Indian Holocaust My father`s Life and Time- Two Hundred Seventy Nine
Palash Biswas
How the Central Fund for SC, ST and OBC for West Bengal Goes Back! Udayan Nambudari, a journalist by Profession and Politically TMC alleged that the Central Fund for SC, ST and OBC go Abegging every time UNUSED. At the end of the Financial year, the Fund is sent back to the centre. Meanwhile it remains DEPOSITED in the Bank and the Government use the INTEREST in other works which never relate to SC, ST and OBC Communities!
Without any Change in Indigenous, aboriginal and Minority Life, There Would be NO Change in Bengal So Much So Hyped!
We Celebrated Marichjhanpi Day today in Historical Bharat Sabha hall which had been once upon a time Glorified with the Presence of Tagore, Vivekanand, Desh Bandhu and Fazlul Haq. Gurudev named the Hall in central Kolkata as BHARAT Sabha highlighting the Passionate Indian Nationality modified from BANGAMATA of Bankim. But West Bengal based Brhaminical Hindutva Hegemony supported by SHUDRA Kayastha and Baidya doctored the Demography of Bengal and launched an Systematic scientific Ethnic Cleansing effecting Partition of India vesting the State Power and Economy in Zionist Brahmin Bania Raj co opting the Influential SC, ST , OBC and Minority Opportunist Unworthy elements and throwing the SC and OBC communities from east Bengal out of Bengal. They also succeeded to Marginalise the rural Land lords belonging to RAJPUT community who used to rule India since Vedic Civilisation killed our Ancestors demonising them and Unifying the Hindu Genocide culture evoking War Gods and Goddesses!
But Bengal being a NON Aryan Base INTACT even after the Fall of Buddhism, Cast Hindus were NON Existent until Pal Dynasty in and around Twelfth Century. Ballal Sen introduced Brahaminical Rituals in Bengal Importing Brahamins from Kannoj.
Hence, there had been NEVER any Rajput in Bengal. The Kayasthas and Baidyas covered the place and despite being SHUDRAS they not only are considered High Cast but lead the Genocide Gestapo.
Jyoti Basu was the name of the Phenomenon.
Arvind Dhali, now a BJD MLA in Orissa and Ex Cabinet minister and Nimai Sarkar another MLA in Orissa condoled Basu in Passionate words recently. Dhali told that the SC refugees have Forgiven Basu and Nimai Sarkar rather justified MARICHJHANPI Massacre saying that as the Chief Minister Basu had not no Option!
But the Victims and Eye witness of the Massacre of children, women and Old men in cold Blood declared in Baharta Sabha hall,` WE HAVE NOT FORGIVEN.
Dhali and Sarkar do not represent the SC OBC refugees nor they were trapped in Marichjhanpi to be Slaughtered.
What right they have to forgive Basu and his Gestapo?
They demanded Compensation, Rehabilitation and Prosecution against the Criminals of the Act for which No One from the Caste Hindu Brahaminical Civil society, Intelligentsia or media ever demanded justice in last Thirty One years in Brahamin Front Raj!
But the Changing wave CONVERTED the Brahamin kanya Ms Mamat Banerjee MATUA. TMC organised protest meeting in Barasat recently amidst Hectic Matua Mobilisation for the Next assembly elections while some BSP leaders led by Nakul Mallick, RSS minded Dr. Jgadish Haldar and an economist Dilip Haldar Celebrated Marichjhanpi day in DUMDUM today. Sumit Chakrabarti, the mainstream editor hosted a Marichjhanpi seminar in New Delhi recently.
Even today, Journalist Udayan Nambudari who had been TMC Candidate in Dumdum Constituency flied from New Delhi to join Bharat Sabha Meeting attended by Parivartanwalas as well led by Professor Sunanda Sanyal. But no body did mention Marichjhanpi, the original Book written by Jagadish Chandra Mandal,worthy son of Mhapran Jogendra Nath Mandal who got Dr. BR Ambedkar elected to Constitution assembly with the assistance of Mukund Bihari Mallick. Jagadish babu was also present in the meeting. AB Thakur, who had been fighting Loksabha Elections from Mathurapur on BJP ticket was also present.
I would not name the Victims and Eyewitness present as I am afraid of Persecution Further. But the Parivartan walas are shedding tears for SC OBC Refugees and trying hard to maintain Status quo in Bengal to sustain Manusmriti rule just changing the Political faces. As they used well Peasants` uprising in Singur, Nandigram and Lalgarh to get personal Milage in Politics, they are all set to Encash MARICHJHANPI after Three Full decades. TMC used the MARICHJHANPI film in the last Loksabha elections to break SC and OBC vote bank bases of the Left Front! We must understand the laws of the Game!
Thus, Indian nationality and Bengali Nationality has been a all in all Micro Minority Brahmin Ritual since the days of Bankim and Tagore as the Marathi Manush in Maharshtra has been Hijacked by the Enemies of the Marathi Nationality whose supreme Icon Shivajee Maharaj had been an OBC!
The Demographic Alchemists were Never Exposed before Nandigram Genocide stripped off the Progressive Secular Masks of the Gestapo Masters of the Genocide culture!
Nandigram Phenomenon began right in January 1979, while Marxist supreme Icon Jyoti Basu and Left front leaders invited Dandakaranya Refugees in Bengal to Create a Vote Bank to upset the Apple Cart of Congress. But Emergency changed all equations as the Left front held on Power in Bengal since 1977 Mid term elections.
The real danger was the Revival of Dalit Muslim unity once again which had to be ABORTED and Basu and company did it very well in MARICHJHANPI.
The Phenomenon continues as every Victim since then even in so much so Globally Highlighted Singur, Nandigram and Lalgarh insurrections and even during the Food Movement and Naxal Uprising belonged to ST, SC and OBC Communities only and Only!
Meanwhile,Abject poverty drove a OBC woman to sell off her infant son for a mere Rs one thousand, but was arrested before she could do so. The woman, identified as Anjali Saha, was trying to sell off her child at Santipur area of the city Guahati today when local people informed an NGO whose workers called the police. On the other hand,another BRAHAMIN Mitra takes over as Revenue Secretary!After implementing the UPA government''s disinvestment plans for the past six months, Sunil Mitra today took over as the Revenue Secretary, less than a month before the Budget presentation in Parliament. "Mitra today assumed charge of the Revenue Secretary," an official in Revenue Department of the Finance Ministry said.
A crucial task of striking a fine balance between compressing fiscal deficit and promoting economic growth awaits Mitra at the North Block. His assuming office of the Revenue Secretary comes at a time when a debate raging on whether the government should roll back some of stimulus measures or not.
The Reserve Bank in its last quarterly policy review had advised the Finance Ministry to start rollback of some of stimulus measures. However, the industry has voiced its strong concern against any withdrawal till the recovery is on a strong footing.
The government had cut excise duty by six per cent, service tax by two per cent in phases from December 2008 and stepped up the Plan expenditure to provide stimulus to the then slowing down economy. However, this has hit the exchequer hard with fiscal deficit projected to widen to 6.8 per cent of the GDP this fiscal, whereas it should have come down to 3 per cent by the last fiscal, as per the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.
Government taking steps to check food prices, Super DON of Brahaminical LPG Mafia Ruling Inda, Pranab consoles the Straving Aboriginal Indigenous India as he did so well in Barala (West Bengal)! The government is trying to manage the 'supply side' and 'demand side' in a bid to contain rising food prices, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced Sunday.
'The government is taking necessary steps to contain the food price inflation. There are two ways to manage inflation - supply-side management and demand-side management.
'RBI (Reserve Bank of India) has already done the demand-side management by raising the CRR (cash reserve ratio). It will suck out Rs.40,000 crore money from the banking system. This will ease liquidity pressure on the system,' Mukherjee said here.
He was speaking at a programme organised by the State Bank of India at the opening of the group's 20,000th ATM at Barala in Murshidabad district.
Mukherjee said steps were also being taken on the supply side.
'Steps are being taken for supply of essential commodities like sugar, edible oil and pulses. Open import has been allowed and some import is already happening in these commodities,' he said.
He added both public and private sectors can import essential goods. The public sector has already started it.
… the country could soon have a new model of central universities that offer preferential admission to students from minority communities which is not followed by any central varsity until now.
The proposal forwarded to the law Ministry for inspection explores a central university model in public-private partnership mode (instead of total central funding), to come up on land donated by the Wakf Board in Rajasthan, Bihar and Karnataka.
Although offering admissions to both majority and minority students, the land for these universities will be given by the Musilm communities with the minorities getting the maximum share of seats.
They are expected to come up at Ajmer, Kishanganj and Mysore and are expected to get the maximum share of seats in these new varsities.
The Minister of Minority Affairs Salman Khursheed confirmed that the concept has been borrowed from Dr B.R Ambedkar University, which came up to educationally empower SC students.
Odisha must take a cue and push for PPP based central universities – in addition to branch(es) of IGNTU – for its tribals.
http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/category/special-focus/scstobcminority-schemes
DAVOS - A week of tense bankers, recovery hopes, star gazers
Sun, Jan 31 05:54 PM
Enlarge Photo A woman walks past the logo of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at the congress... The top executive was on a roll -- Barack Obama didn't know what he was doing, he didn't understand business, he didn't realize knee-jerk pronouncements could destroy jobs.
It was a private, five-minute, expletive-filled tirade against the U.S. president for this reporter's benefit. Welcome to one aspect of the World Economic Forum's annual schmoozefest.
This unique event -- a gathering of several thousand of the members of the world's business and political elites for debate, dealmaking and a fair amount of partying in a ski resort in the Alps -- is in many ways an annual celebration for capitalists.
But this is a very dysfunctional family.
For the second successive year, the recriminations arising from the financial crisis were a dominant theme.
Sure, the global economy looks better - people are no longer talking about financial Armageddon, while some CEOs are talking about investing more, buying companies and even hiring.
But many times when executives talked about a recovery, they also used words like "fragile" and then mumbled about whether the battle between bankers and politicians could upset it all.
The tone for this year's WEF was partially set by Obama's proposal on Jan. 21 to ban financial institutions with commercial banking operations from engaging in proprietary trading operations for their own profit. Coming against the backdrop of sky-high Wall Street compensation, only just over a year after huge government bailouts, it meant bankers' behaviour was going to be a major focus.
The release of the annual Edelaman Trust Barometer at Davos didn't help. It showed that college-educated, so-called "opinion leaders" around the world have lost a huge amount of trust in banks. In the United States, for example, the trust level has plummeted to just 29 percent of those surveyed from 68 percent in 2007.
PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE?
No wonder that Junichi Ujiie, the chairman of Japan's largest brokerage Nomura Holdings Inc, said he perceived bankers were seen in the West as "public enemy No.1."
"When I come to Davos I find a very big difference. Bankers and investment bankers in Tokyo are still respected," he said.
This year more top bankers turned up than last year, when it was too dangerous to risk being seen near a ski slope supping gluhwein and fondue just after being rescued with taxpayer cash.
Some of those who did come this time around kept a low profile -- Citigroup Inc CEO Vikram Pandit and Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack were rarely seen around the Davos Congress Centre, though new Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan was much more prominent.
A meeting between the CEOs of top financial institutions failed to find common ground over regulatory reform, according to several who attended. A push by Wall Street banks and some major European peers to battle back against politicians' attempts to bring in tougher regulations didn't get the support of some European commercial banks who prefer a more conciliatory tone.
By the Saturday, the bankers and regulators were reduced to using post-it notes and white boards in a joint brainstorming session that was inconclusive.
WORRY FOR BUSINESS
To executives in other sectors, this is concerning. If the banks and political leaders continue to fight then markets and bank lending might take a further hit, crimping the recovery.
Daniel Vasella, the chairman of Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG, said lack of trust in the system remained his big worry and made the risk of a double-dip slump "substantial".
Even some bankers are fast losing patience.
"I think the industry had better wake up before they get the wrath of God on them," said Joseph Perella, a veteran dealmaker and chairman of U.S. investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners.
Of course, there is always a possibility all this huffing and puffing may be a lot less relevant than the evidence of more than just green shoots in parts of the economy.
Luxury hotel chain Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc said during the week it expects to open 80-100 hotels this year and its CEO Frits van Paasschen said at Davos it was benefiting from pent-up demand as companies who cancelled their offsite sales meetings last year now reinstate them.
Even the paranoia among executives that they would get accused of organizing junkets at a time of job losses and government rescues has diminished, he said. "People are more discreet but they are not scared," he said.
The heads of top private equity firms, such as Blackstone Group LP, Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, also said they were optimistic.
Vivek Ranadive, the CEO of business software firm Tibco Software Inc, said it was time to "quit whining".
But then again perhaps we should just consult the astrologers, like Geneva-based banker and industrialist Prakash Hinduja. When asked at the WEF about the investment climate he had no hesitation in declaring 2012 will be a very bad year in the U.S. and the years heading into it not much better: "The astrology guides us on this," he said.
Hinduja might want to do a little star-gazing for the bankers and regulators too.
(additional reporting by Ben Hirschler)
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PM to inaugurate chief secretaries' conference
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate a two-day conference of state chief secretaries here Monday aimed at formalising the process of interaction with states and union territories.The first of a kind conference would serve as a standing forum for exchange of views between the central and the state government and provide an occasion for interaction on internal matters, a government statement said.
'Issues relating to the latest trends in technology, emerging global challenges and opportunities and key security concerns and the role of state governments would be discussed. Global developments that have a bearing on the country would also be deliberated upon.'
Organised by the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions, the conference would be attended by Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan, Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrashekhar and other senior officials.
Technology can improve quantity of agri-product: Joshi
Uttar Pradesh Governor B L Joshi today said that scientists should conduct their research according to need of farmers. "Industrialisation helps in economic growth but food grains can only be obtained from agriculture land.Improved seeds, better irrigation facilities, new technology can help to improve the quantity of agri-product," Joshi said while inaugurating a Kisan Mela organised by CIMAP here. "The demand of food grain has increased in the entire world, hence we should lay stress on better productivity to ensure better supply of food grains," he said.
Joshi said for upliftment of farmers it was needed to encourage increase in productivity and develop agri-based industry.
Jaya Prada backs Amar Singh in Samajwadi row
Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha member Jaya Prada Sunday batted hard for former party strongman Amar Singh and lashed out at his detractors, saying they will be responsible if 'anything happened to him'.
'If anything happens to him (Amar Singh), those who have targeted him in the party will be responsible,' Jaya Prada told mediapersons here, coming out publicly in support of a friend whom the Samajwadi Party has now come to view as a liability.
Jaya Prada, Lok Sabha member from Rampur and a close associate of Amar Singh, however, hastened to say she was not quitting the Samajwadi Party. She also added that there was no need for Amar Singh to resign his Rajya Sabha seat.
She urged Samajwadi Party chief Mulyam Singh Yadav to check newly-appointed general secretary Mohan Singh, who she said had called Amar Singh 'mad' and 'shameless'.
The actor-politician, who was accompanied by some party legislators, said she would work with Amar Singh in Lok Manch, a non-political outfit, in raising problems of the common people.
She also came out in support of Amar Singh on the issues of the creation of a new state of Purvanchal, to be carved out from the present Uttar Pradesh, as well as the use of computers.
Jaya Prada said she differed from Samajwadi Party's official line on the women's reservation bill. The MP said she had backed the move to give reservation to women in legislatures while she was in the Telugu Desam Party but was later bound by the official line of the Samajwadi Party.
'As an individual, I feel it is important to encourage women (to contest elections),' said Jaya Prada.
Jaya Prada added that Amar Singh's resignation from party posts on health grounds had been politicised.
Amar Singh resigned from all party posts in the Samajwadi Party Jan 6. He is a Rajya Sabha member of the party.
Singh underwent a kidney transplant at a hospital in Singapore last year.
Meghalaya now has two chief ministers
Bizarre, but true. The northeastern state of Meghalaya now has two chief ministers - veteran Congress leader D.D. Lapang and the party's state unit chief Friday Lyngdoh.And this has been made official by a formal government notification, not without a catch though - while Lapang is the chief minister with statutory authority vested in him, Friday Lyngdoh would simply enjoy the status and benefits of a chief minister without real power.
Lyngdoh was earlier the deputy chief minister in the 12-member council of ministers led by Lapang and continued to enjoy the status even afterwards.
'The rank and status of Lyngdoh has been upgraded from the rank of deputy chief minister to that of chief minister. He shall continue to function as political advisor to the Chief Minister,' the official notification read.
The weird political move to elevate Lyngdoh's status is seen as an attempt to quell any form of threat to the shaky Congress government. Recent reports said that Lyngdoh, along with seven other ruling party legislators, led a rebellion and even met senior central Congress party leaders in New Delhi demanding ministerial berths.
Technically speaking, Lyngdoh would simply enjoy the status of a chief minister with fringe benefits like security, perks and incentives, besides protocol as applicable to a chief minister.
'Lapang is the real chief minister, while Lyngdoh is chief minister without any power. It is a face-saving exercise and aimed at soothing an inflated ego of Lyngdoh who tried to engineer some dissidence,' a senior Meghalaya minister loyal to Lapang told IANS, requesting not to be named.
Instability marks politics in Meghalaya - the state has already seen three governments since the March 2008 elections, a situation characteristic of the mountainous northeastern state known for hop-skip-and-jump politics with legislators switching loyalties at the drop of a hat.
After the March 2008 assembly elections, Lapang was sworn-in chief minister of a Congress-led coalition government although he resigned 10 days later ahead of a scheduled trust vote, having failed to muster majority support.
Soon after, the NCP managed a deal with United Democratic Party (UDP) leader Donkupar Roy and formed the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) led government in March 2008.
Barely 11 months down the line, Donkupar Roy's MPA government was dismissed and president's rule imposed in March 2009 following mounting political uncertainty after five legislators supporting the ruling government announced their decision to back the Congress, which was then in opposition in the state.
After two months of central rule, Lapang was sworn in chief minister of the Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) coalition government with the UDP, a regional party, backing the hotch-potch coalition.
'In Meghalaya everything is possible. You are with one party at lunch, have dinner with a different party and are with a third party for breakfast. That is why there is so much instability in the state,' said A. Lyngdoh, a tribal community leader.
In the present 60-member legislature, the Congress has 28 legislators and enjoys the support of 10 UDP members.
The NCP, the main opposition, has 15 legislators.
Political instability is the hallmark of Meghalaya - the state has seen nine different governments with varied combinations of political parties, resulting in eight chief ministers between 1998 and 2009.
There were just two occasions when a chief minister was able to complete the full five-year term since Meghalaya attained statehood in 1972.
DAVOS - Fear, uncertainty cast pall over Russian business
Sun, Jan 31 06:30 PM
Enlarge Photo Attendees are reflected behind a logo at the congress centre of the Alpine resort of... Russian businessmen at the World Economic Forum in Davos struck a gloomy note this week, with many uncertain about the country's direction and others warning a climate of corporate fear could hamper growth.
The wealthy businessmen who ran Russia 10 years ago under President Boris Yeltsin lost their political influence during Vladimir Putin's presidency in 2000-08.
During the global economic crisis, many have gorged on state bailouts.
The state now controls about 60 percent of the economy and President Dmitry Medvedev's call for modernisation to lessen the dependency on oil is falling on deaf ears as entrepreneurs are too scared to show initiative after years of what they see as state bullying.
German Gref, CEO of Russia's largest lender Sberbank, was the only Russian in Davos who spoke openly about the mood of fear gripping the private sector since the state takeover of oil major YUKOS several years ago.
Gref, who also sits on the board of Russia's largest private oil firm LUKOIL, said that since the YUKOS affair, "the main issue on LUKOIL's agenda has been not development, but self-preservation".
"For me, it was a shock to learn that," Gref told an audience of investors, as LUKOIL's head and shareholder Vagit Alekperov looked on. Gref then called for a push to privatise state assets, suggesting a start with the bank he heads.
YUKOS assets were nationalised and former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky jailed for tax evasion after a protracted legal battle that has become a symbol of the fear and uncertainty governing business is Russia.
Even the word YUKOS is taboo and officials and other businessman rushed to play down Gref's words.
"It is for the government to decide," about bank privatisation, said another state banker Andrei Kostin, CEO of second largest bank VTB. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said that the sale was "too early to even talk about."
"It was very bold of Gref to say that," said another businessmen, who declined to be identified.
Gref, a prominent political and business figure, drafted the liberal reform programme for Vladimir Putin's first presidential term. His plans were implemented but then partly reversed during the second term, with the YUKOS takeover seen as a turning point towards more authoritarian policies.
Prime Minister Putin, whose speech in Davos on the state of the global economy last year was met with scepticism by international investors, did not come to the gathering this year -- but even in his absence the businessmen did not talk freely.
"There is no modernisation. To carry out modernisation you need leadership and there is no leadership," said the head of a large Russian company. He declined to be identified, saying he did not want to put his business at risk.
"I have thousands of people working for me."
NO MIDDLE GROUND
The depth of Russia's economic troubles last year brought new reform plans, with officials loudly talking about a new wave of privatisation and even political liberalisation, but rising commodity prices have put those ideas on the back burner.
Anatoly Chubais -- the architect of Russia's first wave of privatisation who now heads a state firm tasked with developing the hi-tech sector -- was among those issuing a stark warning.
"It is either modernisation or degradation. There is no middle way for Russia," Chubais told Reuters.
Conversations with Russian delegates at Davos showed there was no common vision of what the modernisation should mean.
"It is your ability to compete in the market which tells how "modern" you are. But I would first concentrate on cutting excess costs," Oleg Deripaska, CEO of the world's biggest aluminium firm UC RUSAL, told Reuters.
Deripaska, whose business empire was bailed out by the state, was humiliated by Putin in front of TV cameras during the prime minister's visit to one of his factories last year.
"I think that the best modernisation is the construction of roads," said Mikhail Shamolin, CEO of the country's biggest telecom company MTS.
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin offered his own plan of reform at Davos, focusing on improving the efficiency of state spending to achieve 20 percent in real term savings within two years. He was vague on details.
To compensate for their fears at home, however, Russian businessmen descended en masse to a Ukrainian presentation -- where most felt free to crack jokes about messy politics across the border.
(Editing by David Cowell)
2006 WEST BENGAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS & MINORITIES
"I see clear as daylight that there is one Brahma in all; one Shakti dwells in all; the only difference is of manifestation. Unless the blood circulates over the whole body: has any country risen at any time? If one limb is paralyzed then even with the other limbs whole not much can be done with that body: know this for certain."
Swami Vivekanand
"There can be no stable equilibrium in any country without fair treatment of minorities".
Jawaharlal Nehru
In the context of the forthcoming legislative assembly elections in West Bengal, it is important to place before the people and the political parties the situation and aspirations of the minorities in the state.
It is hoped that all the political parties would have framed their election manifestos taking such issues into account.
It is important to emphasise that minorities in West Bengal, namely, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Jains, are not separate from the larger human community of the state. The problems and aspirations of the common people of Bengal – are the problems and aspirations of the minorities.
The struggle for a truly secular, democratic, poverty-alleviating, human development advancing society and government – is the struggle of all the people of West Bengal and India, including the minorities. And at the conclusion of any detailed investigation on the specific problems and crises of particular communities, e.g. Muslims or Christians, the analysis emerging would only be that poverty must be overcome, quality education must be delivered, mass awareness and empowerment, participation, enfranchisement must all be furthered. These are the key issues for all Indians.
The specific need for a focus on minorities is because true equality and fairness does not yet characterise public life in India and West Bengal today. The solution is for true democracy and development to reach down to the last person of the minority community, in step with reaching the last person of any community.
Minorities and most particularly Muslims are today facing acute socio-economic and educational deprivation, institutionalised denial of equal opportunities, and are mired in poverty, illiteracy and all-round backwardness. They live in a situation lacking in any hope, with disillusionment about political parties and governance. There is a crisis of leadership, in the sense of articulation of and action on the key issues, with transparency, integrity and persistence.
For every poor Muslim, there is also a poor Dalit, or a poor Adivasi. In as much as the whole governance and development system exludes the poor Dalit and Adivasi, and is unable even after close to 60 years of freedom to reach them, so does it exclude minorities and Muslims in particular.
The vision of an India that gives equal and fair treatment to its minorities is a vision for a secular democratic India.
Socio-economic and human development
The WBHDR states: "… SC, ST and Minorities together account for more than half the population, and these are also the three poorest groups in West Bengal."
Nevertheless the WBHDR fails to make any meaningful observation about the real condition of minorities and Muslims in the state.
The foremost and immediate need is for a detailed research study to be undertaken on the socio-economic and human development status of minorities in West Bengal, and in particular Muslims who form the overwhelming majority of West Bengal's minorities. The expertise of the United Nations agencies should be taken in this task.
Based on such a survey, a special task force must be constituted to prepare a comprehensive socio-economic and educational development plan that can break the poverty, isolation and backwardness of Muslims. Such a plan must seek to integrate the development opportunities for Muslims with those for all communities in the state, and provide rapid equal means for advancement to all sections.
Common Civil Code
Though the Left Front govt has been in power in West Bengal for almost 30 years now, and the state has a large population belonging to minorities and especially Muslims, nevertheless, there has been no attempt to advance the ideal of a uniform civil code through a concrete formulation or proposal. There has been only inaction, though occasional lip-service to the subject. In the absence of a concrete formulation, the forces of communalism are only strengthened, who use the issue of uniform civil code, or purdah, as a weapon to demonise Indian Muslims.
It is vital that the government elected must follow-up is avowed commitment to a uniform civil code in the form of a concrete draft proposal for a uniform civil code in India. The challenge of formulating a common civil code, which is non-communal, but is an expression of the constitutional provisions for equality, secularism and democracy, is a challenge that must be met and fulfilled.
Enfranchisement and Adequate Representation
It is vital for minorities to effectively participate in the electoral and governance process and be adequately represented in panchayats, urban local bodies, state legislatures and parliament.
In this context, the constituency delimitation exercise has only been a means for depriving minorities and especially Muslims of fair representation among elected representatives. When constituencies are defined, this often has the result of breaking up a large location-concentrated Muslim voter population and dispersing them among a number of electoral constituencies. This then makes it further impossible for the problems and aspirations of Muslims to reach the corridors of power and find effective redress.
Just as constituencies are reserved, and rightly so, for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, so must there be a reservation of constituencies for Muslims. In several parts of India and West Bengal also, the socio-economic status of Muslims is in fact even lower than that of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
In localities where there is a large concentration of Muslims, and where the constituencies have been come to be reserved for SC/ ST, there needs to be a thorough study undertaken for ensuring that fair representation is not thwarted.
Rural development
In March 2004, the Department for International Development DFID published its Country Plan CP for India. Building upon the Country Plans (CPs) State Assistance Plans (SAPs) prepared in consultation with the State Governments, Civil Society and other development partners reflected state level priorities. DFID's State Assistance Plan for West Bengal for 2004-2007 outlines an "alternative economic vision" for the state with emphasis on ensuring basic minimum needs are met for everyone. State Assistance Plan for West Bengal 2004-2007 observes that every third person in rural Bengal continues to live in poverty and four districts Murshidabad, Birbhum, Bankura and Purulia have poverty rates above 40 percent. There are pockets of high poverty rates in Uttar Dinajpur and West Medinipur.
The state-level figures mask significant intra-state variations. According to the West Bengal Human Development Report (HDR) 2004, the four most deprived districts on various income, gender and human development indicators are Maldah, Purulia, Murshidabad and Birbhum. These districts account for about one-fifth of the state's population (half of it being Muslims who can rightly be called the deprived social groups), and addressing their needs would push the state up the ladder among the 15 major states in the country. In terms of economic groupings, agricultural labourers (constituting about 38 percent of total households) remain the poorest section of the population, and have also experienced the lowest decline in poverty rates in the last decade. The challenge will be to use renewed political, administrative and financial measures to focus on various dimensions of inequality.
The large scale acquisition of agricultural land in rural areas inhabited by Muslims primarily around Kolkata and Howrah for private real estate development is an injustice to the poor peasants. A comprehensive formulation to include the dispossessed in the development processes in the acquired area is needed to check the demographic imbalance around the urban areas.
Employment, livelihood & Reservations
Given the acute under-representation of West Bengal minorities and especially Muslims in all levels of public employment and in institutions of higher and professional education, the time has come for reservations for poor Muslims, in line with reservations for SC, ST and OBC.
Minorities Development Finance Corporation provides loans for self-employment to the minorities and during the years (1997-1998-1999) on an average, annually about 1500 Muslims benefited from this scheme. This was supposedly to compensate for the low absorption of Minorities in Government jobs. The ratio for beneficiaries among Muslims then came to about 1:10,717. Even the figures released for the year 2003-2004 shows that the beneficiary ratio is around one person/unit in about every seven thousand (1:7033). There are 2995 number of beneficiaries out of the total 2.10 crore Minority population and the average amount per head comes to around 4000 Rupees. Alternate opportunities in the small scale and cottage industries should also be made available to people belonging to minorities.
The example of Karnataka needs to be replicated, where reservation in govt jobs and educational institutions followed an exhaustive study on socio-economic status of Muslims by a high-powered committee. This example also proved that it is not necessary to amend the constitution to effect reservations for poor Muslims.
Education
It is estimated that close to 30 lakhs children of school-going age in West Bengal are not enrolled in schools. A sizeable number of such children would belong to the Muslim minority. Only about 3% of Muslim school-going children, and especially those belonging to the most socio-economically vulnerable section, go to madrasahs. It was observed in the State Assistance Plan for West Bengal, 2004-2007 that the recent trends show that the state will not be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or the Universal Primary Education by the year 2015. According to UNDP press release the first WBHDR states that "never enrolled children tend to be more concentrated among the lower income groups and the Scheduled Tribe and Minority populations".
The West Bengal Primary Education Act, 1973 must be amended, as recommended by the West Bengal Minorities Commission.
The West Bengal School Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2006 passed on 20.02.2006 withdrawing the exemptions provided to the Christian Missionary Schools from the purview of School Service Commission Act 1997 vide Section 15 of School Service Commission Act, 97 for administration of their schools in keeping with their Minority Rights should be amended so that the linguistic and religious minority schools may be allowed to appoint their staff and teachers and run their institutions in conformity with the rights guaranteed to them under Article 30 of the constitution of India.
The Muslim community considers education to be very important for girls and boys. However, given the experience of poor Muslims of a bias in the labour market there has been a tendency for boys to become disinterested in further education after primary education. Hence initiation of appropriate vocational training which enable self-employment would significantly counter-act the disincentive to seeking education. This is an important issue for immediate action.
The current minimum age of marriage of Muslim girls is 14 years. In most cases, Muslim girls are married off by the age of 16. This often results in withdrawal of the girls from schooling. Besides concern for the sound health of mothers and their children, the incidence of desertion of such young married girls is not insignificant. Left alone to fend for themselves and their infants, and lacking in adequate education or marketable skills, these girls must face a harsh existence. Increasing the age of marriage of girls through legislation based on dialogue with community elders and leaders is essential.
Similarly, creating opportunities for Muslim women's employment and self-employment would have an immense transformative effect on the current situation.
The need of the hour is the opening of primary schools in the localities where there are large numbers of Muslims living and working. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, whose implementation continues to be a travesty in this state, must be thoroughly overhauled and used as a powerful means to reach out basic education to all.
The educational scenario of the Urdu speaking community in West Bengal, particularly in Kolkata and Howrah, is extremely depressing. This is a revealing instance of institutionalised neglect. If this linguistic minority in this great metropolis is to be saved from total disaster it will demand formulation of an action programme in the field of education. Establishing schools of high standard is the need of the hour. Facility for teaching in Urdu at the primary stage, and using Urdu as second language at the higher stage will be quite rational.
Waqf land
The Muslim community in West Bengal is endowed with a sizeable amount of land in different parts of the state. In particular, in urban areas, where the community is languishing in regards to education and housing, it is only logical that this land resource be utilised for advancing the all-round development of this backward and poverty-ridden community. In fact, WAKF land is the only remaining resource available to the community offering some hope of a better future.
However, the situation on the ground is that owing to prolonged institutionalised neglect, WAKF land has been encroached upon, taken possession of by individuals and private promoters / real-estate developers. The conversion of mosques into private dwellings and commercial premises is symbolic of the glaring violation of the rule of law. The state cannot be a mute witness to such alienation and illegal possession of WAKF land.
A detailed survey of all WAKF land in the state must be completed immediately. The results of this survey must also be made available through the internet to all.
When the state has an explicit department for WAKF affairs, it must take the initiative in recovering alienated and illegally occupied WAKF lands. It must also take the active initiative in organising the use of such land for setting up much-needed educational institutions and low-income housing estates.
Through the wholesome use of WAKF land lying inside localities with non-Muslim people, it would be possible to break the isolation and ghettoisation that exists in urban areas. Hindus and Muslims can live together in the same neighbourhood, their children can study together in the same good schools. And together strive for a better India.
Women's question
The issue of Muslim women suffers from purposeful distortion. On the one hand is the continuing illiteracy, poverty and lack livelihood of poor women in a male-dominated society; and on the other hand is the practice of "purdah" which is apparently frowned upon by so-called progressive leadership.
When large-scale opportunities are available to all women for education, employment and all-round empowerment, practices such as "purdah" would altogether cease to be of much significance.
Healthcare
While there is an acute dearth of reliable disaggregated data, existing studies suggest that there is a significant differential between the infant and maternal mortality rates of Muslims and Hindus in urban areas. The principal reason for this is that the overwhelming majority of the Muslim community live in poverty-ridden, mal-nourished, environmentally degraded, overcrowded slums, lacking in adequate water and sanitation, where incidence of water-borne and gastrointestinal diseases is high. The DFID's State Assistance Plan for West Bengal admits that the state is unlikely to meet the targets of net primary education or child malnourishment.
According to the Census of India, less than half of urban households have a drinking water tap within their residential premises, even less have a water closet, and just over a third have closed drainage. This has come to be simply accepted as the inevitable and immutable quality of living for millions of our fellow-citizens. And this is the reality for most Muslims. More than one in five people do not have access to safe drinking water, only about 30 percent of people in rural areas have access to sanitation facilities.
Women bear the responsibility of fetching water for their household needs. Poor women in rural areas, without easy access to water sources spend hours every day collecting water, affecting their productive potential and their health. In urban areas, women and children often need to wait in long lines to get water from municipal standpipes or hand pumps. Women play a central role in water management. Reducing the amount of time women spend collecting water allows for increased opportunities for schooling, taking care of children, employment and self-development.
The environmental conditions in towns and cities are continuing to deteriorate because the middle-class with the assistance of the state is actively participating in the exclusion of large sections of the population from access to basic services. The consequence of such monopolisation of state resources and benefits is the complete disregard of risks of epidemics and endemic diseases. Govt policies are oriented to crisis intervention rather than institutionalising through new approaches, methods and attitudes a system of maintaining infrastructure and implementing progressive policies. Until the poor are able to satisfy their daily needs for food and shelter, their own active participation in demanding that the state provide them equitable access to water, sanitation and other basic services will be severely limited.
7 of the 8 Millennium Development Goals to which the Govt of India is committed are:
Eradicate extreme poverty & hunger:
• Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day
• Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Achieve universal primary education:
• Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling
Promote gender equality and empower women:
• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferaably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
Reduce child mortality:
• Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five
Improve maternal health:
• Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
Combat HIV / AIDS, malaria and other diseases:
• Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
• Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability:
• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources
• Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
• Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020
All of the above are directly and acutely relevant to the minorities in West Bengal and especially the Muslim. Improvement in the quality of life of the Muslims would mean in specific terms the attainment of the above goals.
The next elected govt. of West Bengal must commit itself to the realisation of these Millennium Development Goals in the state, and prepare and present a concrete action plan for this.
Housing
The large majority of the Muslim population of Kolkata and Howrah live in bastis. The Thika Tenancy Act which governs land tenure in bastis is a severe impediment to housing development for the low-income sections. At the same time, illegal construction is rampant in the basti areas.
An appropriate new legislation must be enacted in place of the existing Thika Tenancy Act, with the objective of facilitating large-scale housing construction. The state would be the enabling agency for such a process. The goal must be the granting of legal title to improved new dwellings to the erstwhile basti households. Just as "land to the tiller" was the slogan in villages, "house to the dweller" must become the slogan for a programme of pro-poor urban land reform.
It is incumbent upon the state to ameliorate the plight of the poor, illiterate and the under-privileged in the bastis or slums who are currently sheltered in the upper stories of the illegally constructed buildings that have come up when the state turned a blind eye to them.
Large scale acquisition of thousands of acres of land belonging to minorities particularly Muslims in Kolkata and Howrah suburbs and its allotment to foreign multinational companies will not only affect the demographic profile but also create landlessness, poverty and chronic unemployment among them. The need is therefore to stop any further acquisition at once and prepare a scheme wherein the displaced persons are included in the development processes in the area acquired.
ASSOCIATION OF INDIAN MINORITIES
55 PILKHANA 1ST LANE HOWRAH-711101, WEST BENGAL
PH-033 26657797 FAX-033 25563396
Email: reads at rediffmail.com
http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/test1/2006-April/007366.html
No equality of employment for West Bengal Muslims
By Mohammad Ashfaque, Calcutta
Though our Constitution has laid down a general rule that there shall be an equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointments to any office under the State, these fundamental principles have literally remained mere pious declarations and are being flagrantly violated. Muslim job seekers, who have registered their names in the employment exchanges in West Bengal, have for more than two decades, suffered from continuous discrimination and unfavorable bias in the matter of submission of names to the employers by the employment exchanges. They are denied even the opportunity of being properly considered by the employers for placement against existing vacancies.
During the tenure of the last Congress Government in West Bengal (1972-77), led by the then Chief Minister, Shri Siddhartha Shankar Ray, some positive steps were initiated to solve the unemployment problem of the state and to ensure equality of opportunity to all citizens including members of the Muslim community in matters of recruitment in government jobs.
Apart from taking steps for adequate representation of all communities in state services Shri Siddhartha Shankar Ray had ensured that at least one Muslim police officer was posted in each and every Police Station in West Bengal. Prior to this the members of Muslim Community were very poorly represented in services under Calcutta and West Bengal Police Forces. The steps taken by Ray, had created confidence among the minorities and inspired them to take a bright and hopeful view of things to come and to expect that things would improve and they would no longer be kept isolated from the national mainstream.
Immediately after coming to power, by an executive order, the CPI(M) dominated Left Front government decided to process all recruitment through the employment exchanges. The annual reports of the Government of West Bengal - 'Labour in West Bengal' - published annually by the Labour Department of the state government present a dismal picture of the poor performances of the employment exchanges and the State Directorate of Employment, West Bengal.
During the last ten years (1990 to 1999) the number of registered unemployed on the live registers in West Bengal increased from 48,20,331 at the end of 1990 to 55,55,952 by the end of 1999. During these ten years 47,66,176 new job seekers had registered their names with the Employment Exchanges in the State. Names of 21,09,560 (40 % of the average number of job seekers on the live register) were submitted during this period to the employers for consideration against vacancies.
During the same period (1990 to 1999) 291,768 Muslims had come forward to register themselves but the names of only 70,945 Muslims (10.58 % of the average number of Muslims on the live register) were submitted to the employers for consideration in connection with appointments.
The average number of job seekers on the live register of employment exchanges in West Bengal, during the last ten years, was 52,72,997. The average number of Muslims on the live registers during this period was 6,70,443 (12.71 % of the total on the live register). Out of this total average of 52,72,997, the average number of submission during this period was 2,10,956 (4 % of the total job seekers of all categories on the live registers) per annum. In the case of Muslims out of the average number of 6,70,443 (12.71 %) Muslim Job Seekers on the live registers the average submission was only 7,095 (1 % of the total names of Muslim Job Seekers on the live registers) per annum.
Despite the fact that about 12.71 % of the registered job seekers, available on the live register of employment exchanges were Muslims the total 21,09,560 names submitted during these ten years (1990-99) to the employers for consideration against vacancies included the names of only 70,945 Muslims (3.36 % of the total submissions).
During these ten years (1990-99) out of the 93,156 registered unemployed persons placed in employment through the employment exchanges only 4,232 (4.54 %) were Muslims. Out of the total 21,09,560 submissions made by the employment exchanges during the ten year period 93,156 persons (4%) had succeeded in getting placements in Jobs. In the case of Muslims out of the 70,945 names of registered Muslim job seekers, whose names were submitted to the employers during these ten years, 4,232 (6 %) were successful in getting jobs through the employment exchanges.
Success rate in the case of Muslims (4,232 out of 70,945) i.e. 6 % of the total Muslim names submitted for consideration by the employers) was, therefore, higher than the average success rates in all categories (93156 out of 21,09,560 i.e. 4 % of the total submissions ).
This shows that the Muslim job seekers are not in any way inferior to others. Muslims of West Bengal do not lag behind others in meeting the criteria for being selected for jobs but still they are denied equality in employment opportunity. They are placed in a disadvantageous position simply because of bias and prejudice in matters of submission of names. The concerned authorities of the state government are not doing proper justice with the registered Muslim job seekers in the matter of submission and are submitting very few names of Muslim job seekers for consideration by the employers. This discrimination has been going on for a long time. For the Muslims in West Bengal the Constitutional guarantees of equality in employment opportunity have, therefore, proved to be false promises. This has given rise to serious resentment and frustration among the unemployed Muslims of West Bengal. Their confidence in the Employment Exchanges and the Employment Policy of the State Government has been badly shaken. This is evident from the fact that over the years the number of unemployed Muslims coming forward to register their names in the Employment Exchanges has fallen from 47,908 in 1990 to an average of 27,096 per year during 1991-99. During this period more than 1,60,000 frustrated Muslim job seekers did not renew their registrations or had got their names cancelled from the live register of employment exchanges.
According to the Census reports, population of Muslims in West Bengal, at the time of 1991 census, was 1,60,75,836 (17 % of the total 9,52,22,853 Muslim population of India).
So far as concentration of Muslim population is concerned West Bengal is second only to Uttar Pradesh, which has a Muslim population of 2,41,09,684 (25% of the total Muslim population of India). 1,60,75,836 Muslims in West Bengal constituted 24 % of the total population of the State. Scheduled Castes account for 24 % and Scheduled Tribes for 6 % of the population of the State in 1991. The population of Other Backward Classes in West Bengal is estimated to be about 10 % of the total population of the State. Under the Government orders, 37 % of the jobs in the West Bengal State services are reserved for Scheduled Castes (22 % ), Scheduled Tribes (6%) and Other Backward Classes (9 %).
Though Muslims are inadequately represented in the State services there is no provision for any reservation for them in West Bengal. Some other States like Kerala have provided statutory reservations for Muslims in jobs and admissions in educational institutions. Muslims account for 23% of the population of Kerala. Provisions for reservation have been made for them by the Government of Kerala under Articles 15 (4) and 16 (4) of the Constitution of India and there has been no legal hurdle to such reservations.
Muslims, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes account for approx. 64 % of the total population of West Bengal. Others (excluding Muslims, SC, ST, & OBC) account for only 36 % of the total population of the State. This 36 % population has received the benefit of 62.81 % of the submission of names by the employment exchanges for consideration by the employers and 62.43 % of the placements in jobs made through the employment exchanges in West Bengal during 1999. Muslims constituting 24 % of the population of the State and accounting for 13 % of the live register of employment exchanges received the benefit of only 4.18 % of the submissions and 4.95 % of the placements made during 1999 through the Employment Exchanges in West Bengal. 2,49,769 names were submitted to the above employers by the employment exchanges during 1999 which included the names of only 10,458 (4 % Muslims). No wonder the Muslims got only 717 (4.95 %) placements during 1999.
A pertinent question agitating the minds of the Muslims of West Bengal is whether the fundamental rights and constitutional guarantees embodied in our Constitution are mere illusion.
Apart from denial of equality of opportunities in matters of employment, Muslims of West Bengal are further aggrieved because they find that even the constitutional rights 'to establish and administer educational institutions of their own choice', guaranteed under Article 30 of the Constitution , is denied to them by the state government. The case of Milli Al Amin College is an example of the arbitrariness of the state government. This College has been built in Calcutta as a 'Minority Institution' with donations received from munificent Muslims and assistance from the Al Amin Educational Trust, Bangalore. The state government has not contributed anything.
The College was built in 1992 but the state government has refused to recognize Milli Al Amin College as a Minority Institution. On the other hand the state government has been trying to impose such conditions which tend to deprive the Muslim community of the substance of their rights guaranteed under Article 30 (1) of the Constitution.
The above factual analysis dispel the myth that the Left Front Government is friendly with the minorities. It does not auger well that while we have 'solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist Secular Democratic Republic and pledged 'to secure to all citizens justice and equality of status and of opportunity' the religious minority in West Bengal is left to feel that it is not only inadequately represented in the services under the State but is also being denied equality of opportunity in employment and education. The members of the Muslim community in West Bengal have well grounded reasons to be aggrieved and to feel that proper justice is not being done with them by the State. The matter should receive serious attention and consideration by all concerned.
http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/01-10-2000/Art16.htm
COVER STORY
Community on the margins
VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN
| The Rajinder Sachar Committee finds that the Muslim community in India is deprived and neglected, and makes far-reaching recommendations. |
HOMELESS MUSLIM WOMEN sleep on the pavement in Srinagar. Incidence of poverty is high amongst the community, especially in urban areas.
ISSUES relating to the social, economic and political status of India's Muslim minority community have been a matter of debate for several decades; quite a few governments have initiated studies on the community and evolved administrative measures on their basis. As early as the 19th century, Monstuart Elphinstone, the legendary British administrator, put it on record that special measures were required to uplift the backward sections of the Muslim community. Studies conducted by the British administration led to the passage of a government Act in 1935 offering Dalit Muslims reservation facilities along with Dalit Hindus. Nearly two and a half decades ago, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi constituted a 10-member high-power panel on Minorities, Scheduled Castes (S.C.s) and Scheduled Tribes (S.T.s) and other weaker sections, headed by Dr. Gopal Singh. In its report submitted on June 14, 1983, the Dr. Gopal Singh Committee maintained that there was a "sense of discrimination prevailing among the minorities" and that it "must be eliminated, root and branch, if we want the minorities to form an effective part of the mainstream".
The examination of the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community by the seven-member high-level committee headed by Justice Rajinder Sachar, constituted by the Manmohan Singh government, and the publication of its report in November represents, on the face of it, a continuation of the debate on the community. Even so, on account of a variety of factors, the work of the Sachar Committee and its report have greater significance and relevance than earlier initiatives.
To start with, it is the first systematic study of the Muslim community in independent India. Earlier commissions, including the Dr. Gopal Singh Committee, looked into issues relating to the Muslim community along with those relating to other segments of society, such as the S.Cs, S.Ts and other weaker sections. Obviously, the Sachar Committee was expected to have an enhanced focus on the Muslim community and this is reflected in its frame of reference and examination processes.
The processes of the committee were essentially based on three types of issues relating to identity, security and equity, with special emphasis on issues of equity. Within this broad perspective, a wide range of specifics were covered by the committee, such as perceptions about Muslims; the size and distribution of the community's population; indices of the community's income, employment, health, education, poverty, consumption, and standards of living; and the community's access to social and physical infrastructure. The committee also made a meticulous study of the perpetuation of the caste system in the Muslim community.
The committee collated data from across the country and received detailed oral and written presentations from 13 States that have significant Muslim populations. It also collected data from the Indian Air Force and the Navy on the number of Muslims in these services but did not include the same in the report on a specific request from the Defence Ministry .
The marshalling of such substantial data was in marked contrast to the processes of earlier commissions. The report of the Dr. Gopal Singh Committee stated that data were not available in any public office about the benefits accruing to the religious minorities. As such the committee had formulated its observations with data from only 80 districts.
The context in which the Sachar Committee undertook its work is significant. The sustained campaign of the Hindutva-oriented Sangh Parivar and its political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing secular parties of promoting a policy of "Muslim appeasement" and insinuating that the Muslim community was politically and socially "anti-national" provides this. The Hindutva campaign developed steadily from the mid-1980s, when the Sangh Parivar advanced its Ayodhya Ram Mandir agitation, and has reached a stage today where leaders such as Pravin Togadia of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) castigate all Muslims as global terrorists. Madrassas run by the community were portrayed as "terrorist manufacturing units" as part of this castigation. The very formation of the Sachar Committee, in March 2005, was characterised by these forces as yet another act of Muslim appeasement.
The committee report has taken note of this context. It points out that Muslims "carry a double burden of being labelled `anti-national' and as being appeased at the same time". The report further states, "While Muslims need to prove on a daily basis that they are not anti-national and terrorists, it is not recognised that the alleged appeasement has not resulted in the desired level of socio-economic development of the community." The single most important result of the committee's detailed exploration is the assertion of the latter fact. On the contrary, the report points out that "the community exhibits deficits and deprivation in practically all dimensions of development". The report adds that "by and large, Muslims rank somewhat above S.Cs/S.Ts but below Hindu OBCs [Other Backward Classes], Other Minorities and Hindu General [mostly upper castes] in almost all indicators considered."
Development Deficit
One of the major contentions of the report is that almost 60 years after Independence the country has failed to ensure participation in governance for its largest minority group. The report begins its study on "Government Employment and Programmes" with the observation that "in a pluralistic society, a reasonable representation of various communities in government sector employment is necessary to enhance participatory governance". However, the data presented and analysed by the report show that the country is far from attaining such a goal. Though Muslims have a share of 13.4 per cent in the country's population, their representation in government jobs is a mere 4.9 per cent.
In the elite civil services, comprised of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), Muslim representation is as low as 3.2 per cent. Members of the community constitute a mere 4.5 per cent of the employees of the Railways and 98.7 per cent of them are positioned at the lower levels. Under-representation is acute in States in which Muslims constitute large minorities. In West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Assam, where Muslims form 25.2 per cent, 18.5 per cent and 30.9 per cent of the population respectively, the representation of the community in government jobs is as low as 4.7 per cent, 7.5 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively.
The report also points towards the fundamental social condition that has created this situation. Muslims across the country have less access than other religious groups to educational facilities, particularly in higher education. Consequently, only 3.4 per cent of the Muslim population has completed graduation where as the corresponding figure for non-OBC, non-S.C./S.T. Hindus is 15.3per cent. Literacy levels are also similarly low. Only 59.1per cent of the community has literacy while the national average is 64.8 per cent. The literacy level for non-S.C./S.T. Hindus is 65.1 per cent.
The report shows that only 80 per cent of urban Muslim boys are enrolled in schools, compared to 90 per cent in S.C./S.T. communities and 95 per cent among others. Just 68 per cent of Muslim girls go to school, compared to 72 per cent of Dalit girls and 80 per cent of girls from other groups. The report also explodes the myth that Muslims prefer to send their children to madrassas. The data collected from different parts of the country affirms that only 3 to 4 per cent of Muslim children go to madrassas. It emphasises that Muslim parents, as a rule, like to send their children to regular schools but are unable to do so on account of lack of access to general educational institutions.
The community, with such large deficits in education and employment, naturally figures high in terms of incidence of poverty. The report's analysis is that incidence of poverty among Muslims has a Head Count Ratio (HCR) of 31 per cent, which is second only to the S.C./S.T. HCR of 35 per cent. Significantly, in urban areas Muslims have a higher HCR of 38.4 per cent as compared to 36.4 per cent for S.C./S.T. The report points out that though comprehensive community-wise figures about land ownership are not available, it is more or less clear that the percentage of landowners among Muslims is much lower than in other socio-religious categories.
In the background to all this, the community's access to social and physical infrastructure is also abysmal. The committee used the figures of the 2001 Census and data from the NSSO (61st Round) to evaluate access to social and physical infrastructure. The evaluation shows that the proportion of Muslim households living in properly constructed houses is lower than that of the total population. The report also points out that electric lights are used less in the Muslim community when compared to the all-India average with "the share of villages with no electricity increasing substantially" as the size of the Muslim population rises. The story is no different in terms of piped potable water. Only 25 per cent of rural households have piped water and less than 10 per cent of Muslim households have access to this facility.
JUSTICE RAJINDER SACHAR, who headed the committee.
On the positive side, the Sachar Committee notes that in spite of widespread poverty and under-development, the community has an increasingly better sex ratio than other socio-religious categories. Child mortality rates are also low in the community. The national Infant Mortality Rate stood at 73 in 1998-99 while it was only 59 in the Muslim community. The figure was 77 among Hindus and 49 among Christians. Another positive point the committee has recorded is the better housing conditions; Muslims are on a par with other communities in this and toilet facilities are even better. Despite these pluses, however, the overall condition is one of `development deficit'.
The Committee also points out that the problem of `development deficit' is exacerbated by the widespread perception among Muslims that they are discriminated against and excluded. The colossal shortfall in terms of political representation has contributed in a big way to the growth and expansion of this perception. The report points out that of the 543 Lok Sabha members, only 33 are Muslim, and warns that the low participation of Muslims in nearly all political spaces could have an adverse impact on Indian society and polity in the long run. "Given the power of numbers in a democratic polity, based on universal franchise, minorities in India lack effective agency and political importance," the report said. Minorities, it added, "do not have the necessary influence or the opportunity to either change or even influence events which enable their meaningful and active participation in development process."
A specific study of the committee on electoral constituencies has brought out several anomalies that militate against the Muslim community. The study shows that several constituencies reserved for S.Cs have Muslim populations. The study also showed that many constituencies with more than 50 per cent S.C. population are in the unreserved category. Taking this into consideration, the committee has recommended the elimination of the anomalies in electoral delimitation schemes: "A more rational delimitation procedure that does not reserve constituencies with high minority population shares for S.C.s will improve the opportunity for minorities, especially Muslims, to contest and get elected to Parliament and State Assemblies."
On the strength of its comprehensive research and analysis the report also highlights the fact that some sections of Muslim society are more unequal than others. It draws attention to "the presence of descent-based social stratification" on the lines of the Hindu caste system among Indian Muslims and identified three social segments - Ashrafs, Ajlafs and Arzals. The traditional occupation of Arzals is similar to that of S.C.s; most of them work as butchers, washer men, barbers and scavengers. Ajlafs are engaged in occupations similar to that of the Hindu OBCs, and a sizable section of them are also landowners. Ashrafs have suffered no social deprivation as they are converts from the Hindu upper-castes or have "foreign blood".
The report said that Arzals are essentially converts from `untouchable' Hindu communities and that the"change in religion did not bring about any change in their social or economic status". The report also points out that Arzals have been clubbed with `Ajlafs, and that while the three groups require different types of affirmative action, the Arzals require multifarious measures, including reservation. The committee maintains that Arzals are "cumulatively oppressed". As such it would be "most appropriate" to absorb them among the S.Cs or at least in a separate category, Most Backward Classes, carved out of the OBCs. The (Scheduled Caste) Order of 1950 has kept Muslim and Christian converts from among Hindu Dalits out of its purview, denying them reservation.
A crucial recommendation of the Sachar Committee is the constitution of an "Equal Opportunity Commission" to look into the grievances of deprived groups. The report also says that an example of such a policy tool is the British Race Relations Act, 1976, and notes: "Such a measure, while providing a redressal mechanism for different types of discrimination, will give a further reassurance to minorities that any unfair action against them will invite the vigilance of the law." The committee also points out that "mere material change will not bring about the true empowerment of the minorities; they need to acquire and be given the required collective agency." It suggests that a carefully conceived nomination procedure could be worked out to increase the participation of minorities at grassroots and in public bodies.
Reaction to the report has been on on predictable lines. All parties barring the BJP and the Shiv Sena have welcomed it as a step in the right direction. The Congress and the Left parties pointed out that the committee's study had proved the hollowness of the Sangh Parivar's "Muslim appeasement" contention. The BJP asserted that the recommendations would not improve the lot of Muslims as they reflected a pseudo-vision, full of biases and prejudices. Talking to Frontline, Professor T.K. Oommen, well-known sociologist and a member of the Sachar Committee, maintained that the real questions raised by the report need to be addressed and concrete action taken at the earliest. As the report pointed out, "non-implementation of recommendations of several earlier commissions and committees has made the Muslim community wary of any new initiative," he said.
Though the Sachar Committee did not specifically mention it, the summation of the Dr. Gopal Singh Committee must have been considered in this comment. In June 1983, the Dr. Gopal Singh Committee stated that two things were absolutely necessary to root out the sense of discrimination among Muslims: "Wherever the government has to make appointments through nominations, as in the case of governing bodies of banks and other public undertakings, utmost care should be taken to have a fair number of the minorities representatives, especially at the decision-making levels. Similarly, every recruiting agency or services commission must have an adequate number of their representatives, so that the sense of discrimination now prevailing may end." Twenty-three years after the submission of that report there is no record to suggest that these recommendations have been implemented.
What fate awaits the comprehensive report and recommendations of the Sachar Committee? The answer lies squarely with our political class, especially those who commissioned the Sachar panel - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his United Progressive Alliance government.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2324/stories/20061215004700400.htm
| Union Budget 2008-2009 | ||
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Mandal Commission
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mandal Commission was established in India in 1979 by the Bharata Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward."[1] It was headed by Indian parliamentarian Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal to consider the question of seat reservations and quotas for people to redress caste discrimination, and used eleven social, economic, and educational indicators to determine "backwardness." In 1980, the commission's report affirmed the affirmative action practice under Indian law whereby members of lower castes (known as Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Scheduled Castes and Tribes) were given exclusive access to a certain portion of government jobs and slots in public universities, and recommended changes to these quotas, increasing them by 27% to 49.5%.;
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