Why Muslims are Down Trodden?

By

Prof. Zia-ul-Haq Husamuddin

World over Muslims are demonized by the media by
constant projection of Muslims as hate mongers and
terrorist sympathizers however the Islamophobic howling
of the media and bureaucrats is only to hide the truth.
The suffering of Muslims from around the world and the
causes and issues of Indian Muslims are mostly ignored
under the assumption that they live in a secular nation
and are over all well treated and the evidence given is of
people like Shahrukh Khan and Azim Premji. Exceptions
don’t make a rule and few of these success stories do not
represent the entire Muslim community of India on the
contrary the statistical evidence show a different story, a
story is of abject poverty, ignorance and injustice.

The Indian Muslims are poorer than the Dalits of India.

Larger portion of Muslim population in urban areas are in
less than Rs. 500 expenditure bracket. Employment rate
in government jobs is bare minimum and that too most of
the Muslims are employed at the lower levels. Muslims
account for only 3 % in the IAS, 1.8% in the IFS and 4% in
the IPS, 6 % work as police constables, 4.4 % in health
services and 6.5 % in transport. The private sector is as
well not a substantial employer of the Muslims due to
poor educational background 25 per cent of Muslim
children in the 6-14 years age group have either never
attended school or have dropped out. Expansion of
educational opportunities since Independence has not led
to a convergence of attainment levels between Muslims
and all others. Drop out rates among Muslims are higher
at the level of primary, middle and higher secondary. The
disparity in graduation attainment rates is widening since
1970s between Muslims and all other categories in both
urban and rural areas. In premier colleges only one out of
25 under-graduate students and one out of 50 post-
graduate students is a Muslim. Unemployment rate
among Muslim graduates is the highest among all socio-
religious communities. Only 3% of Muslim children among
the school going age go to Madarsas.
It is evident that the state of Muslim employment in India
is horrendous and even if drastic steps are taken to
educate and prepare Indian Muslims for Job market it will
take ages to achieve this goal and it is very unlikely to
happen because of administrative communalism and lack
of political will. There is a crisis of leadership among
Muslims and in the dog-eat-dog Indian Politics nothing
fruitful we can expect for the most deserving Muslims.
The main reason behind Muslims being down trodden is
lack of unity, ethical leadership and above all ignorance.
Then what is the solution to the economic situation of
Indian Muslims? Majority of the Muslims are self-
employed and the best way to eradicate poverty is to
help them to excel in their fields instead of changing to
uncertain path. Guiding Muslims to fill the gap of ever
growing consumerism of Indian middle class and the
need for quality products is one way out of this
stalemate. One ray of hope which is given to millions of
people world wide is by Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel
Prize winner who invented the concept to encourage
entrepreneurship among the poor. His economic
innovation led to self-employment and development of
millions of people who live now a content life free from
the shackles of poverty. Entrepreneurship can not only
solve the problem of poverty but also make the
community self-sufficient and less reliant on
governmental financial support.