Poverty of India’s Muslims
NGOs working among the Muslims in India are filling the space left vacant by the state but they remain isolated despite the dream of a new India by 2022 held out by the Narendra Modi government, former vice president Hamid Ansari said.
Ansari made this comment in his keynote address at the launch of the book, Working with Muslims: Beyond Burqa and Triple Talaq, written by Farah Naqvi in collaboration with NGO Sadbhavna Trust.
“They are often working on small budgets and are playing the role of a functioning state by providing development opportunities focused on health, education and employment.
“India’s Muslim citizens constitute 14.2% of the population, number around 189 million, are geographically dispersed, are not homogeneous, do have castes or caste-like structure among them, and are afflicted like many others in the rest of the citizen body by deprivation and under-development. In addition, they specifically suffer from identity-based discrimination and sporadic violence,” he said.
Quoting from the book, he said there was an urgent need to provide Muslims with developmental opportunities by “embracing the problem, politically, socially and economically”.
“Big segments of the Muslim community are basically poor and powerless and do not have access to amenities and opportunities. The state and its citizens therefore need to see this development gap and not build sectarian walls around progress,” he said, citing the book.
The release was followed by a conversation among noted journalist Siddharth Varadrajan, activist and columnist Harsh Mander, activist Madhavi Kuckreja and researcher Hilal Ahmed.
Giving an introduction to the book, Naqvi said the book was about the issues which mainstream politics should be about, but unfortunately was not − health, education and livelihood.
She said that the “voluntary sector”, or NGOs, could not be a substitute for the state, but still it was crucial.