|
Community
Workshop on
Awareness and Capacity Building for Minority
Date: 23rd February 2011
Venue: Sarvodaya, St. Pius College Campus, Goregaon (E),
Mumbai.
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS)
organized one-day community workshop for the empowerment
of and capacity building for the minority community. In
democracy, it is a vital requirement to safeguard the
minority rights and therefore, the major purpose of this
workshop is to create awareness amongst the members of
minority community, most particularly Muslims, about the
emerging initiatives to restore their capacity.
Participants
 were
mainly from the major organizations viz Bhartiya Muslim
Mahila Andolan (BMMA) and Huqooq ul Niswa, Jai
Maharashtra Mahila Mandal, Committee for the Right to
Housing (CRH) and Society for Educational and Welfare
Association (SEWA). They are mainly based in Kherwadi
and Behrampada (Bandra East) which is not only Muslim
ghettoized but also backward in terms of poverty and
mostly slum-dwellers. Total 50 participants attended
this workshop out of which majority were women activist
and there were four male participants.
Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, in his inaugural lecture, shed
light on the contemporary realities and deprivation of
backward section of India’s population particularly
Muslims. He was particularly scathing on his criticism
about the failure of Indian democracy and constitution
in guaranteeing equal status and economic rights to
Muslims and poorer sections of India. He said that
though Indian Prime Minister is an honest person but due
to his emphasis upon globalization he is not being able
to see the repercussion of the economic policies upon
the common masses in India. The inflation is rising high
and because of that poorer section of the society is not
able to meet the expenditure for two square meals a day.
On top of it Prime Minister is not able to feel the pain
of common masses. According to him unrestrained
globalization is not good for the country or for the
poorer section of society. Since majority of Muslims are
from artisan class and are involved in jobs like helper
and technicians due to globalizations these sections
halve suffered much and indirectly this has led to the
mass deprivation of Muslims in India further pushing
them down the scale of economic growth of India.
Secondly he said that corruption has become rampant in
India which is also causing innumerable damage to Indian
society. Due to this the government is not able to
deliver the various welfare schemes to the poorer
section of Indian society. The poorer section of Indian
society has not been empowered during the sixty years of
independence due to faulty economic policies and
corruption.
Dr. Engineer claimed that due to faulty economic
policies, corruption and the development of vested
interest groups in Indian democracy, benefits of various
governmental schemes have not been able to reach to the
poorer section of Indian population. Though during the
sixty years country has progressed much
 but
benefits of the economic growth have been limited to
elite and middle class and it has not trickled down to
poorest section of society. Due to this, the benefits of
economic growth have been hijacked by elite and middle
classes in India. With the help of Indian bureaucracy
the rich and powerful in Indian society are nearly
controlling all the resources of the country and in the
process they have ensured the deprivation of
economically weaker section of society. In this regard
he cited an example that how many students from Muslims
go to premier educational institutions in the country.
According to him though Indian constitution has given
equal rights to every citizen of the country but the
faulty Indian democratic process has obstructed the
growth of equal economic opportunities to each and every
citizen of the country. So according to him Indian
constitution present an ideal picture of equal rights to
its entire citizen but on practical plane this has never
been realized during the sixty years of our republic.
Dr. Engineer while throwing the light upon the Sachchar
and Rangnath Mishra Commission Reports said that from
all social and economic indexes available in the country
the position of Muslims in India have become worse than
Dalits. This is the reason the government of India
appointed these commissions to ameliorate the conditions
of Muslims in India. But he doubted whether the
government will ever be able to table the Rangnath
Mishra Commission report in the parliament seeing the
position of BJP in this regard. According to him it
looks highly unlikely that government will ever be able
to implement the recommendations of these commissions in
its letter and spirit. Seeing the inability of the
government in implementing the reports of these
commissions in India now what is the way out? According
to him the only thing Muslims in India can do now is
that Prime Minister has announced various schemes for
the development of Muslims community in India. Muslims
must take benefits of the
 Prime
Minister 15 point programme and various Maulana Azad’s
schemes regarding educational loans and small loans for
the economic development of the Muslim community. In
this regard if they do not get benefit from these
schemes due to corruption and nepotism then he
recommended to women that they should agitate and go for
dharna and procession for getting their due. He
gave an example of Egypt in this regards that how one
girl through face book has been able to bring about
revolution there. So if women of Muslims community want
they can also bring revolutionary changes in the lives
of Muslims in India but it will come only through their
hard work like fighting against nepotism and corruption.
And this they can achieve only through peaceful
agitations.
Dr. Engineer was of the view that there are numerous
schemes for Muslims in India by the government but they
do not reach to the target group. There are tough
problems at the implementation stage. There are biases
and prejudice among the bureaucrats and officials of the
government of India who often prove to be stumbling
blocks in the implementation of the various government
schemes meant for Muslims. To counter this problem
Muslims have to be extra vigilant and active. First they
should be armed with the information regarding the
various schemes meant for Muslims. Secondly they should
be able to point out that what factor is responsible for
non-implementation of the schemes of the Muslims.
Thirdly if the officials do not listen to them then they
should be ready for peaceful agitations of every kind.
According to him only through agitations they will be
able to get their due rights in India.
During the lecture he also emphasized the need for
Muslim women’s participation in the economic growth of
the country. He said that Muslim women must come
forward, educate themselves and be ready for fighting
the discriminatory attitude of government officials and
bureaucrats who are proving to be hindrance in
implementing the various government schemes meant for
women in generals and Muslim women in particular.
Regarding castism in India Dr. engineer was of the
opinion that despite the constitutional guarantees of
equal status to every citizen of India the institution
and values of castism continues in India. This
institution is particularly secular in its way because
it exists in all religious communities in India. On this
point he was very critical of Indian social values and
religious institutions which have been responsible for
the persistence of casteism in India. According to him
the untouchables and scavenger class in India have not
been able to achieve an equal status in the society. And
this is a blot on Indian democratic set up. Even Muslims
are not free from the institution of casteism in India.
Despite the claims of Islam as a religion which believe
in the value of equality to all human beings but the
concept of lower and upper caste in Indian Islam as
Ajlaf and Ashraf challenge the sanctity of
this notion. During his references about the persistence
of casteism in Indian Muslims he also emphasized upon
the fact that for the partition of India it is the elite
Muslims (Ashraf) who are responsible. Majority of
Muslims and particularly lower class Muslims are not at
all responsible for the partition of India. Regarding
the Sachar Commission’s report about the percentage of
backward caste among Muslims in India as 42% he said
that they are more than 80% of Muslim population in
India. According to him even in the backward sections of
Muslims who they have got reservation in government
jobs, it is the non Muslims backward caste that captures
most of the reservation seats and very few Muslims get a
job in this category.
Dr. Engineer suggested that there is a need to change
the educational curriculum of India. According to him
the educational set up in the country perpetuate values
and notions which are helpful in promoting and
protecting the interests of elite and middle class in
India. He was of the view that time has come to evaluate
the achievements of Indian democracy as far as poorer
and deprived section of society is concerned. This theme
is important from the point of view of mapping out
economic growth pattern among deprived sections of
Indian population from different religious groups. The
educational and economic opportunities have not been
even to Muslims and backward section of Indian society.
The critical analysis will help in knowing about the
appropriation of major portion of economic progress by
elite and middle class which in turn will help in the
formulation of policies for making the benefits of
economic growth available to the poorer section of
society also. Overall Dr. Engineer’s inaugural lecture
was a reminder about the failure of Indian constitution
and democracy in delivering, economic, social and
educational justice to deprived sections of Indian
population. According to him corruption, casteism and
communalism are the major threat of Indian
society.
After Dr. Engineer’s lecture Mr. Anwar Hussain spoke on
‘Prime Minister’s 15 Point programme. He mainly
emphasized upon the implementation aspects of the
programme. During the lecture he said that though there
are various schemes of government of India but Muslims
are not aware of these schemes. These schemes that are
meant for Muslims never see the light of the day.
Plainly speaking they just do not see the light of the
day. He recommended to the women who were present during
the workshop that the immediate task before them is to
first know the details about different schemes of the
government of India and then pin point the reasons why
they are not being implemented by the officials of the
government of India. After investigating the reasons if
they find that officials and local leaders are
non-cooperative then they should go for peaceful
agitations for this. According to him, for the
implementations of the various schemes for Muslims,
there is a dire need to create a pressure group that
would be always active and ready to fight for the cause
of the minorities.
Throughout the lecture Mr. Anwar Hussain was very
categorical about creating the pressure groups among
Muslim community for the redressal of the grievances and
implementations of the schemes. He said to the women
present in the workshop that if a girl of 26 years can
bring revolution in Egypt then why they cannot bring
revolutionary changes in the attitude of politicians and
bureaucrats. They can do it if they have the will. Women
attending our workshop also agreed with him that they
are ready to face various challenges by the officials
and bureaucrats who are totally hostile for the
implementations of various government schemes meant for
them. Some of them said that they are successful in
getting some of their demands met when took to the
course of agitations. Among the audience everybody
agreed that without taking the recourse of agitations it
is very difficult to get the demands or schemes of
Muslims implemented. He during the lecture gave various
schemes announced by the Prime Minister of India for the
upliftment of Muslims. But they demanded that they want
to get information regarding this translated in Urdu and
Hindi as Mr. Anwar said that without the translations of
these documents into these language people will not be
having any idea about these schemes. According to him
the first step in implementations of the various schemes
meant for Muslim is to have full information regarding
this. Since most of the Muslim community is illiterate
so they can only read Hindi or Urdu so the information
regarding these schemes must be available in these
languages in order to reach out to all the sections of
Muslim population throughout the country.
An official from Maulana Azad Minority Finance and
Development Corporation (MAMFDC) Neumat Shaikh spoke on
the role of MAMFDC for the empowerment of Minority. He
had thrown lights on the various schemes and loans for
minority under MAMFDC and how to avail it. He encouraged
all the participants that Minority most particularly
Muslims should not be deprived of higher education
because of economic constraints as MAMFDC has undertaken
this task. It is a vital duty of MAMFDC to provide loans
to minority students aspiring to attain MBBS, B.Ed and
other professional courses. Further more, business loans
will be also given to minority, and women can also take
loan for Self Help Group (SHG) which is an effort
towards women empowerment. However, participants
asserted strongly that despite such assurance, they are
waiting for years to obtain these loans. They showed
their grievances to him and he accepted some of the
loopholes in the bureaucratic level and emphasized on
their strong will to get back the benefits.
Shazia Shaikh delivered talk on Educational and Economic
Empowerment for Muslim girls. She pointed out
patriarchal family structure amongst Muslims and it is
primarily woman who is major instrument of patriarchy
who discourages Muslim girls to get education
particularly higher education. They are the one who
discriminated between girls and boys starting from the
primary level, however, Islam strongly supports right of
women to get education and right to earn. During the age
of Prophet and after that, Muslim women were highly
empowered. They were scholars, jurist, poet and artisan
etc. so what stopped contemporary Muslim women to march
towards higher ambitions and goals. The Fatwa pronounced
by Deoband that it is not lawful for Muslim women to
work in government and private offices is highly
unethical and perceived as a major obstacle in the way
of Muslim women. However, Fatwa is merely legal opinion
and is not binding The Muslim society so far failed to
provide viable atmosphere to Muslim girls and instead
restricted her so much in the name of religion. However,
this is very wrong notion. One must understand Islam
truly to recognize rights of women in Islam. Education
and economic empowerment is not only their social rights
but religious rights too. Our society needs more
participation of Muslim women but the family hurdle is
the major problem which should be tackled firstly to
restore their rights and empower them fully.
The last session was interaction with the participants
and they pointed out various questions which emerged
from the first session to last session. They thanked Dr.
Engineer for enlightening them. They realized their
important role to fight for their rights. They also
thank us for sensitizing them on various important
issues, and especially on the role of Muslim women in
bringing about serious change in the society. Mr. Anwar
Hussain concluded the workshop with vote of thanks.
| 
