Conclusions of the Two-Day
Workshop on Sachar Report
Organised jointly by
Muslims for Secular Democracy
and Communalism Combat
Muslims for Secular Democracy
and Communalism Combat jointly organised a Two-Day Workshop
in Mumbai on January 27 and 28, 2007 under the banner:
Towards an All-India
“Citizens Campaign: Implement
Sachar Committee’s Recommendations”
Objectives:
-- The immediate objective was to increase public
awareness about and promote informed discussion and debate on the
findings and recommendations of the Sachar Committee;
-- The broader objective was to make a modest
contribution towards the launch of a national campaign for the
implementation of the Sachar Report.
Participants:
The
response to the workshop was extremely heartening with delegates
from Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolhapur, Sangli, Jalgaon, Malegaon, Bhiwandi,
Thane, Thane (Rural) and Mumbai. Every delegate who participated has
been active in their respective cities, districts or states in the
areas of communal harmony, community welfare and gender justice.
Themes/Resource Persons:
Please see the attached file.
Conclusions:
I.
MYTH OF ‘MUSLIM APPEASEMENT’
-
Myth of ‘Muslim Appeasement’ Exposed:
The Sachar Committee deserves compliments for having produced a
very valuable document on the Social, Economic and Educational
Status of Indian Muslims. Its findings are a shocking testimony to
six decades of institutional neglect and bias that has left the
country’s Muslims far behind other Socio-Religious Communities (SRCs)
in the areas of education, employment, access to credit, access to
social and physical infrastructure and political representation.
The Sachar Report thoroughly exposes the malicious myth of “Muslim
appeasement.”
II.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR EQUITY, IN NATIONAL INTEREST:
-
Urgent Action Needed on Major Recommendations:
The Sachar Report has rightly made numerous recommendations for
urgent governmental action to redress the problem. This is
essential not only in the interest of equity and fair
play. It is also in the national interest because no
country can hope to surge forward along a developmental path that
leaves behind 150 million people. Affirmative Action is all the
more necessary because the globalisation process that India has
embraced has little to offer to hundreds of millions of the
country’s poor. Since a large proportion of Indian Muslims are
poor as a community they are among the worst victims of the
current globalisation process.
Delegates were of the unanimous view that just as implementation of
the Mandal Commission’s recommendations marked an important landmark
in the socio-economic empowerment of OBCs, an honest implementation
of Sachar Committee’s recommendations could constitute a major
starting point in the socio-economic development and political
empowerment of India’s impoverished Muslims. For this to happen,
tokenism and piecemeal measures will not do. What is needed is
urgent action on all the major recommendations of the
Committee.
-
Inclusion of Muslims in Existing OBC Quotas and Quashing of
Discriminatory Presidential Order of 1950:
Conscious of the fact that the demand for religion-based
reservation voiced from certain quarters is bound to run into
constitutional, legal and political hurdles, the delegates
endorsed the idea of three-pronged action: implementation of those
recommendations of the Committee that stand to benefit all
segments of India’s Muslims (ashraf, ajlaf and
arzal); immediate steps for the identification and inclusion
of the other backward classes among Muslims in the OBCs so that
they benefit from the existing reservations available to OBCs; an
end to the existing de-facto and blatantly unconstitutional
religion-based reservation (Presidential Order of 1950) that
continues to deny to Muslim and Christian Dalits the reservation
benefits available to SCs/STs even as Buddhists and Sikhs amongst
SCs have subsequently been made beneficiaries of reservations.
III.
GENDER JUSTICE
-
Affirmative Action Programmes Must Focus on Muslim Women:
The Sachar Report highlights the fact that problems faced by the
Muslim community are a combination of three factors:
problems faced by all poor (a large proportion of Muslims are
poor), all minorities and specifically as Muslims. In this
context, it was felt that the Sachar Committee should have gone a
step further and specifically dealt with the plight of Muslim
women to highlight the fact that they are thrice
oppressed due to the cumulative burden of class, community and
gender bias within the community. It was readily agreed
that NO community could expect to progress or prosper if nearly
half of its total population (women) was denied the opportunity of
equal participation in the developmental process either through
official neglect or due to gender bias within the community. There
was a broad consensus that the proposed citizens campaign should
have a two-pronged focus: one, on affirmative action programmes
targeted specifically at Muslim women; two, in case of affirmative
action programmes where the intended beneficiary is the community
as a whole, every effort must be made to ensure that women enjoy
equal opportunity.
Some of the concrete suggestions in this connection were:
a.
Ensuring Muslim Women’s Adequate
Participation in the Political process:
Sachar Committee has strongly recommended that the policy
of nominations to local bodies as already in practice in AP to
ensure that minorities are not left out of the democratic process
should be adopted by other state governments. Such a policy must
contain clear provisions to ensure Muslim women too find adequate
and not just token representation in the local bodies. Across a
state, at least one-third of such nominated positions must be for
Muslim women.
b. Ensuring
Greater
Access to Education for Muslim
Girls/Women:
It is not enough to take the measures necessary to ensure that the
Muslim community as a whole has greater access to educational
opportunities. In case of government-aided educational institutions,
continued aid should be linked to proactive measures taken by such
institutions to ensure enrolment of Muslim girls/women. One-third of
the total seats should be the target initially. In case of
community-managed and community-financed institutions, too, the same
one-third target should be insisted upon. The campaign must focus
attention on the need for equal opportunities for education
of Muslim girls/women in all branches of learning and at all stages
(from primary, to post-graduation, to professional courses) of the
educational process.
c. Skills
Training and Credit Facilities:
“Skills training and credit facilities for women must include
training in a range of trades and businesses and not just limited to
the so-called traditional female activities such as tailoring etc.
d. Representation
on Wakf Boards/Jamaats:
The right of women to be represented on Wakf Boards and Jamaats, to
the extent of one-third of the total number to begin with, must be
recognised and the campaign must highlight the need for legislative
and policy changes if needed and practical measures to ensure the
practice of this principle.
IV. THE
SECURITY ISSUE
-
Developing System for Accountability of Police and Intelligence
Agencies
The Sachar Report has rightly pointed out that in any society
three issues -- identity, security and equity – are
of major concern for minorities whether religious, linguistic or
any other. Observing that while these issues are closely
inter-related, the committee had to limit its work to equity
issues given its terms of reference. While appreciating the
Committee’s constraint, the delegates were of the unanimous view
that the security issue has become a matter of paramount concern
for India’s minorities particularly after the ’92-’93 anti-Muslim
pogrom in Mumbai and the Gujarat Genocide in 2002. In view of this
it was strongly felt that governmental policies and programmes
must not be limited to piecemeal action, that the security
concerns of Muslims must be addressed simultaneously with
their equity concerns.
-
Urgent Need of Police and Structural Reforms like Independent
Board for Public Prosecutors and Time-Bound Trials:
The delegates noted that the entire criminal justice system in
India appears to be on the verge of collapse posing problems for
all citizens in general and the marginalised sections of society
in particular. The problem for Muslims is even worse given the
rampant anti-minority bias in the police force. While police
reforms are urgently needed to create a more accountable and
representative police force in the country, it was lamented that
virtually every political party in the country preferred a
politically subservient police machinery and was resisting the
Supreme Court’s directive for time-bound police reforms. The
delegates further agreed that
police reforms must go hand-in-hand with other structural reforms
including provisions for witness protection, an independent board
of public prosecutors and
time-bound trials.
V.
MONITORING & IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISMS
-
Establishment of National Data Bank and Independent Assessment and
Monitoring Board:
The delegates welcomed the Sachar Committee’s recommendations for
the setting up of a National Data Bank (the data thus collected to
be made available to the general public through a website) and an
Independent Assessment and Monitoring Authority to monitor the
inclusion and participation of disadvantaged Socio-Religious
Communities in the developmental process. While welcoming the
Committee’s recommendation for the setting up of an Equal
Opportunities Commission along the lines envisaged in UK’s
Race Relations Act, the delegates emphasised the need for a
Grievance Officer to be appointed in all public institutions
to address complaints concerning discriminatory practices in the
fields of education, employment, credit disbursals, infrastructure
creation.
-
Regular Debates on NCM Reports/ATRs in Parliament, Arming NCM with
Statutory Powers & Independent Investigation Machinery:
“The participants strongly deplored the fact that for years on end
the annual reports of the National Commission for Minorities (an
institution created by the government to monitor and safeguard the
Constitutional rights of India's minorities) have not been tabled in
Parliament! In effect, the situation of minorities has not even been
discussed and debated in the national Parliament for the last 57
years? Of equal concern is the fact that unlike the National
Commission for Human Rights, the NCM is denied an independent
investigating machinery to examine complaints of police excesses and
denial of rights to members of minority communities. The delegates
demanded that annual reports of the NCM be tabled in the Parliament
regularly along with Action Taken Reports. They also demanded that
the NCM must be immediately armed with statutory powers and an
independent investigating machinery”.
-
Representation of Muslims on Selection Boards/Panels/ Commissions:
The delegates welcomed the Committee’s recommendations that as in
case of SCs/STs, Muslims must find a place in
recruitment boards, selection panels and Union/State Public
Service commissions.
VI.
POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT
-
Rethink Delineation, Nomination of Muslims in Local Elected
Bodies:
The delegates expressed serious concern over the deliberate
delineation of Muslim majority constituencies and declaring them
as reserved seats for SCs/STs. This
effectively amounts to a conspiracy to keep
Muslims out of the democratic process. While fully
endorsing the policy of reservations for SCs/STs, the delegates
deplored the fact that this was being done at the cost of Muslims.
Agreeing with the Sachar Committee that democracy cannot be
reduced to a simple game of numbers, the delegates strongly
endorsed the Committee’s suggestion for a policy of nominations in
local elected bodies as prevalent in Andhra Pradesh to ensure the
inclusion of Muslims in the political process.
VII.
SOLUTIONS WITHIN
-
Building Mass Awareness about Community Initiatives and Wakf
Properties:
The Sachar Report has also rightly pointed to certain problems the
solution of which lies within the reach of Muslims themselves
(solutions within). Setting right the functioning of Wakf Boards
and building mass awareness about the exemplary fashion in which
community initiative has contributed to Muslim education in South
India are two issues, for example, that would be part of the
campaign.
VIII.
TOWARDS A NATIONAL CITIZENS CAMPAIGN
-
Active Campaign for Implementation of Sachar Committee's
Recommendation Required:
The delegates were unanimous in their view that given the track
record, left to themselves even self-proclaimed secular parties
cannot be relied upon to act on the recommendations of Sachar
Committee beyond tokenism. They also found it shameful that forces
hostile to Indian Muslims who for years had raised the canard of
“Muslim appeasement” are once again revving up their propaganda
machinery to peddle the same baseless charge even before the first
official step has been taken to address the issue of Muslim
neglect and anti-Muslim bias. For both these reasons, the
delegates strongly endorsed the need for and promised active
participation in a sustained nationwide
“Citizens Campaign for Implementation of Sachar Committee’s
Recommendations.”
-
Building up a ‘Citizen's Network’, Setting Up a ‘Legal Cell’ and
‘Helpline’ to Address the Security and Related Concerns:
Delegates strongly felt that while pushing for our demand that the
State must address the security concerns of Muslims
simultaneously with the implementation of the recommendations
of the Sachar Committee, certain initiatives are also needed to be
taken at the community/civil society level. A three-pronged
approach was suggested in this context:
One:
a ‘Citizens Network’ to monitor, exchange information about and plan
co-ordinated state and national level protest against police
excesses and the unlawful targeting of Muslims.
Two: a Round-the-Clock ‘Help Line’ to handle complaints
regarding police acts of omission and commission.
Three:
a ‘Legal Cell’ to handle all legal work.
That there was a crying need for action in this regard was evident
from the enthusiastic and overwhelming response from delegates to
these suggestions. In this context there was also near unanimity
that with her and her organisation’s remarkable achievements in the
area of advocacy and legal intervention to ensure justice to the
victims of the Gujarat Genocide and elsewhere, Ms. Teesta Setalvad
should be urged to lead the campaign on this front. The delegates
readily agreed that security issues generally, and instances of
state terror and police atrocities particularly, were best addressed
through secular forums. It was recognised that considerable finances
would be necessary to start such a ‘Helpline’ and ‘Legal Cell’ and
that raising funds for the purpose will have to be a collective
responsibility.
-
MSD/CC asked to Act as Apex Body in Maharashtra for Coordinating
Citizens Campaign:
The delegates urged Muslims for Secular Democracy and Communalism
Combat to take the lead in preparing the ground in Maharashtra for
the launch of the Citizens Campaign. The participants agreed to
assume organisational responsibilities for building mass awareness
and preparing the ground in the cities/districts where their work
is concentrated.
-
Needed: A Nationwide Alliance of Likeminded Organisations:
MSD and Communalism Combat were also urged to contact
like-minded groups and organisations elsewhere in the country and
seek their active participation in the proposed campaign.
It was unanimously agreed that the campaign should not and
must not be limited to Muslims alone. Right from the start the
campaign must seek out and invite the participation of all
organisations, groups and individuals committed to justice and
peace.
Delegates at the workshop propose to organise public meetings in the
coming weeks and months in their respective cities/districts to
build public opinion.
-
Mass
Circulation of Sachar Report in Summarised Form:
In order to increase mass awareness and build public opinion in
favour of the proposed campaign, the first step is to make the
over 400 pages long Sachar Report accessible in more
reader-friendly formats. Communalism Combat has already
published excerpts of the report in English (80 pages). The same
is currently being translated by Muslims for Secular Democracy in
Urdu and Hindi. Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) proposes to
translate and publish the same report in Gujarati. That is the
only first step. In the coming months, MSD proposes to produce
leaflets and posters in different languages as part of the
awareness building exercise.
-
Information Dissemination:
All the material thus generated to be posted on the websites
www.mfsd.org and
www.sabrang.com for ready access. MSD also to provide links to
all news and views relating to the Sachar Committee’s Report and
its implementation.
(Report prepared by Javed Anand in consultation with Teesta
Setalvad, Major Javed Jafri (Delhi), Major SGM Quadri (Hyderabad),
Advocate Niaz Ahmed Lodhi (Malegaon) and Mr. Abdul Hameed Nachan (Padgha/Bhiwandi)
as mandated by the workshop participants).
