Muslims in Uttar Pradesh are mostly at the bottom in terms of major indicators of socio-economic development, according to a study prepared by the Centre for Development Policy and Practice and released by Asaduddin Owaisi MP.
The Muslims in UP have faced deliberate discrimination and exploitation, and all the political parties are responsible for this, Owaisi said while releasing the 76-page-report.
“The data that has come out shows that appeasement of Muslims in UP has not happened,” Owaisi said.
“Here I have data. What is the response the opponents have? Does the SP, BSP or BJP have answers to the findings in this paper?” he asks.
According to Census 2011, the population of Muslims in UP was 38.48 million which constitutes 19.25 percent of the total population of Uttar Pradesh.
Education
71.2 percent of Muslims above 15 years were educated only below the primary level in Uttar Pradesh as compared to the national average of 58.3 percent.
Regarding middle level education, only 16.8 percent of Muslims have attained it as compared to 25.5 percent of the total population.
Only 4.4 percent of Muslims have a university degree and improvement over 2009-10 figure of 2.7 percent, states the report.
Land
The report while citing a 2014-15 study, said that 48.05 percent of Muslim households in Uttar Pradesh were landless. The size of land owned was also lower for Muslim households (2.03 acres) than for Hindu households (2.63 acres). Only 1.70 percent of Muslim households owned more than 5 acres of land.
Employment
The unemployment in Muslims in Uttar Pradesh was increased by 9.95% from 2018-2019. This increased unemployment among the Muslims in UP is much higher than the national average of 7.23%.
A survey by report authors showed that Muslim entrepreneurs from UP face challenges related to access to supply of raw material, operation and production of product/services, and access to technology. Some also face discrimination from the government and other business communities.
Migration
An increasing trend in emigration among Muslims of Uttar Pradesh has been observed in recent years, according to the report.
Muslim’s account for 28.8 percent of the total emigrants from India and a large share of 51.1 percent of total Muslim emigrants are from Uttar Pradesh, according to the report.
Employment is the dominant reason for emigration across India and also from Uttar Pradesh.
Madrasa
The report also alleged that BJP regime has affected the madrasas in Uttar Pradesh.
The report refuted allegations of terrorism against some madrasas and alleged that the administrators have been asked to make video recordings of Madrasa students’ celebrations on Independence Day to prove their loyalty to India.
There are mounting external pressures on madrasas from the state, which sees them as anti-national, antiquated, and irrelevant, says the report.
The report also focuses on 21 minority concentration districts in Uttar Pradesh, identified by the Union Ministry of Minority Welfare, which are relatively backward in terms of literacy and work participation rates and availability of safe drinking water, electricity and toilet facility. As many as 14 of these districts fall in the western region of the state: Baghpat, Budaun, Bareilly, Bijnore, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, JP Nagar, Meerut, Moradabad, Muzaffarnagar, Pilibhit, Rampur, Saharanpur, and Shahjahanpur. Four of these districts are in the central region: Barabanki, Lucknow, and Lakhimpur Khiri. The remaining four districts fall in the eastern region on the Nepal border: Balrampur, Bahraich, Shravasthi, Sidharthnagar.
