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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