10 years of Sachar Committee Report

January 13, 2017 January 13, 2017

In March 2005, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had constituted a seven-member High Level Committee 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 in November 30, 2006. The 403-page report had suggestions and solutions for the inclusive development of the Muslims in India.

Major Findings

The report found a range of disabilities hampering the Muslim community in the country. It placed Indian Muslims below Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes with respect to backwardness. It especially highlighted the poor representation of the community in decision making positions like the IAS, IPS and in the police.

Main Recommendations

The main recommendations made by the Sachar committee before 10 years to address the status of the Muslim community are:

Constituting an Equal Opportunity Commission to look into grievances of deprived groups such as minorities in public bodies.
Establishing a nomination procedure to increase participation of minorities in public bodies.
Creating a delimitation procedure which does not reserve constituencies with high minority population for SCs.
Establish mechanisms to link madarsas with higher secondary school board.
Improve the employment share of Muslims.
Recognise degrees offered by madarsas in defence, civil and banking examinations.
To create a National Data Bank where all relevant data for various Socio-religious communities are maintained.
UGC should evolve a system where part of the allocation to colleges and universities is linked to the diversity in the student population.

Reality Check After Ten Years

Numerous articles have appeared in newspapers on the 10th year of this report. Our current discussion is on a reality check if there has been any major changes in conditions of Indian Muslims. On ground, there have not been any major changes and in some parameters the things have worsened. Here is a brief overview:

With respect to Jobs

IAS and IPS

Sachar Committee had highlighted the need to increase the share of Muslims in IAS and IPS. The committee had recorded the share of Muslims in the IAS and IPS to be 3% and 4% respectively. However, Ten years on, as per the data of the Home Ministry, the corresponding figures increased only marginally to 3.32% and 3.19% respectively as of January 2016. An analysis of the government data shows that fall in Muslim representation in the IPS was because of a reduction in the share of Muslim promote officers in the IPS.

Police

In 2005, the share of Indian Muslims in India’s police forces is 7.63% and it fell to 6.27% in 2013. Following the deterioration, the government has stopped releasing data on police personnel broken down by religion.

Work participation

The work participation rate among Muslims has increased only marginally over the years. For men, the rate increased from 47.5% in 2001 to 49.5% in 2011. For Women, the rate increased from 14.1% in 2001 to 14.8% in 2011.

Per capita Expenditure

Analysis of the data shows that both preceding and following Sachar report, Indian Muslims have the lowest average monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) among all communities.

Population

Muslims population in India increased from 13.43% in 2001 to 14.2% in 2011. The increase of 24.69% in the population of Muslims is the smallest ever recorded between the two censuses. Similarly, the population of Muslims in urban centres too remained higher than the national average as enumerated in both Censuses.