MUMBAI: Leading Muslim women academics and activists on Saturday criticised the Sachar Committee report for overlooking the specific problems of Muslim women.

Speaking at a national workshop organised here by Muslims for Secular Democracy and Communalism Combat to discuss the implementation of the report, the panel emphasised that Muslim women's problems needed to be addressed specifically and separately. They noted that there was no woman on the Sachar Committee.

Discrimination

"We are shocked that there is no mention of Muslim women in the report," said Prof. Zeenat Shaukat Ali, who teaches Islamic Studies at St. Xavier's College and is author of several books on Islam and women. "There is implicit and explicit discrimination by both the government and the community against Muslim women." Apart from lagging far behind other communities in higher education, Muslim women were "invisible" as they were predominantly employed in the informal economy. There was a lack of accurate information on Muslim women and for this an Equal Opportunities Committee ought to be set up to directly address their concerns, she said.

School dropouts

Endorsing Prof. Shaukat Ali's sentiments, Prof. Farida Lambay, Principal of the Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work and leading educationist, said that although literacy levels amongst Muslim women were steadily rising and were higher than the general female literacy levels in several States, an estimated 25 per cent of Muslim children had never been to school. The dropout rate amongst Muslim children was also much higher than the general dropout rate.

At the same time, there was an increase in the enrolment rate, even amongst Muslims and particularly amongst Muslim girls. "The value of education is being understood amongst Muslims," she said.

In the course of her work, she found that even in Bihar Muslims were enthusiastic about educating girls. However, girls tended to drop out before high school either because of insecurity, which was often enhanced at a time of communal strife, or because there were no Urdu schools available at the high school level.

Even in Maharashtra there was an acute lack of women teachers and Urdu teachers. The problems began at the pre-primary level in the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), which laid the foundation for children before they entered primary school.

There were no anganwadis that taught children in Urdu. As a result, children from Muslim households were at a disadvantage when they entered the primary level without a foundation in the language that would be their medium of instruction, she said.

Abandonment

Sherifa, an activist from Puddukotai, Tamil Nadu, spoke of the problems within the community that also needed to be addressed. She pointed out that dowry demands, unknown in the past, had become entrenched amongst Muslims. Women in the community faced destitution and abandonment. "When the Sachar Committee report came out, we women got together to discuss its implementation," she said. They felt that the question of gender justice had not been addressed. "Muslim means not only men, but also women," she said.

Apart from the women's panel, chairman of the National Minorities Commission Syed Hamid Ansari addressed the meeting. Sachar Committee member T.K. Ooman is scheduled to speak on Sunday.

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