Hyderabad: Echoing similar views as the Sachar Committee’s Report published in 2006, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said that the Muslims are backward in several key literary indicators. The report published by NSO reveals that the Muslims are on various yardsticks of academic marginalization, as bad as or even worse than SCs and STs.
80.6 per cent of Muslim men are literates, while the percentage is only 68.8 among women. The data is the lowest among all other religious groups, with Christian men and women are the highest literates with 88.2 per cent and 82.2 per cent respectively.
The gross attendance ratio (people attending a level of education as a proportion of the population of the corresponding age group) was the lowest for Muslims among various religious groups too. At the primary level, the GAR for Muslims was lower than SCs, STs, OBCs, Sikhs, Christians, and Hindus. At the upper primary level, Muslims were the only community whose GAR was below 90 per cent. At the secondary level, the GAR of 71.9 per cent for Muslims was lower than STs, SCs, and OBCs. Similarly, at the higher secondary level, the GAR was lowest for Muslims at 48 per cent, well below even the 52.8 per cent for Dalits.
Muslims also had the highest proportion of youth who had never enrolled in formal education. About 17 per cent of Muslim men in this age group had never been enrolled for education, which is more than for SCs and STs. Similarly, for Muslim females, this ratio was 21.9 per cent.
The Sachar Committee in 2005 highlighted the issue of Indian Muslim inequality in social, economic, and educational domains. The Committee also recommended setting up an Equal Opportunity Commission to private legal mechanism in fighting discrimination against Muslims.