Sachar panel members doubt govt will,methods

The much-discussed findings of the Prime Minister’s panel had changed the political discourse on Muslims in the country,putting paid to the claims of both the “secular” parties which claimed to represent their interests and those on the other side who objected to the “appeasement” of the community.

Syeda Hameed,Planning Commission member who was finally tasked with the job of monitoring the implementation of the report six months ago,says: “A meeting will be held by mid-August when we will decide on how to monitor the implementation.” Only one full meeting of this group to monitor the recommendations has been held so far.

Justice Sachar says their main recommendations were setting up of the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Diversity Index — “to ensure more funds from UGC go to more diverse insitutions — both of these more beneficial for not just Muslims but a whole set of social groups in India”,and common schooling. “We recommended common schooling strongly,and that school textbooks include multi-faith teachings,to help chip at prejudice which builds up in the absence of knowledge about other religions.”

The more strident criticism comes from economist Shariff,who says that instead of bringing Muslims to the mainstream — “the main theme of the report” — the government’s way was community-specific. “While the Centre now keeps talking of mainstreaming,it is the government which has fundamentally picked and tried to implement things in a sectional,community-specific way.”

Pointing out that the report argued for “mainstreaming Muslims”,Dr Shariff adds: “They only talk of madrasa modernisation,when our figures show clearly that only 4 per cent of Muslims go to madrasas and maktabs. We wanted Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan benefits to flow to Muslims,not plans to fix madrasas. How can the Ministry for Minority affairs be tasked with managing this?

“Even in finance,the Ministry of Finance has to ensure that Muslim businesses get loans fairly. How can Muslims be expected to approach the National Minorities Development Fund for this? Our point was that Muslims should get an equitable fair share in finance,education and health services. The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and the Diversity Index were proposals to try and look at Muslims along with other social groups. There is no movement on that,and to now say,as the Central government is,that the EOC will only concern itself with Muslims is ghettoisation.”

Echoing Shariff,another member of the Sachar panel,economist Dr Rakesh Basant,says: “The UPA has not only picked up recommendations in isolation,but has also highlighted the community-specific programmes and their implementation in its election manifesto and other communications. Apparently,the mainstreaming measures recommended by the Sachar Committee had much less political utility.”

He points out that experience shows that such minority-specific programmes are not only generally under-funded and uncoordinated but also unlikely to have a significant impact on minorities.

Basant feels that the basic mistake made by the government was making the Ministry of Minority Affairs the nodal agency for implementing the Sachar Committee recommendations. “Most of the recommendations of the Sachar Committee favour general programmes with better inclusion of all under-privileged groups,including Muslims,rather than Muslim-specific programmes. The policy-making and implementation task should lie with a general ministry,such as the Ministry of Home or Finance.”

A fourth member of the Sachar panel,sociologist Prof T K Ooommen,says that committes have been constituted,reports received,but nothing has changed on the ground. “No big,structural,change-inducing policy has been introduced.”

Oommen and others also say there is a problem with simply identifying districts with high minority concentrations and showering them with polytechnics,schools and facilities. With Muslims spread everywhere,this means often a large number elsewhere end up being simply bypassed.

“We can’t just segment certain concentration areas which may have high percentages but even taken together not significantly touch lives of poor and backward Muslims,” adds Shariff.