The Sachar Committee was a seven-member High Level Committee in India established in March 2005. The committee was headed by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Rajinder Sachar.
Aim of the committee: To examine the socio-economic and educational status of the Muslim community in India. The availability of data on religion was useful in highlighting the relative deprivation of minorities.
The report highlighted a range of disabilities faced by the community.
- It placed Indian Muslims below Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in backwardness.
- It highlighted the huge mismatch between the percentage of Muslims in the population and in decision-making positions such as the IAS and IPS,
- It highlighted poor representation of the community in the police.
Sex Ratio: The sex ratio among Muslims remained better than that of India overall in both 2001 and 2011, and the percentage of Muslims living in urban centers too remained higher than the national average in both Censuses.
Civil Services: It highlighted that the percentage of Muslims in the IAS and IPS as 3% and 4% respectively.
Main recommendations of the committee
The Committee made a number of recommendations to address the status of the Muslim community in India, including:
- Set up an ‘Equal Opportunity Commission’ to look into grievances of deprived groups like minorities.
- Create a nomination procedure to increase the participation of minorities in public bodies.
- Establish a delimitation procedure that does not reserve constituencies with a high minority population for SCs.
- Increase employment share of Muslims, particularly where there is a great deal of public dealing. Work out mechanisms to link madrasas with the higher secondary school boards.
- Recognize degrees from madrasas for eligibility in defence, civil and banking examinations.
The Committee suggested that policies should “sharply focus on inclusive development and ‘mainstreaming’ of the Community while respecting diversity