Accusing the government of “doing nothing” to improve the situation of Muslims, women of the community have decided to write directly to the President on speedy implementation of the recommendations of Sachar Committee's report on Muslim welfare.

Around 150 Muslim women from across India recently gathered at a two-day national Consultation to discuss ways to speed up the pace of implementation of the recommendations in the Sachar Committee report, almost one-and-a-half years after it was presented to the Prime Minister.

The conference was organised by Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), Indian Social Institute and Non Governmental Organisation (NGOs).

Postcard sending

During the consultation, it was decided that each state will work on sending at least one postcard from each Muslim family to the President of India urging turning of Sachar Committee recommendations into reality.

“Despite revelations by Sachar Committee that Muslims are ranked lowest, nothing much has been done to improve their status. And women are the worst sufferers,” participants alleged. “To press our demands for entitlements and showing the impact of their denial, organisations working for the women would run postcard campaign,” they said.

Some 30 organisations working for the rights of Muslim women participated in the deliberations.

“Lack of access to education, public institutions, state schemes and jobs for Muslims continues unabated even after a year-and-a-half since the revelations by the Sachar Committee showed that Muslims are ranked lowest even among the most marginalised sections in the country,” the women said. Stressing a concerted action for the purpose, Babu Mathew of ActionAid India, a participating NGO, said: We need to establish linkages between the marginalised communities, like the tribal, dalits, Muslims, women and even the fishing community.

“It is only by creating an alliance of the marginalised that we can repel attempts to derail the struggle represented by BMMA,” he said.

BMMA, as part of their campaign, planned to take the discussion on implementation of the Sachar recommendations not only to state level, but into villages and urban slums.

Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, P V Abdul Wahab said that issues raised by the committee would only see the light of the day through a strong political campaign.