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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Call for discrimination shield for Muslims -Imran Ahmed Siddiqui

Call for discrimination shield for Muslims -Imran Ahmed Siddiqui

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published Published on Dec 7, 2014   modified Modified on Dec 7, 2014
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: A government panel that evaluated Muslims' post-Sachar socio-economic conditions has suggested an anti-discrimination law, targeted mainly at employers, to combat the growing disparity between the community and the rest of the country.

The committee, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Amitabh Kundu, has failed to detect any "sea change on the ground" despite several welfare plans being launched for the community after Sachar's late-2006 report.

Like Sachar, the Kundu panel too has identified Bengal as the worst performer during the entire period it studied - 2004-2005 to 2011-2012 - which covers both Left and Trinamul rule.

According to the panel, Muslims continue to lag in employment and are at the bottom in basic education.

Poverty levels in the community remain higher than the national average, and Muslims rank only above the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes in consumption expenditure.

In health care access, Muslims trail the Scheduled Castes and in educational attainment, they are clubbed at the bottom with the Scheduled Tribes.

The committee sees a hand played by bias as well as "communal polarisation and violence". It recommends "formulation and enactment of a comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation to prohibit discrimination based on sex, caste, religion, disability".

"There is a need for such a comprehensive legislation that recognises multiple, sometimes overlapping, grounds of identity along which discrimination takes place; that include both State and non-state spheres in terms of discriminatory acts," the committee says.

It observes that development for Muslims must be built on "the bedrock of a sense of security".

"The rising incidents of communal polarisation and violence must be addressed firmly and urgently, both at the level of the Centre and the states," it says.

"This would be the most critical input in bringing the nation closer to realising the constitutional promises of equality, equity and development for all."

It was the UPA government that had formed the committee last year to evaluate the implementation of post-Sachar welfare schemes. The panel handed in its final report last month to the Narendra Modi government, which is yet to make it public.

"We are still examining the report," minority affairs minister Najma Heptulla said. The Telegraph has a copy of parts of the report.

Education

The report says school dropout rates are a major concern among Muslims, whose enrolment in primary school is fairly high but falls drastically at higher levels. Muslims have a low proportion of "graduates and technically educated persons", it adds.

The report identifies the Other Backward Classes (OBC) among Muslims as the "most deprived at all levels of education", saying the comparative improvements seen between 2004-05 and 2011-12 "do not alter this pattern".

Among children aged 6-14 in urban areas, Muslim OBC boys report the highest percentage of those who never attended school. It is possible, the panel suggests, that they are likelier than others to work to enhance family incomes.

Some of the measures the panel has suggested to keep children in school:

* Rigorously implement and monitor the midday meal scheme in schools in Muslim-concentrated areas, providing food that is part of the community's normal diet;

* Improve teacher quality to encourage children to attend school and to prompt their parents to see an advantage in keeping their children in school;

* Improve activities in schools to keep the children interested in attending classes;

* Give scholarships to children in Classes I to VI.

Jobs

While improving the basic education indices, the report says, the focus in the coming decades needs to shift to increasing Muslim youths' access to higher education, technical skills and the English language - the currency for decent employment.

Among the committee's recommendations are:

* Vocational training for Muslim boys and girls;

* Government and private scholarships to increase participation in higher education;

* Increased access to professional and technical education;

* Targeted, time-bound government recruitment drives;

* Anti-discrimination legislation.

Last year, the UPA government had introduced a bill for an equal opportunities commission, as suggested by the Sachar panel, to check discrimination on the basis of religion and caste.

According to the draft bill, which could not be passed in the Lok Sabha, both private and public companies must carry out religion and caste-based headcounts of their workforces and make these public.

If any set of figures appears to suggest discrimination, the equal opportunities commission would probe it.

The Kundu panel highlighted the need to strengthen coordination between the Centre, states and panchayat-level agencies for better planning and implementation of minority welfare schemes.

District and state-level committees must meet regularly and ensure coordination across various implementing agencies, it said.


The Telegraph, 6 December, 2014, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1141207/jsp/frontpage/story_2457.jsp#.VIPSY3s_-BE


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