Rahim, 19, sees no problem in balancing on one wheel of his mobike. No shoes, no helmet, no special track or formal training, he has worked as a stuntman in Dhoom, Bagpiper ads and even the teleserial, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. He says his “contacts” help him make Rs. 1000 per day. “Films don’t look at jaat biradari as their only concern is money and name. If the work is good, they don’t care about our mazhab,” he says.

Assistant Director Zia-ur-Rehman, 29, couldn’t agree more. He has done several episodes of CID for Sony TV, a movie We are Friends, starring Jackie Shroff. “I live in Goregaon and maybe I am the only Muslim in my housing society but have never felt discriminated against. When I go and ask for work, people say, OK we will tell you when there is work, that’s all.”

There are no detailed employment statistics for Mumbai Muslims although scholar Asghar Ali Engineer had done a survey in the city in the late ‘80s, looking at employment for Muslims in private industry. His findings depressed him, he said. “Muslim representation in white collar jobs was 0%, and in blue-collar jobs 6%, still lower than the 17% they are of the population in the city.”

But haven’t the two decades of liberalisation brought winds of change? Engineer says he isn’t so sure. “The cases you see of Muslims doing well are few and far between. The majority, in rural India, given the increase in the services sector, is completely out of the loop and is slipping down, every day.”

... contd.