 |
| Advertisement |
Hindustan Times New Delhi, August 07, 2013
 |
| Hindustan Times New Delhi, August 07, 2013 |
Ahead of
the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the UPA government is widening its minority
welfare agenda even as it anxiously waits for a Supreme Court decision on the
legality of the 4.5% reservation for backward minorities, a politically
significant step it had taken in December 2011.
In a
letter HT has seen, the Centre has asked its top law officers and the law
ministry to speedily move the top court to set up a Constitution bench, which
will examine the government’s decision to create a 4.5% share for minorities
within the 27% quota in government jobs and education for other backward
classes (OBCs). The policy was struck down by the Andhra high court in May
2012.
The
minority affairs ministry is also preparing to create an equal opportunities
commission (EOC), the much-delayed statutory anti-discriminatory panel
recommended by the November 2006 Sachar panel, which found Muslims suffering
from stark disadvantages.
“The law
ministry cleared the EOC proposal last week. We hope to bring a bill soon,”
minority affairs minister K Rahman Khan told HT.
Khan’s
ministry has also decided to bring another bill to give Wakf properties the
status of public premises as defined in the Public Premises Act, a move aimed
at freeing them from illegal occupation.
Wakf is
an Islamic endowment for charity, usually in the form of prime real estate.
According to a Rahman Khan-led parliamentary report, Wakf could generate over
R10,000 crore in potential revenue. Yet, of the 400,000 hectares of Wakf
property, nearly 300,000 remain encroached, often by government entities.
The equal
opportunities commission, like those in many multi-ethnic Western countries,
will have the powers of a civil court to investigate discrimination in jobs and
employment. It is in step with the 12th five year plan proposal for
measures to reverse discrimination felt by Muslims, a key problem hindering
social equality in India’s growth.
The
Sachar report, ordered by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, found India’s roughly
175 million Muslims at the bottom of a range of indicators, from literacy and
income to healthcare access.
For
instance, according to round 3 of India’s family health survey, births to
Muslim mothers are much less likely to take place in an equipped medical
facility and they are least likely to take iron and folic acid tablets during
pregnancy.
The
skewed indicators led the UPA government to launch ambitious schemes, mainly to
improve infrastructure and educational opportunities in so-called
minority-concentrated districts.
Although
no official study has been carried out to estimate how much progress has been
made, a study last year by the think tank Centre for Equity Studies, which
surveyed three such districts, found the programmes floundering due to poor
outreach.
The
government has now made a key change in how the schemes are administered. It
will target village-level blocks, not districts. Moreover, any district with a
minority population of 15% shall now be eligible to be counted as a
minority-concentrated district for development, down from 25%.
Before
taking over the minority affairs ministry, Rahman Khan was among a group of MPs
who had petitioned the plan panel for this change to enable better targeting of
minority clusters.
0 coment�rios: