Learning from Indian model, Community workshop on awareness and capacity building for minority

It is taken from http://www.csss-isla-com/community-workshop-goregoan-23-2-2011-report.htm, down load in April 4, 2011, at 5.45 am

Community Workshop on

Awareness and Capacity Building for Minority

Date: 23^rd 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.