work? Where is the incentive to work hard? Most of the time the incentive is anyways cornered by the well off among the SC/STs. I remember that in my college 50% of reserved quota people had chauffer driven cars while we general category used public transport.
So tomorrow if I convert and become a Muslim, shall I and my family be eligible for reservation? All this while I have been hearing that the brahmin/bania nexus that is less that 5% of the population rules India….so where is the majority rule?..in fact to come to think of it Muslims (if we can call them a single community) may be the largest community in India.
Unfortunately affirmative action in India is not to uplift anyone, it’s an election ploy used to milk the Indian state/tax payer dry. If the govt. had its way even the IT sector would have floundered. Indian industry survived inspite of the Indian political leadership.
I’m not an economy expert or anything, but from this site (http://in.reuters.com/article/globalCoverage3/idINIndia-32217720080229?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0) I can see the following schemes/points for low-income Indians.
Keep in mind that since India is a Hindu nation, none of these will benefit India’s Muslims. I agree that parallel schemes must be announced for Muslims as well.
* Government to waive debts of small farmers. The total cost of the farm debt waiver scheme will be 600 billion rupees.
* 2008/09 budget education spending to rise 20 percent.
* 2008/09 budget health spending to rise 15 percent.
* 2008/09 spending on National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme seen at 160 billion rupees.
* Rural infrastructure spending will be 140 billion rupees.
* Food subsidies will cost 327 billion rupees in 2008/09.
* Farms of up to 2 hectares will have a complete waiver of loans.
* Debt waiver scheme will cover 500 billion rupees of loans.
* Government sets aside 200 billion rupees for irrigation.
* Five-year tax holiday for hospitals.