The report suggests that when recruiting panels are set up, a representative is kept on the board to ensure fair treatment to candidates.

The Indian Express had first accessed the Sachar panel data and reported that Muslims fare worse even if the employer is the Government. For example, the share of the community in government jobs in West Bengal is 4.2 per cent against a population of 25.2 per cent. In Kerala, their share is 10. 4 per cent against a population of 24.7 per cent and the corresponding figure for Assam is 11.02 per cent and 30.9 per cent.

In a series, the Missing Muslim, the newspaper also reported data on education which said Muslims fared worse than SC/STs in many states. The panel received many complaints against the “discriminatory” approach of the banks towards the community. The Sachar panel hence wanted to have more “transparency” in credit disbursal.

Explains social historian Prof Imtiaz Ahamed: “We should also understand that apart from discrimination, many community members also don’t have the asset requirement to get loans and some of them prefer to go to their kin for loans than the banks”.

Finding that just 4 per cent of the Muslim children go to madrasas, the committee said that measures should be taken to ensure “quality education” to children up to the age of 14. Considering the “educational backwardness of the community,” as an interim measure the modernisation of “madrasas” should continue, the committee said.

Another important recommendation is giving attention to Muslim artisans and fields where the Muslims are traditionally employed. The committee found that in certain traditional occupations such as lock industry in Aligarh and the kite-making sector in Gujarat, Muslims face extreme difficulty. In fact, the Gujarat government in its submission to the Sachar panel said considering “more than 90 per cent” of the Below Poverty Line Muslims come from “kite-making sector,” it had put in a place a Rs 500-crore project to help them.

... contd.