Centre sets up 4 committees for the development of Muslim community

May 18: The centre has decided to set up four communities to look into the overall socio-economic development of the Muslim community. This might be the first step towards implementation of Sacchar committee report about Muslims in the country.

On Thursday, the Union Cabinet decided to constitute the committees â?? the structure and functions of Equal Opportunity Commission, a national data bank, education and skilled development and to identify minority-concentration districts and examine the implementation of the Sacchar committee recommendations.

•   E-mail Article
•   Printer Friendly
•   Text-Size    

Information and Broadcasting Minister P.R.Dasmunsi told media on Thursday night that the decision was taken by the cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Report entitled â??Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India,â?? submitted by Justice Sacchar was tabled in Parliament in November last year. The report brought out the harsh reality of the Muslim community and put forward the chronic status of social, economic and educational standards the community in the country.

Observers feel that this could turn out to be one of the much needed steps towards the upliftment of one of the marginalized sections of the society.

The Union cabinet has decided to set up expert groups to chalk out the structure and functions of an Equal Opportunity Commission, recommend an appropriate Diversity Index to promote diversity in living, set up a National Data Bank and focus on improving access to education to Muslim girls to remove the education backwardness.

While putting forward the objectives of the committees, Dasmunshi pointed out that an inter-ministerial group will be set up a plan and monitor implementation of a comprehensive programme for skilled development of Muslims. He said that government will try to focus on the need for skill and entrepreneurship development to help the largely self-employed Muslim population.

Ministerial group will be constituted to recommend strategies to address deficiencies in civic amenities, infrastructure and economic opportunities in 338 identified towns and cities.

In its report, Justice Sacchar had also recommended for the delimitation of the political constituencies. As rightly pointed out in the report: â??A number of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies with substantial Muslim voter population are reserved for SCs while the SC population was not high there. Contrarily, constituencies with comparatively lesser Muslim voter population remain unreserved even though they have sizeable SC population.

Observers pointed out that the development of the community can be achieved by addressing this main issue.

The community members here in the national Capital have welcomed the initiative taken by the central government and most of them are optimistic that other recommendations will be acted upon soon.