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Mumbai, October, 2014: The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday promised to provide 10% reservation for Muslims in Maharashtra, honour for Urdu language and formation of Wakf Law Protection and Development Corporation as part of its manifesto released for forthcoming October 15 assembly polls.

The SP has fielded 24 candidates from across Maharashtra.

Other important promises in the manifesto include reservations for Muslim women and children, steps for improvement of power loom sector (which sees large scale employment of Muslims), conservation and protection of Wakf properties, judicial inquiry into fake encounters, adequate compensation to police personnel, protection of civil and human rights, religious freedom, additional compensation to families of victims of communal violence and terror attacks, strict implementation of Prevention of Atrocities Against SC/ST Act and revival of Ismail Yusuf College, a release from SP Maharashtra spokesperson Abdul Kadir Chaudhary said.

SP Maharashtra president Abu Asim Azmi has always raised the issue of lower strata and underprivileged people during his assembly tenure, Chaudhary said, adding, “We tried our best to bring all secular parties together before the polls, but could not.”

The manifesto, which also promised drinking water, addressing power shortage issue, health insurance for poor and higher education at affordable fees, was released in Urdu, Marathi, Hindi and English languages. SP’s Maharashtra vice president and head of the Scheduled Caste cell Ashok Gaikwad and Mumbai region vice president Pradeep Dixit too were present on the occasio.

Kundu Comm Report: Muslims as SC. Survey on health & background. What about Christians?

New Delhi, October, 2014: The Post Sachar Evaluation Committee headed by Prof. Amitabh Kundu presented its final report to Dr. Najma A Heptulla, the Union Minister for Minorities Affairs on Thursday.

Earlier, among the important recommendations / observations of this Committee’s interim report – submitted in March 2014 – were inclusion of Muslim artisanal groups (referred to as ajlaf) as ‘Most Backward’ sub-category along with other similarly placed caste groups from other religions; inclusion of Muslims in SC category and carrying out surveys that cover the burden of acute and chronic diseases by “religion and other background characteristics.”

The Ministry of Minority Affairs had constituted this Committee under the chairmanship of Prof. Kundu of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and seven other eminent social scientists in September 2013. The mandate of the committee was to evaluate the process of implementation of Sachar Committee Report and the Prime Minister’s 15 points programme (for minorities). The committee was also asked to assess the outcome of the programmes implemented by Ministry of Minority Affairs and other Ministries and to recommend the corrective measures.

The members of this Committee visited some of the states with substantial Muslim population. The members interacted with NGOs, individuals and government departments associated with the task of implementing welfare schemes launched by the Centre to evaluate its functioning.

As per the interim report’s observation, the ST Hindus are at the bottom of the economic ladder in rural areas, followed by SC and then by Muslims, their ranking remaining unchanged over the past two decades and as also the period post adoption of SCR (socio-religious categories). The interim report (therefore) recommended that many of the Muslim artisanal groups (referred to as ajlaf by Sachar Committee) can be included in the ‘Most Backward’ sub-category along with other similarly placed caste groups from other religions.

It also recommended including Muslims in the SC category, making it legal in a manner similar to the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocity Act.

Observing that “the lower percentage of Muslim households participating in public employment programme, compared to Hindu or Christian households, suggests that any overt employment programmes are unlikely to address the problem of the Muslims – the most deprived minority in the labour market”, the Committee suggested increased participation in higher education and technical fields will help the Muslims to eventually move to better quality jobs.

“As regards the high unemployment among the youth especially among the rural females, it would be necessary to develop an environment that helps the unemployed Muslim youth relocate themselves from homes and take up the jobs in manufacturing and modern service sectors,” it said.

In the ‘health’ section, it had suggested that government surveys such as National Family Health Survey (NFHS) collecting data on health issues should collect and publish data by religion and other background characteristics. It further said, “Health surveys should cover the burden of acute and chronic diseases by religion and other background characteristics as against the current scenario where only maternal and child health indicators are considered” and added that all Muslim-concentration districts (MCDs) be made part of Annual Health Surveys (AHS) so that the impact of health and other schemes targeted at them can be tracked.

A very important observation was that the Muslims lag behind even the SCs in terms of access to amenities, and this problem needs to be addressed, irrespective of their better child health outcomes, due to community characteristics.

The overall literacy rate, school attendance rate and higher educational attainment rates are all very low among the Muslims, with never attended or currently not attending and dropout rate from education system being high, the report said and observed: “Muslim children generally drop out at a very young age, compared to the children from other SRC. At all the levels of education, OBC Muslims, however, are the most deprived group. Percentage of persons with vocational and technical training was also very low among them.

It also blamed non-availability of disaggregated data at the SRC and area levels for several schemes that makes assessment of the effectiveness of the schemes for different communities extremely difficult. “(As a consequence), it has not been possible to assess the benefits that have gone to different religious communities, and especially Muslims, barring the scholarships and Madarsa modernization schemes,” it said.

“Furthermore, due to lack of block level data, the investment meant for the minorities in MCDs has gone to non-minority concentrated blocks,” the report pointed out and welcomed the government effort at targeting minority concentrated blocks in recent years that will make the area based schemes more effective and meaningful to minorities.

A whole chapter in the interim report was devoted to Waqf properties’ management. The interim report had suggested that “waqf properties must be exempted from certain enactments to serve the greater philanthropic purposes of waqf properties through minor amendments.”

One of the important recommendations in this chapter dealt with the innumerable waqf properties, despite being a place of worship and of religious reverence, could not be touched by Waqf boards as these are declared as protected monuments under the control of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI). “These lists – of protected properties – must be annually reviewed and their conditions assessed in a joint meeting of senior officers of the ASI and the Central Waqf Council,” it had said.

The interim report also said the National Waqf Development Corporation Ltd (NAWADCO) can be given a boost by making its functioning Shariah compliant as a section of Muslims stay away from interest based projects and usurious transactions. “The corporation could work towards creating a level playing field with other Muslim welfare/affairs organisations such as the Tabung Haji of Malaysia. This would also attract investments from Muslims in large numbers strengthening the Corporation and extending larger welfare to greater number of people.”

As per mandate of the committee, it evaluated and assessed the implementation of the of the recommendations of the Sachar Committee and made suggestions for obtaining better outcome in its Final Report submitted to the Minister of Minority Affairs.

After submitting its interim report in March 2014, the Committee asked for an extension. The previous UPA government had given the extension and asked it to submit the report by September, 2014. The final report was submitted on Thursday.

“We are very happy with the very positive response from the Minister. She promised us proper implementation (of recommendations) as soon as possible,” Dr Kundu told TCN News.

- tcn

Christians slam Malaysia’s failure to prosecute Bible burning advocate

Malaysia, October, 2014: Malaysia’s main Christian group expressed outrage on Thursday over government inaction to prosecute Islamist Ibrahim Ali for his threat to burn Bibles, saying it gave carte blanche to extremists to threaten Christianity and other religions.

“The Christian Federation of Malaysia on behalf of Christians in Malaysia is outraged at the fact that threats to burn our Holy Bible are considered an act in defence of Islam,” the CFM said in a statement Thursday. “The CFM feels strongly that this position is irresponsible as it gives carte blanche or free rein to other extremists to do likewise, not just to Christians but to any other religious community that is not Muslim.”

CFM said that by “no logic or rationalisation and under no circumstances whatsoever can a threat or call to violent action, desecration of another Malaysian citizen’s sacred text be considered defensive”.

The Christian body was responding to the Malaysian government’s excuse in not prosecuting Ibrahim over his call last year to burn copies of the Bible containing the word “Allah”, saying that Ibrahim, president of the Muslim rights group Perkasa, was merely defending Islam.

Nancy Shukri, minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of law, said in a parliamentary written reply Wednesday that the police concluded that Ibrahim’s words were only directed at specific individuals, and not a threat to larger society.

“The statement he made was not intended to cause religious chaos but only to defend the sanctity of Islam,” she replied to a question by Bagan MP, Lim Guan Eng, on why Ibrahim had not been charged with sedition.

In response to this justification, Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing said “So now it is acceptable to burn the Bibles, insult believers of other faiths and do disrespectful acts in defence of the sanctity of Islam.”

“How did Malaysia arrive at this socio-religious situation?” Masing said, adding that the country’s “founding fathers would turn in their graves if they found out what is happening to Malaysia today”.

Ibrahim’s call in January last year prompted outrage from politicians and Christian groups, with critics accusing the government of double-standards in using the Sedition Act against only those who criticized the government while sparing Ibrahim over his remarks.

- the malaysian insider

Bharatiya Dalit Church in Delhi

To preach good news to the Dalits (Luke 4: 18)

Bharatiya Dalit Church (BDC) is committed to preach good news to the Dalits who are socially outcastes and economically poor.

Our Vision: Our vision is to preach to Gospel to the Dalits who are the so-called untouchables who are Constantly rejected, persecuted, shamed and driven to the fringes of the society and to restore their identity as the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27).

We try to present to the Dalits the historical Jesus as one who shared this brokenness or the Dalitness. Jesus is a true Dalit because he suffered rejection, mockery, contempt, torture and death. He not only shared the brokenness of Dalits 2000 years ago but he does so here and now in the day to day lives of the Dalits. His promise of being with us until the end of time is an assurance of his continued sharing in our Dalitness.

Jesus in his ministry totally identified himself with the Dalits of his time by serving the Samaritan Dalits whole heartedly. The dominant religious leaders of his day accused him of eating and drinking with dalits, publicans, tax collectors and sinners (MK. 2:15-16). Jesus’s attitude towards the people, the society was considered as outcastes activities (The Samaritans and women of his society could fit into this category), his mixing with them freely, his table fellowship with them demonstrated powerfully that he loved and cared for them – the Dalits. Thus he totally identifies with the Dalits of his time and continues to identify in our times.

Our Hope: The Resurrection is the tremendous sign of hope for the Dalits that they could in fact realize their dream of equality and justice. The risen Jesus is still with them encouraging them and strengthening them to continue their fight against injustice and oppression. By rising from the dead, Jesus proved that death is not the last word; evil and injustice cannot and will not have  the final victory. This gives hope to the Dalits that their struggle against injustice and oppression is not a lost battle. They will see the light of day. They will be able to rise with Jesus to a more human existence.

Our Dream: Our dream is to create a casteless society envisaged by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar where all are equal which is the kingdom of God preached by Jesus. Here women and men of good will irrespective of their caste and colour as one human family will work together to realise this dream.

Means-Restoration: Our mean is by restoring and regaining the lost identity, rich history and culture of the Dalits in an exclusive Indian Dalit way based on core Christian ethics and values.

- s. arockiyadoss