Sachar Committee

Last updated

The Sachar Committee was a seven-member high-level committee established in March 2005 by former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The committee was headed by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Rajinder Sachar to study the social, economic and educational condition of Muslims in India. The committee submitted its report in 2006 and the report was available in public domain on 30 November 2006. The 403-page report had suggestions and solutions for the inclusive development of the Muslim people in India. [1]

Contents

Background

In 2004, the Congress Party returned to power in India after having been in opposition for eight years, an unprecedented length of time for a party which had ruled the country for forty four out of fifty-seven years between 1947 and 2004. It returned to power as head of a coalition, winning 145/543 seats in the Lok Sabha. One of its initiatives was the commissioning of a report on the latest social, economic, and educational conditions of the Muslim community of India.[ citation needed ]

Composition

The committee was composed of seven members. The committee was headed by Rajinder Sachar, former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. The other members of the committee were Sayyid Hamid, M.A. Basith, Akhtar Majeed, Abu Saleh Shariff, T.K. Oommen and Rakesh Basant. The committee did not include any female members,

Report

The committee, which was appointed by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was headed by former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Rajinder Sachar, as well as six other members. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] The committee prepared a 403-page report, titled "Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India: A Report", and presented it to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, on 30 November 2006, 20 months after obtaining the terms of reference from the Prime Minister's Office. [7] This report highlighted issues facing the Muslim community and their representation in Indian public life, [8]

The report made observations on the high birthrate in the Muslim community in comparison to Hindus: the committee estimated that the Muslim proportion will stabilize at between 17% and 21% of the Indian population by 2100. [9]

The Sachar Committee highlighted and presented its suggestions on how to remove impediments those preventing Indian Muslims from fully participating in the economic, political, and social mainstream of Indian life. The report was the first of its kind to reveal the "backwardness" (a term used in Indian academic and legal discourse for historically dispossessed or economically vulnerable communities, not meant to be pejorative) of Indian Muslims. An issue highlighted was that while Muslims constitute 14% of the Indian population, they only comprise 2.5% of the Indian bureaucracy. [10] The Sachar Committee concluded that the conditions facing Indian Muslims was below that of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. [11]

The Sachar Committee Report brought the issue of Muslim Indian inequality to national attention, sparking a discussion that is still ongoing. The committee recommended setting up an Equal Opportunity Commission to provide a legal mechanism to address discrimination complaints, including in matters such as housing. [12] In response to the committee's findings, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram proposed an increase to the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation's (NMDFC) budget, citing new duties and expanded outreach that the institution would take on to implement the committee's recommendations. [13]

Implemented recommendations

Out of the 76 recommendations listed in the Sachar Committee Report, the Government of India has approved 72 recommendations which includes the approval of the Communal Violence (Preventive, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005, increasing the number of and grants for Madrasas and schools in minority concentration areas, some for girls only, increasing the allocation for the minority commission and Waqf Board, reservations and grants for Muslims, loans to Muslims, increasing the number of Muslim teachers, health and police personnel at Govt. cost, housing for Muslims, representation of minorities in local bodies, dissemination of available schemes in Urdu and so on. [14]

Methodology

The Sachar Committee used 2001 census data trty. Banking data was received from different sources such as the Reserve Bank of India, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Small Industries Development Bank of India, National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation, and the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation. Corroborative data was also obtained from government commissions and organisations such as the National Commission for Backward Classes, the State Backward Classes Commission, and the National Council of Educational Research and Training. Finally, data from other sources, including ministries, departments, public sector undertakings, universities, and colleges were used in preparing this report.[ citation needed ]

Criticism

In November 2013, Gujarat government contended before the Supreme Court that the Rajinder Sachar Committee was "unconstitutional," and that it only sought to help Muslims. It has strongly criticized the manner in which the PMO set up the Sachar Committee in 2005 to survey the socio-economic conditions of Muslims, while ignoring other religious minorities. This affidavit was filed in response to the centre's stand that the scheme was valid and that the Modi Government was to blame for the deteriorating condition of Muslims in Gujarat. [15] [16] [17]

Related Research Articles

The term pseudo-secularism is used to describe individuals who claim to be secular but may display biases towards a particular religion, whether consciously or unconsciously. This term has gained popularity in recent Indian politics, where it is often used to criticize individuals who identify as secular and advocate for minority rights while remaining silent or opposing concerns faced by the majority religion. Some Hindu nationalist parties employ this term as a counter-accusation against their critics, alleging that the secularism followed by the Indian National Congress and other self-declared secular parties are flawed or distorted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arun Jaitley</span> Indian politician and attorney (1952–2019)

Arun Jaitley was an Indian politician and attorney. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. Jaitley previously held the cabinet portfolios of Finance, Defence, Corporate Affairs, Commerce and Industry, and Law and Justice in the Vajpayee government and Narendra Modi government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in India</span>

Islam is India's second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, or approximately 172.2 million people, identifying as adherents of Islam in a 2011 census. India also has the third-largest number of Muslims in the world. The majority of India's Muslims are Sunni, with Shia making up around 15% of the Muslim population.

The Other Backward Class (OBC) is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify communities that are "educationally or socially backward". It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with general castes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The OBCs were found to comprise 52% of the country's population by the Mandal Commission report of 1980 and were determined to be 41% in 2006 when the National Sample Survey Organisation took place. There is substantial debate over the exact number of OBCs in India; it is generally estimated to be sizable, but many believe that it is higher than the figures quoted by either the Mandal Commission or the National Sample Survey.

The Mandal Commission or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission (SEBC), was established in India in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward classes" of India. It was headed by B. P. Mandal, an Indian member of parliament, to consider the question of reservations for people to address caste discrimination, and to use eleven social, economic, and educational indicators to determine backwardness. In 1980, based on its rationale that OBCs identified on the basis of caste, social, economic indicators made up 52% of India's population, the commission's report recommended that members of Other Backward Classes (OBC) be granted reservations to 27% of jobs under the central government and public sector undertakings and seats in the higher education institutions, thus making the total number of reservations for SC, ST and OBC to 49.5%.

Human rights in India is an issue complicated by the country's large size and population as well as its diverse culture, despite its status as the world's largest sovereign, secular, socialist democratic republic. The Constitution of India provides for fundamental rights, which include freedom of religion. Clauses also provide for freedom of speech, as well as separation of executive and judiciary and freedom of movement within the country and abroad. The country also has an independent judiciary as well as bodies to look into issues of human rights.

Reservation is a system of affirmative action in India created during the British rule. Based on provisions in the Indian Constitution, it allows the Union Government and the States and Territories of India to set a percentage of reserved quotas or seats, in higher education admissions, employment, political bodies, etc., for "socially and economically backward citizens".

Central Waqf Council is an Indian statutory body operated by the Government of India under the Waqf Act, a subsection of the Waqf Act, 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajinder Sachar</span> Indian judge

Rajindar Sachar was an Indian lawyer and a former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. He was a member of United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and also served as a counsel for the People's Union for Civil Liberties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Commission for Minorities</span> Indian government commission

The Union Government set up the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Six religious communities, viz; Muslims, Christians, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) have been notified in Gazette of India as minority communities by the Union Government all over India. Original notification of 1993 was for five religious communities; Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians and Muslims, later in 2014, Jains community was also added. As per Census 2001, these six communities consists of 18.8% of the country's population.

Prime Minister’s New 15 point Programme for minorities is a programme launched by Indian government for welfare of religious minorities in furtherance of reports by committees such as the Sachar Committee Report that highlighted that minorities, especially Muslims, in the country were often in a worse socio-economic and political condition than communities such as the Scheduled Casts and Scheduled tribes communities that have been oppressed over millennia through the caste system. It pegged the status of minorities on various indicators such as nutrition, health, education et al. of minorities and specially Muslims at an abysmally poor level. The 15 point program was the government's response to these finding by laying down guidelines to target minorities in schemes and entitlements that are already in place and designing and executing new schemes aimed at the empowerment of these groups. The programme advocated allocating 15% of plan outlays of welfare schemes identified under the 15 point programme. Mainly, issues of education, credit, housing, employment and communal harmony fall under its ambit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment</span> Indian government ministry responsible for affirmative action

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is a Government of India ministry. It is responsible for welfare, social justice and empowerment of disadvantaged and marginalised sections of society, including scheduled castes (SC), Other Backward Classes (OBC), LGBT people, the disabled, the elderly, and the victims of drug abuse. It also helps in the enforcement of legislation with regards to these marginalized groups to better enforce anti-discrimination policies.

Syed Zafar Mahmood is an Indian civil-servant and former 'Officer on Special Duty' for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. On March 9, 2005, the Prime Minister appointed the 'Sachar Committee' to study the "social, economic and educational status" of India's minority Muslim community. Mahmood worked with the Sachar Committee to submit its report to the Government of India within two years on November 17, 2006. He has since given numerous talks in and outside India on the topic. In his presentations at Case Western Reserve University and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government he has commented on the steps forward to bridge the economic, social and educational divide of Indian Muslims.

Rakesh Mohan is an Indian economist and former Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India. He is the Vice Chairperson of Indian Institute for Human Settlements. He was appointed in November 2012 as an executive director of the IMF for a three-year term, and in April 2010, he joined Nestlé India, as a non-executive director. He is currently a part time member of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bal Patil</span> Indian writer (1932–2011)

Bal Patil was a Jain scholar, journalist, social activist and Jain minority status advocate from Mumbai, Maharashtra. He was appointed as a member of State Minority Commission by the Govt. of Maharashtra from 2001 to 2004. He was the Secretary-General of All India Jain Minority Forum, New Delhi—a position he held until his death—and was an ardent advocate of minority status for Jainism. The Jain minority cause gained prominence when he petitioned the Supreme Court of India for the recognition of Jain religious minority status on par with other Indian minorities as per the two recommendations by the National Minorities Commission. He was also the first non-medical President of the National Society for the Prevention of Heart Disease & Rehabilitation, Mumbai. He has also authored many books on Jainism and presented several papers at various seminars and conferences.

Reservation policy in Tamil Nadu is a system of affirmative action that provides historically disadvantaged groups representation in education and employment. Reservations in the state rose from 41 percent in 1954 to 69 percent in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social Justice conference</span>

Social Justice Conference based on the theme "Build the Nation on Justice" was held at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on 26 and 27 November 2011. It was organized by Popular Front of India which is a Neo-social movement which strives for the empowerment of the weaker sections and marginalized communities with grass root level networking in many states of India. The Conference became a get together of like minded organizations and movements which strive for the common goals of justice, security and empowerment. The first day of the conference had two separate seminar sessions on the topics ‘Together for Empowerment’ and ‘People’s Right to Justice’. The second day witnessed a large flow of masses for the Grand Public Meeting

Prof. Rakesh Basant is an Indian economist and professor at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. He is the JSW Chair Professor of Innovation and Public Policy since October 2016. He was formerly a consultant with World Bank. Currently, he is the Dean, Alumni and External Relations at IIM Ahmedabad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indra Sawhney & Others v. Union of India</span> Indian public interest litigation case

Indra Sawhney & Others v. Union of India also known as the Mandal verdict was an Indian landmark public interest litigation case delivered by a 9-judge constitution bench.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farah Naqvi</span> Indian writer and feminist activist

Farah Naqvi is an Indian feminist, writer, educator, consultant, and activist known for her significant contributions to justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her work primarily addresses the equity and inclusion of marginalized groups within public policies, education, development, gender justice, and efforts to combat violence against women. In 2010, Naqvi was appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the National Advisory Council (NAC), which was chaired by Sonia Gandhi. She also co-founded Nirantar, a women's rights organization that promotes a gender and women's rights perspective in education. For her extensive work, Naqvi was honored with the Human Rights Award by the Delhi Minorities Commission in 2019.

References

  1. ↑ "10 years of Sachar Committee report". gktoday.com. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  2. ↑ Times News Network (23 December 2009). "Padmanabhaiah, Sachar, Mamata favorites for governor". Times of India . Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  3. ↑ Times News Network (3 April 2003). "PUCL urges Supreme Court to quash Pota". Times of India. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  4. ↑ Press Trust of India (2 October 2009). "Innocent people victimised during terror probes: Activists". Times of India. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  5. ↑ Khaitan, Tarunabh (10 May 2008). "Dealing with discrimination". Frontline . The Hindu Group. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 16 February 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ↑ "'Sachar Committee report is unconstitutional'". Indian Express . 27 April 2008. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  7. ↑ Clarification On the Work of Justice Rajindar Sachar Committee
  8. ↑ Zeeshan Shaikh (24 December 2016). "Ten years after Sachar Report". Indian Express. Indian Express. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  9. ↑ Daniyal, Shoaib. "Five charts that puncture the bogey of Muslim population growth". Scroll.in. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  10. ↑ Aslam, Faheem (21 March 2011). "Muslims' share 2.5% in bureaucracy, says Sachar Committee member". Greater Kashmir. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  11. ↑ "US feels India has 180m Muslims". The Times Of India. 4 September 2011.
  12. ↑ "Endemic discrimination". The Hindu. 29 May 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  13. ↑ More funds for minorities' welfare Archived 26 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ↑ "Implementation of Recommendations of Sachar Committee". Press Information Bureau. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  15. ↑ "The myth of appeasement". Indian Express. 20 April 2018.
  16. ↑ "Gujarat to Supreme Court: Sachar panel illegal, only to help Muslims". Indian Express. 28 November 2013.
  17. ↑ "Narendra Modi's shame. Muslim survivors of the Gujarat riots are still suffering". Vice. 6 May 2014.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.