If Muslims are worse off than Scheduled Castes when it comes to education, they significantly trail behind Other Backward Classes (OBCs) virtually across the board: education, employment, poverty levels and landholdings.

OBCs also include Muslim OBCs. (For example, Noniya, Dhuniya, Chirimar and Bhishtis etc, considered to constitute close to a half of the Muslim population although this share is a heavily disputed one).

Muslim OBCs not only trail the non-OBC Muslim (the “General Muslim”), they are worse off than Hindu OBCs in all categories.

These are among the findings from the data based on the 61st round of the NSSO survey and inputs from states. Member Secretary of the Sachar Committee economist Abusaleh Sharif told The Indian Express: “(These) NSSO statistics demonstrate general Muslims are well below the status of Hindu OBCs.”

This acquires significance given the current debate over quotas for OBCs in higher education and the political resistance to the idea of excluding quotas for a “creamy layer.”

Clarifying that his opinion was personal, Sharif, who has shared some this data in a paper with the National Knowledge Commission last month, said: “There is no time like the present, when the world wants Indians. Why don’t we want our own people? A deadly mix of prejudice and poor economic conditions have held back Muslims, poor OBCs (both Hindu and others) and SC/STs constituting large sections of the population. Unshackling the energies and talents of these groups is ultimately what the Indian miracle will need to be premised on.”

... contd.