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Minority (Muslim) Concentrated
District Development Plan

Without Concentration on Muslims

       

Government Welfare Schemes and reservations are two sides of same coin. The purpose is to give some advantage to the deprived sections of the society and make them at par with average national parameters. Muslims and Christians are not covered in Reservation because of religion ground. They are covered in OBC category along with other OBCs, but they dot not obtain the appropriate benefits, reason they do not have much say in political system and bureaucracy. The powerful OBC castes eat into the due share of weaker castes.


Same is the fate of welfare Schemes launched by State and Central Government. The benefit of welfare Schemes never reaches up to Muslims as per their share in the populace. The same rationale works behind it: lack of Muslim involvement in political processes and governance, absence of specialized NGOs and pressure groups to participate and coordinate at various levels, and our ignorance and unawareness at large. This gives a free hand to bureaucracy to interpret the rules and construe the guidelines in a way that is best suited for their own interests and satisfies their political bosses.

 

The Sachar Committee report became an eye opener for every one. In fact it was a white paper on the hidden discrimination employed against Muslims since independence, which pushed Muslims down to the bottom of every development parameter. Thanks to Our Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Smt. Sonia Gandhi, who took notice of this gross injustice and to put the things right, decided for implementation of the Sachar Committee recommendations. But due to the intricacies and limitations of our political system, they hesitated to provide any thing directly in the name of Muslims. Therefore area-based development plan was suggested. Rs 3,780 crores have been approved in Eleventh Five year plan for Multi-sectoral Development Plan for Minority Concentrated Districts (MCD).

 

The basic purpose of the plan is to give special attention and provide resources to these backward districts to make them at par with national average on few selected parameters. It is understood that these districts are backward because of large population of Muslim Minority living in these districts and they are backward compared to other communities. Therefore minority concentrated districts were selected. As Muslims are the largest minority in the country and they are backward too, therefore mainly Muslim concentrated districts were selected in the name of minority concentrated districts. Therefore the focus should be given to minority concentrated areas of these selected districts, and not on the selected districts as a whole, ignoring minority concentrated areas. But our past experience suggests that it is not going to happen at the implementation stage.

 

 

It is not clear who will ensure that the Minorities could be directly benefited by this scheme, because minorities are not involved at any stage: from planning to execution. Everything has been left on the mercy of State Govt. authorities. We need some assurance that minorities are directly benefited with the schemes. But no assurance has been given by any authority till date.


I, as well as other like-minded people are very much worried about the effectiveness and end result of this scheme. We know that to trim down the backwardness of the Muslims, proper and judicious utilization of this fund is essential. Even during the various meetings with P.M., Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Minister of Minority affairs and Planning Commission, we have discussed how to ascertain the effectiveness and utility of this scheme, but still it is vague and uncertain. There is every possibility that the entire scheme will rest on the mercy of the bureaucracy.

 

What is MCD (Minority Concentrated Districts)

&

MsDP (Multi-sectoral Development Plan)

 

The process of identification of minority concentration districts.

 

1. Districts with a 'substantial minority population' of at least 25% of the total population were identified in 29 States/UTs.
2. Districts having a large absolute minority population exceeding 5 lakhs and the percentage of minority population exceeding 20% but less than 25% were identified in 29 States/UTs.
3. In the six States/UTs, where a minority community is in majority, districts having 15% of minority population, other than that of the minority community in majority in that State/UT were identified.

Backwardness parameters based on census 2001

(a) Religion-specific socio-economic indicators at the district level


(i) Literacy rate
(ii) Female literacy rate
(iii) Work participation rate
(iv) Female work participation rate


(b) Basic amenities indicators at the district level


(i) Percentage of households with pucca walls;
(ii) Percentage of households with safe drinking water;
(iii) Percentage of households with electricity; and
(iv) Percentage of households with water closet latrines.
 

The selected Minority Concentrated Districts have been further classified in category “A”, “B1” and “B2”
 

     
       

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