New Delhi: The Sachar Committee report depicting "pathetic socio-economic conditions" of Muslims in the country faced a credibility crisis on Friday after a reputed financial daily, The Economic Times, published a survey contradicting the findings of the panel in almost every aspect.
In contrast to the Sachar panel findings, the ET study says Hindus and Muslims are not only very close when it comes to average household income, expenditure or savings, they match each other even in terms of ownership of select consumer goods.
The gap in incomes and savings is almost negligible between the two communities in rural India, the study says. "In fact, it reverses in some cases in favour of Muslims." The report is bound to raise a lot of skepticism about the findings of the Sachar Committee.
Last week, the National Sample Survey Organisation published the seventh quinquennial (occurring every five years) survey of employment and unemployment situation in India, which too indicated a near-equal situation in terms of ‘self-employment’ opportunities, worker population ratio and even in terms of unemployment rates.
The ET report, on the other hand, is based on the National Council of Applied Economic Research’s (NCAER) data analysis from its National Survey of Household Income and Expenditure (2004-05), which was led by senior fellow Rajesh Shukla.
It contends that the Sikhs are the most prosperous community in India with highest household income, expenditure and ownership of cars, two-wheelers, TV sets and refrigerators. The study puts the average annual household income (at 2004-05 prices) among the Sikhs at Rs 91,153.
Muslims do stand at the bottom as far as income is concerned, but so do the Hindus. As against an annual household income of Rs 61,423 for Hindus, the AHI for Muslims stands at Rs 58,420, for Christians at Rs 70,644 and for others at Rs 101,105.
Which means against an average daily income of Rs 168 in a Hindu household, the daily earning of a Muslim household stands at Rs 160. In rural India, however, the difference is slightly bigger as the annual household income of a Hindu household stands at is Rs 49,077 as against Rs 47,805 in a Muslim household.
The report comes at a time when the Centre was planning a sub-plan as part of the 11th Five-Year Plan proportionate to the population of Muslims on the lines of the one meant for the development of tribals in north-eastern states. The Sachar report had contended that the socio-economic status of Muslims was far behind other communities in India.
The National Household Income and Expenditure survey was based on a sample of approximately 63,000 households spread over 1,976 villages (250 districts) and 2,255 urban wards (342 towns) covering 64 National Sample Survey (NSS) regions in 24 states/UTs.
In terms of expenditure, at Rs 40,327 the average Muslim household, in fact, spends slightly more than a Hindu household, which spends Rs 40,009 a year. The spending of a Sikh household is again the highest at Rs 60,475 while the Christians stand second at Rs 45,291.
The ET report also says that at the national level, Hindu and Muslim households virtually mirror each other on ownership of a host of products — cars (5.1 per cent and 4.3 per cent ), two-wheeler (35.3 per cent and 31.3 per cent ), refrigerator (17.9 per cent and 15.9 per cent ) and radio (49.5 per cent and 51.3 per cent ). In rural India, Muslim households in fact have an edge in terms of car ownership at 2.6 per cent versus 2.4 per cent of Hindu households.
However, in terms of annual household routine expenditure as a percentage of annual household income, Muslims top the list. They spend 69 per cent of their income on routine household expenditure as against 66 per cent for Sikhs and 64 per cent for Hindus.
Comments
0 comment