K. Rahman Khan - Pleas for re-launching the Aligarh movement for the empowerment of the Muslims

Mr. K. Rahman Khan, Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha made a strong plea for re-launching the Aligarh movement for the empowerment of the Muslims. The movement needs to be launched with vigour in the backdrop of the Sachar Committee report, he said while inaugurating a two-day national seminar on ‘Minority Education in India: Issues of Access, Equity and Inclusion’ at Kennedy Auditorium organized by the Centre for Promotion of Educational and Cultural Advancement of Muslims of India, Aligarh Muslim University.

He urged the minority community to take new initiatives to address the vital issue of their educational backwardness. Muslims should not repeat the mistake of always seeking help from different quarters and crave for sympathy. They have to stick to the principle of self help if they want to change their destiny.

He also urged the Muslims to draw an agenda for the next ten years to attain self-reliance in education and serve the country through education. Muslims should plan to establish at least one University in each state in the next ten years. They should also plan towards achieving excellence in our educational institutions.

He also suggested establishing a large network of secondary schools of excellence in addition to the Government schools, i.e., at least one school for every 10,000 families. We should plan and establish skill development centers, polytechnics and technical institutions all over the country.

Mr. Khan pointed out that the Muslim community in India is not helpless. We have the resources, we have the abilities and expertise, what we lack is unity. The Muslim Community is a vibrant community and hardworking and contributing significantly for the country’s GDP growth and its contribution to GDP saving is around 10% of the total GDP savings of the country, which will be around 33 billion USD.

Salient Findings of the Scahar Committee - Social Conditions of Muslims

• A community-specific factor for low educational achievement is that muslims do not see education as necessarily translating into formal employment.
• The Muslim population shows an increasingly better sex ratio compared with other socio-religious communities.
• Infant and childhood mortality among Muslims is slightly lower than the average.
• There has been a large decline in fertility in all religious groups including Muslims.
  

Salient Findings of the Sachar Committee - Muslim Education

• The literacy rate among Muslims was 59.1% which was below the national average of 64.8%
• The mean years of schooling (MYS) is lower compared to average MYS for all children.
• 25% of Muslims children in the age of 6-14 year age group have either never attended school of have dropped out.
• Th majority of Muslims girls and boys fail in their matriculation examination or drop out before that.
• less than 4% of Muslims are graduates or diploma holders compared to about 7% of the population aged 20 years and above.
• There is strong desire and enthusiasm for education among Muslim women and girls across the board.
• Schools beyond primary level are few in Muslim localities. Exclusive schools for girls are fewer.
• Lack of hostel facilities is a limiting factor, especially for girls.
• Muslims parents are not averse to modern or mainstream education and to sending their children to affordable Government schools. They do not necessarily prefer to send children to madarsas. However, the access to government schools for Muslim children is limited.
  

Confederation of Muslim Educational Institutions of India (CMEII)

CMEII established in 2005, is committed to sustainable improvement of educational conditions of minority communities. It is a manifestation of the log-felt need for a coherent approach to address the problems of educational backwardness of deprived sections of the society. CMEII caters to serve as a common platform to address the problems faced by minority educational institutions. The aims and objectives of CEMII are summarized below:

1. Arranging and forming partnership for knowledge industry.
2. Act as a legal interface on behalf of member organisations and do legal intervention wherever and whenever necessary.
3. Facilitating FDI for qualitative promotion of knowledge industry at affordable cost.
4. Establish linkage with organizations in the field of minority education both in India and abroad.
5. Build partnership with the objective of development of educational aspects of members of CEMII.
6. Forge alliance with civil society groups to ensure the rights of members of CEMII are protected and promoted.
7. Assist in experience sharing in the field of education (Knowledge Industry) and encourage collaboration.
8. Empower people's representatives and opinion makes to present the views to obtain the rights of minority educational institutions.
9. Provide a common platform for Information, Education and Communication programs (IEC) and Advocacy for members.
10. Coordinate the efforts for achieving the rights of minority groups in the field of education and promotion backward integration with mainstream in the field of education.
11. Work to ensure transparency of government policies and programs for minority educational institutions.

United Nations and Minority Rights

United Nations, a global representative to States, aims to promote Human Rights and Fundamental freedoms for all and eliminate discrimination based on race, sex, language and religions. It acknowledges that promotion of the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic Minorities, within a democratic framework based on the rule of law are essential for the development of any society, to promote this objective the UN has promulgated various instruments such as:

• Declaration on the Rights of persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities
  On December 18,1992 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Declaration on the Rights of Minorities. The declaration instructs states to protect the identity of national, ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic minorities within their respective territories and to encourage promotion of that identity by adopting appropriate legislative and other measures.
• The universal Declaration of Human Rights.
  It stated that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
• The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
  By virtue of that all peoples have the right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
• The Declaration on the Elimination of All forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.
  It stated that every citizen has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right includes freedom to have a religion or whatever belief of his choice, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.
• The convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
  It stated that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Government's Positive Initiatives towards the Educational Backwardness of Muslims

The present dispensation is sympathetic towards our cause and certain very bold steps have been taken in the right direction. For example:

1. Creation of National commission for Minority Educational Institutions.
2. Setting up of a High Power Committee on Muslim Affairs by the Prime Minister.
3. Appointment if a Commission to decide about the reservation on the basis of social and economic backwardness of the minorities.
4. 20,000 merit-cum-means based scholarships for minority students.
5. Institution building through Maulana Azad Education Foundation whose corpus has recently been increased to Rs. 200 crore.
6. Creation of a separate ministry exclusively for Minorities.
7. Promotion of Computer literacy amongst the Urdu knowing population through NCPUL.

In addition to the above, the government has taken various other steps that can be used by us in furthering our goals.For example:

1. Sarva Skiksha Abhiyan (whic has been allocated Rs. 10,041 crore in the present budget as against Rs. 7156 crore in the previous budget)
2. Mid-day Meal Scheme, which can be used through the widespread network of Madrasas.
3. Allocated expenditure on education has been increased by 31.5% in the current budget, up to Rs. 24,115 crore.
4. Additionally, there are more than 250 schemes in the Central Government, which can directly benefit minorities.

Suggestions - To Remove Educational Backwardness of Muslims

1. Establish atleast one quality residential school, one graduation college and an ITI in each of the 120 Muslims Dominated districts.
2. Establish a minimum 10 medical, dental and other professional colleges in the next five years.
3. Make Aligarh Muslim University as the Centre of Excellence.
4. Link the Madarsas to Edusat so that open School facility and Distance Education can be used for higher learning.
5. Create more deemed Universities.
6. Strengthen the hands of Hamdard Study Centres to increase its wings so that we could give more Civil Servants to the country.
7. We must synergies with colleges in Southern India and set up similar institution in the rest of the country.The networking of all these institutions is the need of the hour. Indian Islamic Cultural Centre and organizations like Confederation of Muslim Educational Institutions of India (CMEII) are destined to play a positive role in this direction.
8. Above all We must have faith in ourselves.

Educational Backwardness of Muslims - Positive approach needed

Even after 59 years of Independence Indian Muslim remain educationally the most backward community in India a fact clearly demonstrated by the religion based census conducted recently in February - march 2001 by the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, Delhi under the Census of India Act, 1948. It is important that the community, its leaders and various political outfits in the country analyze this date and formulate a long term strategy with "Vision and Mission" for the future. As a first step, let us carry out an objective SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats) analysis of the current situation.

Our strength is in our numbers, our population that is spread evenly across the country.We are skilled especially in arts and crafts. Our strength lies in the democratic set up of the country, the rights guaranteed to us by the constitution and an independent judiciary that is there to protect these rights. Above all our strength lies in our belief in oneness.