As per the recent Human Development report of Assam, 2016, the Mean Year of Schooling (MYS) in Char areas of Assam is 4.76 years– lowest amongst all marginalized communities
Abdul Bari Masoud | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – “Muslims are engaged in a relatively higher percentage in self-employment (44.6 per cent) and are the lowest-represented in salaried-class employment.” This was revealed in the fifth edition of the India Exclusion Report (IXR 2018-19) released here on Tuesday by noted civil servant and activist Harsh Mander and others.
The report provides insights into the widespread forms of exclusion, discrimination, injustice and exploitation of the disadvantaged groups including Muslims in India. It sought to raise public opinion around the issue of exclusion and the questionable role of the state apparatus in alleged discriminatory practices.
After the launch of the report, Harsh Mander said the release of the report coincides with the Constitution Day – the bedrock on which India’s democracy functions, and one which supposedly guarantees justice to one and all. Giving the theoretical and political framework of the report, he said the findings about Muslims and others are in fact a sad commentary on the actions and inactions of the state from the stand point of the values enshrined in the Constitution.
Mander quoted Noam Chomsky, who said the idea of social protection was simply the idea that ‘we should take care of each other’, and explained how the same has become the ‘single most subversive idea’ in our times. “Today, in the season of fake news, indifference, and rising hate targeting sections of the minorities, the India Exclusion Report is a collective exercise in finding the truth and telling the truth, he said and quoted George Orwell as saying, “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
One is compelled to wonder whether the system is deliberately designed in a way that it damages the cause of the minorities
Mander is director of the Centre for Equity Studies which released the Exclusion Report.
He said this endeavour was started six years back as an attempt to examine the role of the state in public provisioning, and also to generate public knowledge, express concern and organise a debate on the many profound and widespread forms of exclusion, injustice and exploitation in the Indian society.
In the “Employment for All’ chapter, the authors said, “The most excluded groups, from the public good of equal access to employment, according to the study, are the SCs, STs, OBCs and Muslims, and in general the youth and women.” According to the report, Muslims in India formed a relatively larger percent of those engaged in self-employment (44.6 per cent) and they are the lowest represented in salaried-class employment. Women, as a social group in general, have recorded the largest decline in labour force participation rate in India.”
The paper on ‘Battling the Impunity’, says despite the principles and laws laid down in the Constitution, the hegemony of the Hindu majority barred minorities from effectively demanding and receiving justice in cases wherein they have been subjected to gross mistreatment and organised violence.”
It states: “Episodes of communal violence against religious minorities are characterised by two features: (1) universal impunity to aggressors belonging to the majority community, and (2) a failure to offer survivors the opportunity to restore their lives. Drawing from these observations, one understands how the applicability of Constitutional safeguards depends on individual’s identity. One is compelled to wonder whether the system is deliberately designed in a way that it damages the cause of the minority.”
DILUTING CASES – THIS WAY
It further pointed out that “Strategies employed by state bodies to dilute a case involve writing delayed and ambiguous FIRs. Similarly, the investigation carried out by the police often omits important information that are easily accessible. This supposed lack of evidence is unquestioningly accepted as sufficient justification for the premature closure of the case. The bodies often selectively delay the arrests of the aggressor from the majority community, and permit bail soon after. The aggressor may also file a “cross-case” against minority complainants and coerce them to withdraw their case.”
Navsharan Singh, one of the authors of the chapter on legal impunity, spoke of the framework of methodical subversion of justice across cities, perfected over the years by the law enforcers to shield the perpetrators. She highlighted the effects of such violence on women who continue to carry the scars of violence forever. Commenting on the tense times today, she remembered the alarm Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar raised about the “menace of Hindu Raj and the irreversible damage it can leave on the body of democracy and on all the values we uphold.”
INSIDE ASSAM
On Char (River Island) residents of Assam, which are mostly Muslims, the report says they were the mostly excluded people in the NRC. It says, “The demographic profile of the Char community consisted of Miya Muslims or Muslims of Bengali origin in a majority along with Mishing, Deori, Sonowal, Kochari, Nepali, Bengali Hindus among others.
As per the recent Human Development report of Assam, 2016, the Mean Year of Schooling (MYS) in Char areas of Assam is 4.76 years– lowest amongst all marginalized communities. The community lives without the aid of any state sponsored health care system, and has only 52 primary health centres for a population of 2.5 million. Some 91 per cent of the population does not have access to safe drinking water, they are using unfiltered flood or river water and only 1.4 per cent has access to sanitary latrines. The community faces systematic political persecution with questions being raised on their racial identity.”
Abdul Kalam Azad, who hails from Assam and is the author of the chapter on the Char dwellers, spoke of the portrait of exclusion that they face in terms of access to education, health services, livelihood or credit. He spoke of the biased attitude towards the Char dwellers, who are considered “foreigners” or “illegal migrants” – something that effectively bulldozes their privilege as citizens to have rights.
COLLABORATIVE EFFORT
The 250-page India Exclusion Report 2018-19 is a collaborative effort involving institutions and individuals working with a shared notion of social and economic equity, justice and rights. Its chapters feature circular labour migrants, waste-workers in a town in South India and out-of-school adolescents in Telangana. There is also in-depth analysis of exclusion from public goods such as food and nutrition, mobility and access to public transport, equal access to employment and justice for victims of communal violence.
Like the previous editions, the latest report also adds great value to the body of policy literature around imagining an inclusive alternative.
CONCLUSION
In his concluding remarks, Harsh Mander said the report is part of a larger collective effort of the civil society to swim against the tides of the day. Borrowing from Martin Luther King, he said that “I imagine our efforts to be like the arc of justice which seems long and laborious, but if we persevere, then it eventually will tip towards justice.”
