RIYADH, 21 May 2007 — India’s Minister of State for Human Resource Development M.A.A. Fatmi said that his United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, which completes three years in office next week, has committed to look seriously into the problems faced by Muslims following the publication of the Sachar panel report. The UPA is also equally committed to implementing recommendations made by a high-level committee set up by the HRD Ministry in the wake of the report.

Fatmi, who heads the high-level committee to map out plans to implement the findings of the Sachar panel, said that the demand for reservation for Dalit Muslims was raised during proceedings of the meetings of the committee but it was felt that it should be referred to home and social justice ministries.

He said that several key issues do not come under the purview of the committee which was solely set up to go into the education aspects of the Sachar Committee findings.

Minister Fatmi, who has also worked in the Kingdom for nearly seven years, was speaking to Arab News in an exclusive interview here yesterday. He spoke at length about the commitment of UPA to uplift the Muslims, his HRD Ministry’s achievements in education sector, and the strong support given by Rashtriya Janata Dal led by Lalu Prasad to the Fatmi Committee. The committee has already submitted its report containing several recommendations to the government of India.

This 13-member committee headed by Fatmi was constituted with a mandate to prepare a plan of action to improve education among Muslims. Hence, the Fatmi Committee before preparing its recommendations, met a large number of Muslim MPs and NGOs working in the field of education to seek their views. Asked about the major recommendations made by the panel, Fatmi said that “the document is confidential” and refused to share the details.

He, however, said that there is a need for special allocation for education among Muslims, thrust on adult education, setting up schools and pre-school anganwadis in Muslim dominated areas and new campuses of Maulana Azad Urdu University. “In fact, decks have been cleared to set up the university’s campuses in Sambhal, Darbhanga, Patna and Bhopal,” he said.

“All madrasas should also be added to the network of Sarva Shikhsha Abhiyan,” said Fatmi, while pledging support to the madrasas.

The HRD Ministry has decided to deploy one teacher to every 40 students in over 100,000 madrasas across the country to impart modern education, said Fatmi, adding that his government will also provide midday meals to the students. The Sachar Committee had pointed out that the level of literacy among Muslims was 59.1 percent which was lower than the national level of 65.1 percent as per 2001 census.

“Hence, residential schools for girls on the lines of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas to check high dropout rates among Muslim girls and scholarships for needy Muslim students to help them pursue higher education are other necessities,” he said. Asked about the demand for reservations for Muslims in general and Dalit Muslims in particular, he said that it has been forwarded without comments to the Social Justice Ministry for action.

The issue of scheduled caste reservations in India is dealt by a presidential proclamation which defines that Dalits among Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists are eligible for quotas. There has been a longstanding demand that Dalit Muslims be extended this benefit. All these recommendations are being forwarded to the Planning Commission for special allocations on the 11th five-year plan.

Fatmi said: “We have been giving millions of dollars to the state governments to spend on elementary education under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, but states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal don’t utilize the money.”

The Indian government has also identified 700 towns with substantial Muslim populations to launch focused programs to improve their lot, said Fatmi, while counting the achievements of his government. He said that three more Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been planned to be opened in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan besides 20 IT institutes. This is the need of the hour as the report shows that Muslims in India are even more disadvantaged than low-caste Hindus.