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The Sachar report reveals that participation of Muslims in technical and engineering education is pathetic.
The Prime Minister’s High-Level Committee headed by Justice Rajindar Sachar that looked into the social, economic and educa-tional status of the Muslim community across the country has recommended for “equi-table” distribution of available jobs in the “formal sector” for Muslims.
The Committee submitted its report to the Prime Minister on November 17.
Other important recommen-dations include making disbursal of bank credit more transparent, ensuring quality education to Muslim children while continuing with the moderni-sation of madrasas, as an interim measure and special focus on traditional employment areas of the community.
The Sachar report has revealed that in small towns, the monthly per capita expenditure of Muslims is less than that of Dalits. Also, across the states of Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the expenditure per month by Muslims is less than that of SC/STs.
There are fewer Muslim children seeking madrasa education than what is widely perceived, says the Justice Rajindar Sachar Committee. The Committee says only 4.3% of Muslim children are studying in madrasas.
In the North, 6.8% of enrolled Muslim students go to madrasas, in the South it is just 1.6%. Despite high proportion of Urdu-speaking children, the report says many states have failed to provide access to Urdu schools for the age group of 6 to 14 years. Urdu primary education is the best in Maharashtra (above 50%), but in Uttar Pradesh, which has a high Urdu-speaking population, it is virtually non-existent (less than 5%). Karnataka, with 12.2% Muslim population, offers the second-best primary education for Muslims.
“Normal secular education is the only way to satisfy increasing demand for education,” the Committee says.
Even the coverage of Integrated Child Development Scheme (0-6 years) is lowest among Muslims. In the midday meals scheme, the Muslim coverage is better than Hindu upper castes. Incidence of ‘never-attended-school’ is high-est among Muslims, while there are more SC/STs dropping out of schools compared with Muslims. Participation of Muslims in technical and engineering education is pathetic. Muslims have a better literacy rate- both in urban and rural areas compared with SC/STs. In urban areas, the literacy rate of Muslims is 70.1 per cent as against 68. 3 per cent among SC/STs and in rural areas, it is 52.7 per cent, compared with 48.9 per cent among SC/STs.
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