NEW DELHI , April 18 : The Indian NGO has said that the Indian Muslims suffer from abject multidimensional poverty and lack of resourcesconc in centrated districts in Bihar, West Bengal and Assam Indian states. The NGO report titled “Marginalisation of Muslims in Ten Minority Concentrated Districts: Bringing the Equity Question Back in the Political Discourse” was released by SPECT Foundation in New Delhi.
The report by SPECT Foundation, which surveyed 10 minority districts, also drilled holes into BJP allegations of population influx and minority appeasement. It also finds that Muslims are discriminated against in all government schemes.
The report assesses socio-economic parameters in 10 districts, which are part of the identified MsDP (Multi-sectoral Development Programme): Bihar (Araria, Purnea, Kishanganj, Katihar), Assam (Dhubri, Kokrajhar), Uttar Pradesh (Shravasti, Balarampur) and West Bengal (Malda, Murshidabad).
“What seems to escape any attention is that these districts, inundated by flood every year, suffer from abject multidimensional poverty and lack of resources. There are huge gaps in the existing structures of livelihood that diminish opportunities and shrink resources for the people of these districts. In most of these districts, data shows that the Muslim community in particular has remained even more cut off from basic resources,” the report noted.
The report found that these districts lack educational institutions, and health centres, have lower literacy rates, higher dropout rates, fewer work opportunities, and lack basic infrastructure. People in these districts do not get benefits from government schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana (PMGAY). These ten districts were also chosen in the first round because they have been particularly targeted by the BJP government.
The report also said that the conversation around the socioeconomic backwardness of the Muslim community, as well as the systemic underdevelopment of Minority Concentration Districts (MCDs) has largely disappeared from the public domain in the last 8-10 years. The current ruling dispensation, displaying an anti-Muslim bias, has turned the narrative on its head, pushing instead the baseless idea of “Muslim appeasement”. The tragic chronicle of extreme socioeconomic backwardness among Muslims has been replaced by a range of concocted narratives that stigmatise, stereotype or seek to criminalise India’s Muslim community. The report provides an overdue factual corrective.
The report made the following recommendations
1. Implement recommendations of the Ranganath Mishra Commission and Amitabh Kundu Committee.
2. Special approach recommended by the Sachar Committee for targeted reach of minorities needs to be implemented at the block and village level because within districts itself resources are distributed unevenly and developmental deficits exist at multiple levels.
3. The Central government and Niti Ayog should do fresh surveys to assess the conditions of the minority population, especially Muslims, to understand the change, improvement or deterioration since the Sachar Committee report.
4. Opposition parties should be more vocal about the systemic socioeconomic marginalisation of the Muslim community and force the Central government and BJP-led state governments to take concrete actions.
5. Secular opposition parties should stop treating Muslims as a pliant vote bank and instead be more proactive in taking concrete actions to improve the socioeconomic conditions of the Muslims in states where they hold power.
6. The opposition should be more vocal in busting the myth of “Muslim appeasement” rather than succumbing to this fallacious, prejudiced and motivated narrative.