Pakistan 4th Highest Source of Remittances to India

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistanis sent nearly $5 billion to help their relatives in India in 2015, according to data released by the World Bank. This makes Pakistan the 4th largest source of foreign remittances to India, putting Pakistan ahead of Kuwait and the United Kingdom. Only United Arab Emirates, United States and Saudi Arabia sent more money to India.

Source: Wall Street Journal

With over 1.4 million Pakistanis born in India, there are literally millions of family connections between the two countries and millions of reasons a person in Pakistan might find a way to get money to relatives in India. The money could be sent for a brother in need, a cousin’s wedding, an uncle’s funeral or even to help educate a niece, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

I personally know people in my own circle of friends and family in Pakistan who regularly send money to relatives in India to help them out in times of need. Such remittances are used to build homes, educate children, pay for health care or girls' weddings.

While Muslims in Pakistan have prospered, the Indian Muslims have become the new untouchables in their land of birth. They suffer widespread discrimination in education, employment, housing and criminal justice. Muslims make up 13% of India's population but 28% of Indian prisoners. Similarly, Christians make up 2.8% of India's population but 6% of India's prison population.  Meanwhile, the newly elected parliament has just 4% Muslim representation. Housing discrimination in India is so bad that an Indian MP Shashi Tharoor recently tweeted: "Try renting an apartment using a #Muslim name (In #India )".

The latest remittance World Bank data offers yet another confirmation that the South Asian Muslims who migrated from what is now India to Pakistan have fared relatively better in terms of economic and other opportunities. Pakistani Muslims have the means to help their relatives in India. It reinforces my own anecdotal observation during my visits to both countries.  I see that my own relatives in Pakistan are much better off than those in India. My Pakistani relatives enjoy better opportunities for education and jobs giving them higher standards of living than those in India.

In fact, Pakistan has continued to offer much greater upward economic and social mobility to its citizens than neighboring India over the last two decades. Since 1990, Pakistan's middle class had expanded by 36.5% and India's by only 12.8%, according to an ADB report titled "Asia's Emerging Middle Class: Past, Present And ...

Source: ADB

New York Times' Sabrina Tavernise described the rise of Pakistan's middle class in a story from Pakistani town of Muzaffargarh in the following words:

For years, feudal lords reigned supreme, serving as the police, the judge and the political leader. Plantations had jails, and political seats were practically owned by families.

Instead of midwifing democracy, these aristocrats obstructed it, ignoring the needs of rural Pakistanis, half of whom are still landless and desperately poor more than 60 years after Pakistan became a state.

But changes began to erode the aristocrats’ power. Cities sprouted, with jobs in construction and industry. Large-scale farms eclipsed old-fashioned plantations. Vast hereditary lands splintered among generations of sons, and many aristocratic families left the country for cities, living beyond their means off sales of their remaining lands. Mobile labor has also reduced dependence on aristocratic families.

In Punjab, the country’s most populous province, and its most economically advanced, the number of national lawmakers from feudal families shrank to 25 percent in 2008 from 42 percent in 1970, according to a count conducted by Mubashir Hassan, a former finance minister, and The New York Times.

“Feudals are a dying breed,” said S. Akbar Zaidi, a Karachi-based fellow with the Carnegie Foundation. “They have no power outside the walls of their castles.”

In yet another confirmation that Pakistani Muslims are much better off than Indian Muslims, the World Bank data has revealed that $5 billion were remitted by Pakistanis to help their Indian Muslim relatives in 2015 alone. Such remittances are used to build homes, educate children, pay for health care or girls' weddings. This flow will have to increase in the future given the Modi government policies of Hinduization that are adversely impacting Indian Muslims by worsening the depth of their deprivations.

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[Riaz Haq]

A study in contrasts: Muslims in India vs Pakistan by Dr. Ata ur Rahman ... The per capita income of Muslims in Pakistan is about $1,460 while the per capita income of Muslims in India is only about $400 – less than one-fourth of the country’s national Indian GDP. About 52.3 percent of Muslims in India live below the poverty line, with an average monthly income of $5 or less. Muslims constitute about 14.5 percent of the total Indian population. However, only between two percent and three percent of them pass the civil services examinations.

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The literacy level of Muslims in India is also much lower than the national average. Only about four percent (one in 25) of Indians who receive education up to the high school level are Muslims, while only 1.7 percent (one in 60) of college graduates in India are Muslims. When we consider that one in seven people in India is a Muslim, these figures bring out the stark disparities that exist in India between Hindus and Muslims. In his book, ‘India’s Muslim Problem’, V T Rajshekar states that Muslims “are in many ways worse than untouchables and in recent years they are facing dangers of mass annihilation”.

 

The mass killings of Muslims in Indian towns and cities also add strength to the Two-Nation Theory. About 630 Muslims lost their lives during the 1969 Gujarat riots. This was followed by anti-Muslim violence in the Indian towns of Bhiwandi, Jalgaon and Mahad in 1970 when a large number of properties of Muslims were burnt and many Muslims killed. During anti-Muslim violence in Moradabad in 1980, about 2,500 Muslims were killed by extremist Hindu elements. Another 1,800 Muslims were slaughtered in the state of Assam in 1983 in a village called Nellie. The official 600-page Tiwari Commission Report on the Nellie massacre has remained a closely guarded secret since 1984.

 

The destruction of Babri Masjid in December 1992 by Hindu nationalists led to the Bombay Riots. BBC correspondent Toral Varia concluded that the riots were “a pre-planned pogrom” that had been in the making since 1990. According to many independent scholars, extremist Hindu rioters had been given access to information about the locations of Muslim homes and businesses through confidential government sources. This violence was planned and executed by Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist group led by Bal Thackeray.

 

The anti-Muslim riots that occurred in Bombay in January 1993 following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992, were reported in the following manner by international and Indian newspapers:

 

“Bombay: Day after day after day, for nine days and nights beginning on January 6, mobs of Hindus rampaged through this city, killing and burning people only because they were Muslims. No Muslim was safe – not in the slums, not in high-rise apartments, not in the city’s bustling offices – in an orgy of violence that left 600 people dead and 2,000 injured...Interviews have suggested, moreover, that the killing, arson and looting were far from random. In fact, they were organized by Hindu gangs, abetted by the Bombay police, and directed at Muslim families and businesses. The extent of police cooperation with the Hindu mobs appears to have spread through the entire police force, excluding only the most senior officers...neither the Maharashtra authorities nor the central government in New Delhi made any effort to stanch the flow of blood.” (The New York Times, February 4, 1993)

 

“Tragedy has struck Surat (Muslim) women… for them, it was hell let loose... While men were thrown into bonfires, torched alive or had burning tyres put around their necks, women were stripped of all their clothes and ordered to ‘run till they can’t… run”. (The Times of India, December 22, 1992).

 

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/223824-A-study-in-contrasts

[Riaz Haq]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/157079/muslims-india-confident-democracy...

Muslim Indians are more likely than the country's Hindus and members of all other religions - including those who don't belong to a religious group - to be "suffering." One-third (32%) of the country's Muslims are suffering. Gallup classifies respondents as "thriving," "struggling," or "suffering" according to how they rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10 based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale. People who rate their current life situation and their life in five years a "4" or less are considered suffering. Hindus (23%) and members of India's various other religious sects (15%) are less likely to be suffering.

The findings in this report are based on nationally representative studies conducted in 2010 and 2011 with a total of 9,518 Indians, including 1,197 Muslim Indians.

Economic, Educational Problems of a Growing Minority

The roughly 1.3 billion people who make India the world's second most populous country live in a diverse land. Hindi is the official state language of the nearly two dozen languages officially recognized, but it is the primary language of less than half of India's residents. The state, secular by mandate of its constitution, offers no official state religion, but 80% of India's population is Hindu.

Muslims represent India's largest religious minority group at nearly 13% of the country's population. In a country with such a large populace, though, that minority translates to more than 140 million residents - meaning India has more Muslims than any other country in the world except for Indonesia and Pakistan. And this minority group is growing. The 2001 census found the Muslim population in India had increased almost 200% in 40 years, from 1961 to 2001. While the rest of the country's populace grew, it did so at a slower rate (134% for all of India during the same four decades, including Muslim Indians). The annual growth rate for the Muslim population during that time was 2.7%, higher than the national average of 2.1%. Gallup data show that Muslims in India are more likely than Hindus and members of other religions to have three or more children under the age of 15 at home.

This growing minority of Muslim Indians are more economically disadvantaged and dissatisfied than Indians of other religious groups. Muslims are more likely than the Indian population overall to live below the poverty line, 31% compared with 26%, according to the National Council of Applied Economic Research in India. Gallup data show that the country's Muslims (51%) are less likely than Hindus (63%) or others (66%) to be satisfied with their standard of living. Similarly, Muslims (65%) are more likely than Hindus (53%) and others (51%) to say their standard of living is staying the same or getting worse.

Household income is a particular disadvantage for Muslims in India. Muslims (47%) are more likely to say they find it "difficult" or "very difficult" living on their present household income than Hindus (39%) and members of other religions (24%). Muslims (23%) are also slightly more inclined than Hindus (18%) and others (12%) to say there were times in the past year when they did not have enough money to buy the food that they or their families needed.

Abject poverty is partially to blame for low levels of education among Muslim Indians, according to a 2006 report titled "Social, Economic and Educational Status of Muslim Community of India," chaired by Justice Rajindar Sachar and produced for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The report calls education a "grave concern" for the country's Muslim community - not only the lower levels of education received, but the low quality of such education. Educational attainment is not particularly high throughout India, but Muslim Indians (88%) are slightly more likely than Hindus (84%) to list their level of education as elementary or less; all other Indians (72%) are distinctly ahead on this measure.

The report cites poor access to schools in predominantly Muslim areas of India, and high pupil-teacher ratios in the schools that are present. But in Gallup's 2011 survey, Muslim Indians (74%) are as satisfied as Hindus (74%) and other Indians (76%) with the educational system or schools in their areas. Indians overall were more satisfied with their local schools in 2011 than in 2010.

India has implemented nationwide improvements to elementary schools, as outlined in a 2010 District Information System for Education (DISE) report, in the years since the Sachar report. The DISE report details an increase in the number of elementary schools throughout the country, improvements made to school facilities (basic improvements such as drinking water, toilets, and cooking facilities), the decreased number of students per classroom, and more computers to schools. According to the report, enrollment at the primary and upper-primary levels has increased, including an increase in the number of Muslim students enrolled in primary and upper-primary schools.

There is a clear divide, though, in satisfaction with education among urban and rural Muslims and Hindus. Those in urban areas of India (83% of Muslims, 87% of Hindus) are more likely than those in rural parts (68% of Muslims and Hindus) to say they are satisfied with the educational systems or schools in their areas. Indians in urban areas are more likely to have higher levels of education than those in rural areas, regardless of religious affiliation.

Muslim Indians More Likely to Suffer in Wellbeing

Muslim Indians are more likely than the other religious groups to be suffering - that is to be highly negative about their current life situation and their expectations for their life situation in five years. Majorities of Muslims (62%), Hindus (66%), and other Indians (70%) are struggling, giving more middle-of-the-road answers when asked to rate their current life and their life as they anticipate it will be in five years. Those Indians classified at the high end of the life evaluation scale as "thriving" make the smallest group, including 6% of Muslims, 11% of Hindus, and 15% of all others.

Gallup also asks Indians to rate their levels of experience relative to several feelings and emotions one day before they took the survey. Muslim Indians fare worse than Hindus and other Indians in nearly all of these measures.

Muslims (70%) are less likely than Hindus (75%) and other Indians (84%) to say they felt treated with respect during the entire day before the survey. Muslims are also less likely than both groups to say that they felt well-rested, that they smiled or laughed a lot, or that they learned or did something interesting that day.

Emotionally, Muslims are less likely than Hindus or other Indians to say they felt happiness and enjoyment during a lot of the day before the survey. Conversely, Muslim Indians are more likely than Hindus to say they experienced stress and worry the day before the survey.

Muslims Agree With Hindus, Others on Democracy and Women's Rights

While there are socioeconomic differences that set Muslims apart from Hindus and other religious groups in India, the various factions agree on many topics. Muslims, for example, are as likely as Hindus to say they are satisfied with the freedom they have to do what they want in their lives. They share with Hindus and other Indians a belief in the idea that people in the country can get ahead in life if they work hard. The value Muslims place on opportunity is no less than that of Hindus or other Indians.

Similarities also exist when considering Muslims' opinions about many topics relevant to India's national institutions and identity. India has a carefully built pluralist democracy where no one identity or principle is dominant, and Muslims are as exuberant about the tenets of democracy as Hindus or other Indians. Specifically, Muslim Indians are as likely as Hindus to agree with the principles of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of assembly.

The Sachar report indicates that Muslims struggle against the perception that they are "anti-national," however Gallup data show that Muslims are about as confident in the country's national institutions - save for the judicial system - as any other religious group. Muslims are as likely as Hindus and others to be confident in the nation's military. Muslims and Hindus share similar confidence in the country's financial institutions and in the honesty of the country's elections. While Hindus are more likely than Muslims to be confident in the nation's government, all Indians are equally as likely to say they approve of the job performance of the country's leadership (42% of Muslims, 47% of Hindus, and 39% of all others). Muslims (79%) and Hindus (80%) are equally as likely to perceive corruption in government as being widespread.

Muslim Indians are less confident than Hindus in the country's judicial system. This could be due to the comparably large percentage of Muslims in Indian jails. In some states, the percentage of Muslims in jail is greater than the percentage of Muslims living in the state. However, confidence in the local police is the same regardless of religion.

Muslims are also as supportive as Hindus and other Indians of women's rights. They are as likely as Hindus and others to agree that residents should have equal access to education, regardless of gender, and that women and men should have equal legal rights. Muslim Indians are also nearly as likely as other Indians to agree that women should be able to hold any job for which they are qualified outside the home - 90% of Indians overall agree this should be the case.

Recommendations

Improving the wellbeing of Muslims in India begins with changing their educational and economic futures. States throughout the country must take measures to improve the lives and livelihoods of their Muslim populations. Some are already taking steps toward success, typically in the south of India. Some states, though, are far more disadvantaged, such as West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Assam.

Improve Muslim educational attainment. Education is essential to lifting a population out of poverty. The country needs an educated workforce to fill the skilled jobs created as India's economy grows. Because Muslim Indians are at an educational disadvantage in a country where achieved levels of education are generally low, it is important states tailor efforts to improve the opportunities and access to education for their Muslim communities. According to the Sachar report, this includes:

• Creating high-quality, government schools in all areas of Muslim concentrations
• Opening schools that are exclusively for girls, particularly for grades 9 through 12
• In co-educational schools, hiring more female teachers
• Make primary education available in Urdu, as this is the mother language of many Muslims and education in one's native tongue is constitutionally mandated in India

Gallup data support the need for offering more focused educational options for Muslim Indian women. Of Muslim women, 91% say they have an elementary education or less and 88% of Hindu women say the same. These percentages are greater than for Muslim and Hindu men, and for other men and women in India. Increased educational attainment for women has the additional benefits of reducing the fertility rate, thereby increasing opportunities for economic development, mitigating health risks for women and children, and improving quality of life, particularly for women.

As for language options in local schools, many Muslims often face harassment and ridicule in school related to their Urdu language; few schools in India accommodate an education provided in this language. Rising religious tensions can lead to children being alienated from school.

Improve Muslims' economic situations through job skills training. India is creating jobs. A recent study by Ma Foi Randstad found the country created 500,000 jobs in the first six months of 2010. In 2011, Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma announced the National Manufacturing Policy, which the government hopes will shift the economy to a manufacturing focus and create new jobs for the 100 million young people who will join the workforce in the next 15 years. Skilled workers must fill these jobs, making educational attainment and vocational training crucial to Indians' ability to qualify for and perform these jobs. Muslim Indians must increase their level of education to be considered for what the country plans to be an increase of thousands of jobs in skilled sectors.

Take advantage of opinions shared by Muslims and others to improve communal harmony.Gallup data find plenty of agreement among Muslims and others on a number of issues important to the strength of India as a nation. To lessen the perceived divide between Muslims and other Indians, leaders at the state and country level must secure reliable, regular data to measure these opinions, share the information gleaned from such research, and use it to foster a more cohesive populace.

Survey Methods

Gallup is entirely responsible for the management, design, and control of this study. For the past 70 years, Gallup has been committed to the principle that accurately collecting and disseminating the opinions and aspirations of people around the globe is vital to understanding our world. Gallup's mission is to provide information in an objective, reliable, and scientifically grounded manner. Gallup is not associated with any political orientation, party, or advocacy group and does not accept partisan entities as clients.

Results are based on face-to-face interviews in India with 6,000 adults in 2010 and 3,518 adults in 2011. Surveys were conducted May 1-June 17, 2010 and April 11-June 16, 2011.

For results based on the total sample of adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error for the total population is ±2.0 percentage points. The margin of error reflects the influence of data weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Abu Dhabi Gallup Center

The Abu Dhabi Gallup Center is a Gallup research hub based in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. It is the product of a partnership between Gallup, the world's leading public opinion research firm, and the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi.

Building on Gallup's seminal work in the field of Muslim studies, the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center (ADGC) offers unmatched research on the attitudes and aspirations of Muslims around the world. In addition to its worldwide scope, the ADGC focuses on the specific priorities of its regional base and presents innovative analysis and insights on the most important societal challenges facing the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

[Riaz Haq]

Muslims have lowest living standard in India: Govt survey

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Muslims-have-lowest-living...

Among various religious groups, Muslims have the lowest living standard with the average per capita expenditure of just Rs 32.66 in a day, says a government survey. At the other end of the spectrum, Sikh community enjoys a much better lifestyle as the average per capita spending among them is Rs 55.30 per day, while the same for Hindus is Rs 37.50. For Christians it is Rs 51.43.

"At all-India level, the average monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) of a Sikh household was Rs 1,659 while that for a Muslim household was Rs 980 in 2009-10," said an NSSO study titled 'Employment and Unemployment Situation Among Major Religious Groups in India'.

The average household MPCE is a proxy for income and reflects that living standards of a family.

According to the study, the average MPCE for Hindus and Christians were Rs 1,125 and Rs 1,543, respectively.

The survey said that average monthly per capita consumption at all-India level was Rs 901 in villages and Rs 1,773 in cities. Overall, the average MPCE was Rs 1,128.

Muslims were at the bottom in rural areas, with an average MPCE of Rs 833, followed by Hindus at Rs 888, Christians at Rs 1,296 and Sikhs 1,498.

In urban areas, Muslims' average MPCE was also the lowest at Rs 1,272 followed by Hindus at Rs 1,797, Christians Rs 2,053 and Sikhs at Rs 2,180.

[Riaz Haq]

The indignity of being #Muslim in #India. #BJP #Modi #Hindutva #Islamophobia
https://qz.com/1152569/the-indignity-of-being-muslim-in-india/

by Sahil Wajid 

I have, over the years, endured considerable discomfort and faced discrimination on account of my Muslim name—despite being wholly irreligious, despite having had a sheltered upbringing in a big city and access to education and employment, and despite having had many Hindu friends over the years who stood up for me.

Extrapolating from these personal experiences beyond my narrow prism of privilege, I can only imagine the horrors that the less fortunate Muslim men and women in the Hindi heartland would have had to endure. Especially, those who try to exercise their so-called freedom of religion and, unlike me, choose to assert their religious identity.

Sure, they are free to practice their religion and there are no legal obstacles (at least not yet), but for minorities in general and the beleaguered Muslims in particular, what this freedom essentially translates into is little more than the freedom to suffer marginalisation and humiliation.

And most of them do not even have “secular” first names to hide behind.

-------------------


My first name was chosen by my mother because it was, as she put it, a “secular” name. Being a mildly religious woman, that really meant the name came as close as it could to a Hindu one, without sounding like a complete cop-out to some of her more orthodox Muslim relatives.

At any rate, it was better than the more spiritual name that my father, an atheist working at a bank, had in mind: Khusro, which, she said, would have been a pronunciation nightmare (besides being, as I later realised, egregiously Muslim-sounding).

While the turmoil of 1992 was still a few years away when I was born, my mother, unlike my father, seemed to have foreseen the times to come. However, as I was soon to find out, while first names can be chosen, there are no such secularising remedies for family names.

Delhi pejoratives
At my Delhi school one day, a seven-year-old in my class found out that my middle initial “A” stood for “Abdul.” He declared it was something to be ashamed about—rather viciously for his young age and in the unrelenting manner that children do when they pounce on an embarrassing secret. I realised at that early age that my Muslim surname was unlikely to ever be an asset and was best kept to oneself when it could be helped.

Subsequently, I introduced myself only by my first name. Once, when pressed, I lied about the “A” standing for “Agarwal,” before eventually dropping the inconvenient middle-name altogether. Of course, there were more such instances along the way to high school, from being 

bestowed with nicknames pertaining to the 

I introduced myself only by my first name.

stereotypical Muslim occupations, such as Darzi (tailor) and Naai (barber), to the now all-too-common Pakistani.

I also became familiar, much to the horror of my scandalised parents, with the more unsavory pejoratives for Muslim men, thanks to some of the older boys in my Delhi locality.

In college, stereotypes dressed as harmless “jokes” were routinely flung in one’s face. With my Muslim name, they came in the form of gags centered on terrorism—about hijacking small vehicles, a supposed proclivity for explosions, and so on. My surname provided a sustained spark for creativity of this kind, and not wanting to be perceived as unsporting and risk isolation, I played along.

[Riaz Haq]

Read this:  https://thewire.in/rights/interview-post-sachar-report-condition-of...

The situation of Muslims in India is dismal as far as socio-political marginalisation of the community is concerned. Such socio-political marginalisation has a long history after the formation of the Republic of India.

However, in the recent past, the process of marginalisation and insecurity among Muslims has been a result of a series of mob lynching incidents in the name of cow vigilantism, targeting Muslim youth under the bogey of “love jihad” and low-scale communal riots in various parts of the country. There are also credible studies showing the denial of housing to Muslims in non-Muslim localities, aggravating the process of ghettoisation of the community.

Moreover, the under-representation of Muslim minorities in the Indian parliament after 2014 has now reached an all-time low. On parameters like literacy rates, mean years of schooling, the percentage of graduates, Muslims, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes lag behind upper caste Hindus, Hindu OBCs and other religious minorities.

Also Read: A Hindu and a Muslim Started Living Together. What Happened Next Wo...

There is a higher degree of landlessness among Muslims than any other social groups, while Muslims are second to Dalits in small landholding. Both Dalits and Muslims are lagging behind any other social group on counts of land ownership, average land possession and average land cultivation.

Moreover, Muslim presence in top corporate boards and Muslim presence among the wealthiest Indians is negligible, along with Dalits and Adivasis. The Muslims are broadly located in the informal sector labour force, small peasantry, artisanal industries, petty production and small trade. The available data on unemployment and monthly per capita consumption expenditures show that Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis are behind other social groups.

The empirical data provided by the Post-Sachar Evaluation Committee Report (2014), Report of the Expert Group on Diversity Index (2008), India Exclusion Report (2013-14), 2011 Census and latest NSSO reports suggest that Indian Muslims are a socio-economically backward community.

In many cases, the socio-economic situation has worsened due to the burden of socio-political marginalisation and increasing prejudices in the context of a growing trend of Islamophobia. At the same time, the tragedy of Indian Muslims is that there is a sustained level of neglect towards the socio-economic issues of the community.

First, the problems of Muslims are inadequately understood by governmental agencies and political leadership. As a result, the state either ignores the real issues of the Muslims or tries to resolve them through a piecemeal approach.

Second, the lack of a progressive leadership among the Muslim community in India has traditionally meant that the problems of Indian Muslims have been restricted to the issues of identity (for example, Muslim personal laws, minority educational institutions, fatwas against controversial authors, and so on) and security (immunity from communal violence).

In effect, the visible conservative leadership among Indian Muslims have not been passionate enough to articulate the demands of equity (modern education, health, income, employment, and so on).

Third, mainstream popular culture such as Hindi cinema has misrepresented the identity of Indian Muslims by using age-old stereotypes and vilification without showing the actual problems of Muslim minorities.

As a result, only the wrong notions, misconceptions, and myths regarding Muslims proliferate and permeate in large sections of non-Muslims. The structural problems of the Muslim minorities hardly get attention for remedy.

[Riaz Haq]

#India's #Muslims worse off than lowest #castes. Proportion of youth who have completed #schooling among Muslims in 2017-18 is 14% as against 18% among #Dalits, 25% among #Hindu OBCs, and 37% among Hindu upper castes #brahman. #Modi #BJP #Apartheid https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/muslim-community-...

Written by Christophe Jaffrelot, Kalaiyarasan A |
Updated: November 1, 2019

The percentage of youth who are currently enrolled in educational institutions is the lowest among Muslims. Only 39% of the community in the age group of 15-24 are enrolled against 44% for SCs, 51% for Hindu OBCs and 59% for Hindu upper castes.

The 2019 Lok Sabha elections have reconfirmed the political marginalisation of Muslims — MPs from the community are very few in Parliament’s lower house. This process is converging with the equally pronounced socio-economic marginalisation of the community. Muslims have been losing out to Dalits and Hindu OBCs since the Sachar committee submitted its report in 2005.

Using the recent “suppressed” NSSO report (PLFS-2018) and the NSS-EUS (2011-12), examine the socioeconomic status of Muslim youth vis-à-vis other social groups in India. We use the same set of 13 states covering 89 per cent of the 170 million Muslims enumerated in 2011. We use three variables: Percentage of Muslim educated youth (21-29 age) who have completed graduation, percentage of the community’s youth (15 to 24 age) in educational institutions and the percentage of Muslim youth who are in the NEET category (not in employment, education or training). These variables together reflect pathways of educational mobility for the country’s youth.

The proportion of the youth who have completed graduation — we call this, “educational attainment” — among Muslims in 2017-18 is 14 per cent as against 18 per cent among the Dalits, 25 per cent among the Hindu OBCs, and 37 per cent among the Hindu upper castes. The gap between the SCs and Muslims is 4 percentage points (ppt) in 2017-18. Six years earlier (2011-12), the SC youth were just one ppt above Muslims in educational attainment. The gap between the Muslims and Hindu OBCs was 7 ppt in 2011-12 and has gone up to 11 ppt now. The gap between all Hindus and Muslims widened from 9 ppt in 2011-12 to 11 ppt in 2017-18.

Muslim youth in the Hindi heartland fare the worst. Their educational attainment is the lowest in Haryana, 3 per cent in 2017-18; in Rajasthan, this figure is 7 per cent; it is 11 per cent in Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh is the only north Indian state where the Muslims are doing relatively better in education — their educational attainment is 17 per cent. In all these states, except MP, SCs fare better than Muslims. The gap between SCs and Muslims with respect to educational attainment is 12 ppt Haryana and Rajasthan and 7 ppt in UP. In 2011-12, in all these states, SCs were slightly above the Muslims on this parameter.In eastern India, the educational attainment among the Muslim youth in Bihar is 8 per cent, as against 7 per cent among SCs, in West Bengal it is 8 per cent, as against 9 per cent for SCs, and in Assam it is 7 per cent as against 8 per cent for SCs. While the gap between Muslims and SCs has narrowed in the last six years, the latter still fare better.

In western India, the educational attainment figures for Muslims are better compared to 2011-12. But they do not necessarily reflect a significant educational improvement when compared to the SCs and Hindu-OBCs. In Gujarat, the gap in educational attainment between the Muslims and SCs is14 ppt in 2017-18; six years ago, it was just 8 ppt. In Maharashtra, the Muslims were marginally — by 2 ppt — better off than SCs in 2011-12, they have now not only lost to SCs but the latter has now overtaken them by 8 ppt.