The data tabulated indices for levels of education (matriculation, graduates and above), employment (workers and formal sector), economic (poverty and land holdings) between Hindu OBCs, General Muslims and Muslim OBCs, and compared them with the standard all-India average (See red line in chart).

The distance from this average red line of the various bars indicates the extent of deprivation, or deviation for that particular group, from the standard all-India average for that variable.

• For matriculation, graduation, formal sector employment, all OBCs are below the all-India average.

• When it comes to non-formal employment, poverty levels and landholdings, Hindu OBCs are better than even the national average

• Muslim OBCs fare poorer than Hindu OBCs in all categories

• General Muslims are the worst off, trailing both Hindu and Muslim OBCs.

The differentials between General Muslims and Hindu OBCs are particularly large for the poverty index, for landholdings and for employment in the formal sector. Poverty and land ownership have an impact on both the economic and social status of the communities and experts say are key variables while assessing overall status of any community, or gauging the potential for social mobility of members of that community.

As reported by this newspaper since Friday, the Sachar Committee has found that the share of Muslims in government jobs and in the lower judiciary in any state simply does not come anywhere close to their population share. The only place where Muslims can claim a share in proportion to their population is in prison. In some states like Maharashtra, the share of Muslim inmates to the total is as high as over 40 per cent (the share of Muslims in the state is just 10.6 per cent).