Credit to govt’s Nai Manzil scheme for minorities

World Bank extends $50 million credit to govt’s Nai Manzil scheme for minorities

In a move to target minorities and implicitly accept some of the recommendations made by the Sachar committee to boost education and social welfare schemes, the government of India and the World Bank have signed a $50 million credit for the government’s Nai Manzil scheme.

• Launched in August last year, Nai Manzil, a central scheme, aims to address the educational and livelihood needs of minority communities in general and Muslims in particular through its educational and skill development programmes. The scheme covers people from minority communities aged etween 17 and 35 years as well as madrasa students.
• “It is more about the international recognition given by the World Bank and less about the financial help received. Now, other countries which need expertise on such programmes will look up to India as a world leader in uplifting minorities,” said Abdul Rasheed Ansari, chief of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) minority cell.
• It was in November 2006 that the Sachar committee—a high-level committee constituted to prepare a report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community in India—submitted its report to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
• The Sachar committee report found out that 25% of Muslim children in the age group of 6 to 14 years either never went to school or dropped out at some stage. The report also noted that only 3% of Muslim children go to madrasas for primary education. As for Muslims graduates, the disparity in graduate attainment rates between Muslims and other categories had been widening since 1970s, as only one out of 25 undergraduate students and one out of 50 post-graduate students in “premier colleges” were Muslims.
• To bring the religious minority at par with others, the committee had recommended the creation of an equal opportunity commission, establishing mechanisms for participation of Muslims in public bodies, providing financial support to help increase employment, and linking madrasas to the formalized education and employment structure.
• “The Sachar committee report was the first high-level report which legitimized the general assumption that Muslims were backward. No concrete action was taken for a long time and this makes the Nai Manzil scheme even more important now,” said Mirza Asmer Beg, a political science professor at the Aligarh Muslim University.
• For the government, however, this scheme borrows more from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda of “sabka vikas” than the recommendations of the Sachar committee.
• “The committee made some great recommendations and it is natural to incorporate them in this scheme. But mainly the scheme falls in line with the ideologies of our two leaders. One is our Prime Minister’s idea of ‘sabka vikas’ and second is Deen Dayal Upadhaya’s idea of ‘antodaya’ or the upliftment of the last man in the queue,” said Ansari.
• Though analysts feel that this scheme is a welcome step in terms of elevating minorities, they are apprehensive about the results it will bear.
• “It is a very good gesture and we must congratulate the government for it. For the last 60 years, minorities have been suffering in the name of appeasement, receiving nothing but lip service. However, the success of this scheme also depends on the will of the government as similar schemes have resulted in failure due to improper implementation and lack of awareness in the past,” said M. Mujtaba Khan, a political science professor at Jamia Milia Islamia University.
• Khan’s reservations stem from the review of the Madarsa Modernization Scheme—a human resource development (HRD)-ministry funded scheme—which was done one-and-half years ago. He was a part of the team which reviewed this scheme in Karnataka. “We found that due to lack of publicity, the scheme had few takers and the ones who knew about it found the enrolment process too cumbersome to apply. Also, English teaching remained one of the main problems of madrasas,” he said.
• The Nai Manzil scheme aims to address this issue. Under the scheme, certain universities are offering bridge courses for madrasa students. The degree received can then be used to enrol for higher education or for job applications.
• “The government’s focus is on educating the minorities of the country so that they don’t feel less qualified in the job market. We have opened up centres in places like Patna and Mumbai where certificate courses are being offered. The government has also tied up with universities like Jamia Milia Islamia and the Aligarh Muslim University where bridge courses are being offered to madrasa students,” said Ansari.