CALCUTTA, 14 November 2004 — Despite 15 years of Rashtriya Janata Dal rule, the economic condition of Bihar’s Muslims is still pathetic compared to Hindus, a new study has revealed.
Even today, nearly 50 percent Muslims live below the poverty line and migration from both urban and rural areas in search of livelihood is rampant underlining their vulnerability and helplessness.
The study shows that Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD, which captured power in Bihar in 1989, has done precious little for Muslims. The party won successive provincial elections thanks to its Muslims-Yadavs vote bank with Muslims playing a key role in RJD’s electoral successes.
Yet, Muslims are being forced to do poorly paid menial jobs which were once reserved for low-caste Hindus.
According to the report commissioned by Bihar State Minorities Commission, 49.5 percent of the rural Muslims and 44.8 percent urban Muslims live below the poverty line.
In contrast, 44.3 percent of Bihar’s overall rural population and 32.9 percent of the urban population lives below the poverty line.
“The wide difference proves that the poverty level among the Muslims is higher than among the general population in Bihar”, says the report compiled by the Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) for the minorities commission.
ADRI says that Bihar’s 13 million Muslims — out of the state’s population of 83 million — are in such dire straits because they are badly discriminated against when it comes to government jobs. Nearly 85 percent of Bihar’s Muslims live in the countryside. Only 15.5 percent live in towns and cities.
And because of the economic disparity between Muslims and Hindus, 41.5 percent of Muslim households in rural areas are debt-ridden, while nearly 25 percent Muslims in urban areas are indebted.
Only a fraction of Muslims — 4.1 percent and 0.4 percent in rural and urban areas respectively — have benefitted from the state government’s poverty alleviation and employment generation programs.
