January February 2007 
Year 13    No.122

The Rajindar Sachar Committee Report


Economy and Employment

1. Introduction

This chapter has the following inter-linked objectives:

Ø Provide a detailed account of the conditions of employment of Muslims in a comparative perspective;

Ø Explore the nature of vulnerabilities that the Community faces in the context of employment; and

Ø Identify areas of employment where policy should focus in order to improve the conditions of work for the Community.

3. Worker Population Ratios and Unemployment Rates

Worker population ratios (WPRs) for Muslims are significantly lower than for all other SRCs in rural areas but only marginally lower in urban areas. The low aggregate work participation ratios for Muslims are essentially due to much lower participation in economic activity by women in the community; while they do not differ much for males in different communities. Interestingly, work participation rates for Muslim women is much lower than even that for women belonging to upper-caste Hindu households, where there may be socio-cultural constraints to women’s work.

Overall, about 44 percent of women in the prime age group of 15-64 years in India participate in the workforce while about 85 percent of men do so. However, on an average the workforce participation rate among Muslim women is only about 25 percent. In rural areas, while about 70 percent of the Hindu women participate in the workforce only about 29 percent of the Muslim women do so. Even the upper caste Hindu women in rural areas have a higher participation rate which stands at 43 percent. The lower participation of women in rural areas is partly explained by the fact that Muslim households (and hence women) are less likely to be engaged in agriculture. The WPRs for Muslim women in urban areas are even lower (18 percent), presumably because work opportunities for women within the household are very limited. Such opportunities may be somewhat higher in rural areas with ownership (though limited) of land making participation of Muslim women somewhat higher in these areas.

One of the reasons for lower participation rates of Muslim women may be higher dependency rates due to relatively higher share of younger population in the community, resulting in women staying at home.

The daily status unemployment rates are generally not higher than 11 percent. Overall, unemployment rates are slightly higher for all Muslims (taken together), than for all Hindus but there are differences within each group. In general, within the Hindus, URs are lower for high caste Hindus than others especially the SC/ST population. Unemployment rates among Muslims (male, female, rural and urban) are lower than SCs/STs but higher than Hindu-UCs. They are also higher than Hindu-OBCs except in urban areas.

4. Distribution of Workers by Activity Status

While WPRs provide an indication of the extent of participation of a community in economic activities, the activity status describes the capacity in which workers participate in these activities. For example, a worker may be self-employed or an employee. Besides, s/he may work as an employee on salary or on a daily wage and so on. The data permits us to distinguish between the following types of activity statuses of workers:

Ø Self-employed in household enterprise as:

-- Own account worker/Employer/Unpaid family worker

Ø Regular salaried/wage employee in:

-- Public sector/Private sector

Ø Casual wage labour in:

-- Public works/Other types of work

While it is difficult to create a gradation of activity status as the earnings across these categories may vary a great deal, one can safely say that within the self-employed category, an employer is likely to be better off than the other two categories. Similarly, within employees, jobs providing regular salaries or wages would be preferred over wage based casual work. It is important to assess if Muslim workers are concentrated in specific type of activity statuses.

4.1 Concentration in Self-employment Related Activities

The most striking feature is the relatively high share of Muslim workers engaged in self-employment activity. This is particularly true in urban areas and for women workers. Taken together, the three self-employed categories constituted about 61 percent of the total Muslim workforce as compared to about 55 percent of the Hindu workers. In urban areas this share is 57 percent for Muslims and 43 percent for Hindus. Among women the share is as high as 73 percent for Muslims and 60 percent for Hindus. Within the Muslim community, the reliance on self-employment is higher for OBCs (64 percent) than for general Muslims (59 percent). Among the Hindus, while the reliance on self-employment is relatively very low for SCs/STs (43 percent), it is much higher for OBCs (51 percent) and Hindu-UCs (55 percent). Given higher participation in self-employment related activities, availability of credit presumably is more critical for Muslims than for other SRCs.

4.2 Low Participation in Salaried Jobs

As employees, Muslims generally work as casual labourers. As is the case of SC/ST workers, the participation of Muslim workers in salaried jobs (both in the public and the private sectors) is quite low. In the aggregate while 25 percent of Hindu-UC workers are engaged in regular jobs, only about 13 percent of Muslim workers are engaged in such jobs; the situation of SC/ST workers is no better. In fact, the dominance of casual work in the activity status profile of the SC/ST workers is quite stark with as many as 46 percent workers in this group engaged in such work.

Lack of access to regular jobs, especially in the public sector has been a general concern among the Muslim population. As suggested above, the conditions of Muslims with respect to regular jobs do not seem very different from those of OBC and SC/ST Hindus when one compares the aggregate estimates and those for male and female workers separately. However, distribution by activity status of workers in urban areas brings out sharply that participation of Muslims in regular jobs is quite limited as compared to even the traditionally disadvantaged SCs/STs. Only about 27 percent of the Muslim workers in urban areas are engaged in regular work while the share of such workers among SCs/STs, OBCs and Hindu-UC workers is 40, 36 and 49 percent respectively.

Regular workers can be located in smaller unorganized enterprises as well. Regular jobs in large enterprises, however, are more stable and lucrative. These jobs are generally coveted due to social security and other benefits. What proportion of regular workers in different SRCs work in government/public sector and private/public limited companies? Less than 24 percent of Muslim regular workers are employed in the public sector or in government jobs This proportion is much higher for other SRCs; while about 39 percent of the regular SC/ST workers are engaged in such jobs, the share for Hindu-UC and Hindu-OBC workers is 37 and 30 percent respectively. The shares of regular jobs in the large private enterprises (private and public limited) shows a similar pattern with Muslims having the lowest share, save Hindu SC/ST workers. These differentials are sharper in urban areas with a relatively much lower proportion of Muslim workers engaged in such jobs. The situation is similar in rural areas but the differentials across SRCs are lower. The shares of male and female regular workers in public and large private sector jobs show similar patterns. Muslim workers have the lowest shares in these coveted jobs. The large participation in government jobs by SC/ST workers stands out. This is probably the effect of the positive discrimination policy of job reservation for these groups.

4.3 Employment in the Government and the Public Sector Undertakings

Low share of Muslims in the government/public sector also gets reflected in the data shared with the Committee by various government departments and public sector undertakings (PSUs). This is analysed in greater detail in Chapter 9. Suffice it to mention here that in most of the departments and PSUs, the share of Muslim workers does not exceed 5 percent. The data from State departments and state level PSUs shows a somewhat higher representation of Muslims than at the Central level.

5. Distribution of Workers by Enterprise-Type and Location of Work

The last section showed that Muslim workers are concentrated in self-employed activities followed by casual labour and their participation in regular jobs, especially in the public/government sector, is very limited. This section provides information on the type of enterprises in which Muslim workers are concentrated. The 61st Round estimates permit us to define the following broad categories of enterprises:

-- Proprietary (with male/female proprietors)

-- Partnership (with members of the same households/or with others)

-- Government/public sector

-- Public/Private limited company

-- Others

While the government/public sector and public/private limited companies constitute the formal sector, the remaining categories constitute the informal sector. Therefore, these categories give us the informal/formal distinction and also provide better estimates of government employment. The estimates of regular jobs in the public sector referred to above did not include the casual work that is available in the government sector. In that sense, these estimates of government jobs are more inclusive.

5.1 Concentration in Informal Own Account Enterprises

Consistent with the earlier conclusion that Muslims have higher than average reliance on self-employment, the distribution of workers by enterprise type for different SRCs categories show that a significantly larger proportion of Muslim workers are engaged in small proprietary enterprises and their participation in formal sector employment is significantly less than the national average. More specifically, the estimates bring out the following interesting facets of Muslim employment:

Ø As compared to all other SRCs, a much larger proportion of Muslims (both men and women) work in self-owned proprietary enterprises. This is particularly so in urban areas.

Ø Participation of women workers in women-owned proprietary enterprises is significantly higher for Muslims. This implies that the prevalence of own account enterprises run by women is higher among Muslims than in other SRCs. However, as enterprises of Muslim women are mainly home-based, they are typically engaged in subcontracted work with low levels of earnings.

Ø Participation of Muslim workers in PSUs or with the government is the least among all SRCs. For example, among Muslim male workers, less than 6 percent are engaged in such work as against more than 10 percent for all male workers and 13 percent for all-Hindu male workers. Even the shares of OBC and SC/ST workers in such jobs are significantly higher than that for Muslims. Similar situation prevails for women workers and in both urban and rural areas.

Ø As compared to other SRCs, the participation of Muslim workers in the informal sector enterprises is much higher. For example, less than 8 percent of Muslim workers in urban areas are employed in the formal sector as compared to the national average of 21 percent. The share of Hindu OBC and SC/ST workers in such jobs in urban areas is as high as 18 and 22 percent respectively. The same pattern prevails for both male and female workers and in rural areas.

5.2 Relatively Larger Focus on Home Based Work and Street Vending

The economic vulnerability of Muslim workers engaged in informal activities is highlighted when we look at the distribution of the workforce by location of work. The fact that a larger proportion of Muslim workers work in their own enterprises located in their homes is consistent with the relatively larger reliance of Muslim workers on self-employment, a feature that has been noted earlier. Two additional insights emerge from these data. One, the share of Muslim workers engaged in street vending (especially without any fixed location) is much higher than in other SRCs; more than 12 percent of Muslim male workers are engaged in street vending as compared to the national average of less than 8 percent. Two, the percentage of women Muslim workers undertaking work within their own homes is much larger (70 percent) than for all workers (51 percent). While the larger engagement in street vending highlights the higher vulnerability of Muslim workers, concentration of Muslim women in home based work raises issues about spatial mobility and other work related constraints that women face even today. Traditional barriers, in many cases, still prevent women from going out of their homes to work. This is particularly true of Muslim women but is also true for Hindu higher caste women. This also limits the scope of work women can undertake and they often get into very exploitative subcontracting relationships. Moreover, women with responsibility for household duties (including childcare), find it difficult to work outside their homes or areas of residence.

6. Distribution of Workers by Industry Groups

We have seen so far that Muslim workers have a significantly higher concentration in informal self-employment based economic activity than other SRCs. The next issue that needs to be analysed is if Muslim workers are concentrated in specific industry groups. A few interesting differences between Muslim and other workers emerge:

Ø Participation of Muslim workers in agricultural activities is much lower than the workers of all other SRCs; less than 40 percent of Muslim workers are engaged in agriculture as compared to about 58 percent for all workers taken together. These differentials are higher among female workers (52 percent, compared to 74 percent) than male workers (36 percent, compared to 50 percent). Within the Hindu category, a much larger share of OBC and SC/ST workers are engaged in agriculture than the high-caste Hindus.

Ø While the share of Muslim workers engaged in agriculture is much lower than for other groups, their participation in manufacturing and trade (especially for males) is much higher than for other SRCs. Besides, their participation in construction work is also high.

A more detailed exploration of employment in various industrial (non-agricultural) categories shows that as compared to other SRCs, the participation of Muslim workers is relatively higher in the following manufacturing industries:

(1) Manufacture of tobacco products, especially for Muslim female workers; (more than 41 percent of the male workers engaged in the manufacture of tobacco products are Muslims; the share of Muslims in women workers in this sector is about 35 percent) and

(2) Manufacture of textiles and textile products like wearing apparel, especially for Muslim female workers (about 30 percent of the male workers engaged in the manufacture of garments, wearing apparel etc. are Muslim; the corresponding percent among women workers is 17 percent. The share of Muslims in the workers engaged in textile industry is more than 21 and 28 percent respectively for males and females.)

In addition, the participation of Muslim male workers is somewhat higher than others in the manufacture of fabricated metal products (except machinery and equipment). Among non-manufacturing industries, land transport and retail trade (especially for males) are activities where a larger proportion of Muslim workers are located than workers of other SRCs.

From the perspective of our analysis, two types of industry groups are important: (1) where a relatively large proportion of Muslim workers are located; and (2) where Muslim workers constitute a significant proportion of the total workers. Interestingly, three of the manufacturing segments identified above where the participation of Muslim workers is higher than in other SRCs are also the segments where Muslims constitute a very high share of the segments’ workforce. The shares of Muslims in the total workers engaged in the tobacco and textile/garment related industries are quite significant. The other industries where Muslims constitute a significant proportion of the workforce are: sale, repair and maintenance of motor vehicles and some segments of electrical machinery and apparatus manufacturing.

Likewise, among the non-manufacturing segments wholesale & commission trade and retail trade has a large proportion of Muslim workers, with about 22 percent of the male workers in this segment being Muslim.

Obviously, given the concentration of Muslim workers in these segments makes the growth of these segments critical to them. Are the industries where Muslims are concentrated or where they have a significant share, growth oriented? It is difficult to answer this question because even within a narrowly defined industry group Muslims may be concentrated in specific niches which may not experience growth processes that are similar to the industry group as a whole. However, we attempt below a preliminary exercise to ascertain the growth orientation of the manufacturing industry groups that are important for Muslim workers.

6.1 Participation in Growth-Oriented Industries

A key dimension of the industrial distribution of the workforce is whether workers are concentrated in industries which are "declining" or those which are on the "high growth" path.

However, employment at low levels of income in these sectors may not ensure overall well-being of the workers; this requires growth with increasing labour productivity or income per worker. In other words, the most desirable outcome is sectoral growth that generates quality employment. Following this broad argument, seven types of groups have been defined reflecting different patterns of growth. These in turn have been clubbed into three categories:

Category A: Growth industries with good quality employment

A1.Growing value added, employment and labour productivity

A2.Growing value added and labour productivity but declining employment

Category B: Growth industries with poor quality employment

B1.Growing value added and employment but declining labour productivity

B2.Growing value added but declining employment and labour productivity

Category C: Non-growth industries

C1.Growing employment but declining value added and labour productivity

C2.Growing labour productivity but declining employment and value added

C3.Declining value added, employment and labour productivity

Since a large part of Muslim workers are located in the informal sector, it makes sense to focus more on the growth based categories generated on the basis of unorganized sector data.

Overall, at the macro level, of the manufacturing sectors which are important for Muslims, wearing apparel, auto repair and electrical machinery seem to be segments where policy focus can bring in employment related dividends for the Muslim workers. Interestingly, these are also the sectors that have significant growth prospects in the economy as a whole. However, it needs to be reiterated once again that given the availability of information, we are not in the position to figure out the manufacturing sectors more precisely. And it is possible that even within these segments Muslim workers may be concentrated in areas which have not experienced adequate growth impulses. A more elaborate exercise to identify sectors where Muslims are concentrated is desirable.

6.2 Participation in Security and Defence Related Activities

Participation of Muslims in security related activities is considered to be quite important with respect to the security concerns of the Community. While it is very difficult to assess the participation of Muslims in security activities like the Police, the National Sample Survey provides data for workers engaged in "Public Order and Safety Activities" both at the state and the central government level. The available estimates show that the share of Muslims in these activities at the Central government level was only about 6 percent, while that of the Hindu-Ucs was 42 percent and both Hindu-SCs/STs and Hindu-OBCs had a share of 23 percent each. At the state level, the share of Muslims was a little higher at 7 percent while the other categories (in the same order) had shares of 37, 21 and 26 percent respectively.

The NSSO also provides estimates of workers engaged in defence activities (code 75220). The share of Muslims in the defence workers was found to be only 4 percent while that of Hindu-SCs/STs (12 percent), Hindu-OBCs (23 percent) and Hindu-UC (52 percent) was much higher. Additional data made available to the Committee also showed that the participation of Muslims in security related activities (e.g. Police) is much lower than their share in population.

7. Distribution of Workers by Occupational Status

Ø The participation of Muslim workers in production related activities and transport equipment operation is much higher than in other SRCs. About 34 percent of Muslim (all) workers are engaged in such occupations, as against 21 percent for all workers and about 19 percent for Hindu workers. Importantly, this pattern prevails for both male and female workers and in rural and urban areas.

Ø Sales work is the other occupation where the participation of Muslims is higher than other SRCs. More than 16 percent of Muslim workers were engaged as sales workers, while the national average was only about 10 percent and for Hindu workers it was about 9 percent.

Ø While the participation of Muslim workers was relatively higher in production and sales related occupations, their participation was relatively lower in professional, technical, clerical and to some extent in managerial work. This was particularly the case in urban areas.

A more detailed analysis of the occupational profiles of different SRCs shows higher than average participation of Muslim workers in the following non-agricultural occupations:

(1) Merchants and shopkeepers (especially for males and in urban areas);

(2) Sales persons and shop assistants (especially for males and in urban areas);

(3) Tailors, dress makers and the like (especially for women and in urban areas);

(4) Transport equipment operators (especially for males and in urban areas);

(5) Tobacco preparers and tobacco product makers (especially women);

(6) Spinners, weavers, knitters and dyers (especially for males and in urban areas); and

(7) Machinery fitters, assemblers and precision instrument makers (especially for males and in urban areas).

In addition, a relatively larger proportion of male workers in urban areas are engaged in carpentry related occupations and in bricklaying and construction work. Broadly, Muslims seem to be concentrated in their traditional occupations. Their participation in the professional and managerial cadre is low. This economic division of labour based on SRCs has serious implications for the overall development of the national economy. Therefore, different policies may need to be invoked for different sectors to make workers engaged in them more productive.

8. Earnings and Aspects of Employment Security

The available data clearly show that on average, Muslim regular workers are the most vulnerable of all. As compared to regular workers of other SRCs, a much larger proportion of Muslim regular workers work with:

Ø No written contract (73 percent vs 52 percent for Hindu-UC and 63 percent each for Hindu-OBCs and SCs/STs);

Ø No social security benefit (71 percent against the average of 55 percent).

Besides, fewer Muslim regular workers receive monthly salaries as compared to all other SRCs. Finally, on an average a relatively larger proportion of Muslim regular workers are on piece-rate system. Thus, even when Muslim workers are able to get into regular jobs, they are at the lower end of the ladder and their conditions of work on an average are much worse than those of regular workers of all other SRCs including SCs/STs.

The poor conditions of work are also reflected in lower earnings. It has been shown for 1999-2000 that Muslim regular workers get lower daily salary earnings in both public sector and private sector jobs than workers of most other SRCs. While Muslim men and women have lower daily earnings than Hindus in the public sector, the difference in earnings between Hindus and Muslims is much larger in the private sector. In general, the average daily earnings of Hindu-OBC workers were higher than those of Hindu-SC/ST and Muslim workers. No specific pattern emerged when the earnings of Muslim workers were compared with those of Hindu SC/ST regular workers. Finally there is hardly any difference in the daily earnings of casual wage workers by community. Thus, while in casual work there is not much difference in the wage earnings, regular job holders among Muslims draw relatively lower salaries than workers from other SRCs specially in the private sector.

One can surmise that in general Muslim men and women are in inferior jobs, such as clerical or Class IV employees, compared to the Hindu men and women even in the public sector jobs. In the private sector, the difference in earnings may only partly be due to the difference in the nature of the jobs undertaken by the two communities. A large part of the difference is likely to be due to the nature of the private sector enterprises themselves, with the Muslims being engaged in smaller informal and thereby low productivity enterprises. Such enterprises may be small workshops, where a large number of Muslim men are engaged, for example, as mechanics in garages. The women could be attached to small manufacturing enterprises. The lack of variation in casual wage earnings across SRCs is presumably because the nature of the work is very similar for all communities.

9. Inter-state Variations in Employment Conditions

The conditions of employment among Muslims vary a great deal across states. For example, we had seen at the aggregate (all-India) level that WPRs for Muslims were generally the lowest. But state specific estimates of WPRs show that participation rates are not the lowest among Muslims as compared to other SRCs in several states. These states include Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, UP and West Bengal. The more interesting differences are with regard to the industrial distribution and the activity status of the workers:

Ø Most of the states have a significantly higher share of Muslim workers in the manufacturing sector than other SRCs. The share of Muslim workers in manufacturing is particularly high in states like Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan where the share is more than 25 percent. States where Muslims have a lower share in manufacturing than other SRCs are Assam, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and Kerala.

Ø As was the case at the all-India level, Muslim workers in most states have a higher share in trade than other SRCs; although in some states other minorities have a higher share. In Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Pondicherry, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat the percentage of Muslim workers engaged in trade is particularly high with more than 20 percent workers engaged in this activity.

Ø As was the case at the all-India level, the share of urban Muslim workers engaged in self-employment is higher than other SRCs in all states except Haryana.

10. Patterns of Change in Employment Conditions Since the 1990s

The following patterns are evident:

Ø The 1990s saw a decline in the share of manufacturing workforce but there has been an uptrend in the early years of the current decade (2000-04) without compensating for the earlier loss. Such fluctuations can be seen for all SRCs but have been sharper for women workers, especially Muslims.

Ø For all-India as a whole, the share of workers engaged in trade has increased consistently during 1993-2005. While rural areas have shown a marginal rise, urban areas have shown a slight decline after 2000. Of all SRCs, the rise has been the sharpest (in terms of percentage point changes) for the Muslim male workers. Thus, in recent years, while all workers have experienced a shift in favour of trade related activities, this shift has been somewhat sharper for Muslims (especially male) workers than for others.

Ø Shares of workers engaged in administrative, executive and managerial jobs have increased for all SRCs. These shifts have been sharper in urban areas and for males but no significant differences can be observed across SRCs except that vis-à-vis others, Hindu-SCs/STs in urban areas have experienced an increase that is less sharp.

11. Summing Up

Overall, one finds that as compared to others, Muslim workers are engaged more in self-employed manufacturing and trade activities. Their participation in regular salaried jobs (especially in the government or large public and private sector enterprises) is much less than workers of other SRCs. They tend to be relatively more vulnerable in terms of conditions of work as their concentration in informal sector employment is higher and their job conditions (contract length, social security etc.) even among regular workers are less for Muslims than those of other SRCs.

It has been shown that the returns to higher levels of education are relatively high for Muslim men and women as well, though there has been a decline in the 1990s for men in rural areas and women in urban areas. In fact, the returns are higher at higher levels of education. Thus, those Muslims who cross the educational barrier tend to benefit through better incomes. Despite these high returns, the participation of Muslims in higher education is quite low. One of the reasons could be the perception that Muslims are unlikely to find regular jobs even when they get educated. The information on UPSC appointments seems to suggest that at least in these appointments this perception is incorrect; the success rates of Muslim candidates is similar, if not better, in these selections.

To explore this issue further, the Committee undertook an exploratory exercise to assess if the probability of participating in regular non-agricultural work differs across SRCs once age, location (rural/urban, state), levels of education and the economic status of the households are controlled for. The results are quite interesting:

Ø In rural areas and for male workers, the probability of being in regular non-agricultural employment is higher for SC/ST and Muslim workers as compared to all the other SRCs; probability of undertaking such jobs undertaken for SCs/STs being higher than for Muslims.

Ø Among rural female workers, the probability of undertaking regular non-agricultural employment is the highest for SC/ST workers, followed by other minorities and then the rest of the SRCs. Surprisingly, the probability of rural female workers undertaking regular non-agricultural work among Hindu-UC, Hindu-OBC and Muslims is not very different; the Hindu OBCs having a marginally higher chance of undertaking such work.

Ø Among urban male workers, the probability of Muslim workers taking up regular work is the lowest, while that of SC/ST workers is the highest. However, the probability of taking up regular work was not significantly different among Muslims, Hindu-OBCs and other minorities.

Ø Among urban female workers also, the probability of undertaking regular work is the lowest for the Muslim workers. Once again the SCs/STs have the highest probability followed by other minorities, Hindu-OBCs and Hindu-UCs.

Overall, after controlling for several individual, household and regional characteristics, the chances of Muslim workers taking up regular non-agricultural work in rural areas do not seem to be lower than for other SRCs; in fact, for women Muslim workers it is higher. In urban areas also the chances of doing such work for Muslim male workers are not very different form those of Hindu-OBCs and other minorities. However, among Muslim women workers such a possibility is significantly lower than for all other SRCs. While more work is required to explore these differences and understand reasons thereof, it needs to be noted that lower probabilities for Muslims undertaking regular work in urban areas is not necessarily a reflection of discrimination. These probabilities have been generated on the basis of data on workers who are employed and reflect job choices made by the workers. In other words, the estimates are based on data after job choices have been made. If a person chose not to apply/join a regular job, s/he has made a voluntary choice.

The discussion on the employment conditions of Muslims in India provides inputs for areas of intervention. While details of these interventions are discussed in the last chapter, a few focus areas may be flagged here. Broadly, apart from better education facilities (an issue discussed in detail in the last chapter), improvements in employment conditions of Muslims would involve a sharper focus on skill development and flow of credit in sectors where Muslim workers are concentrated and which have been more growth oriented in recent years. Since a large section of the Muslim workers are engaged in self-employment, skill development and credit related initiatives need to tailored for such groups. Since there is a large concentration of Muslim workers in specific districts, programmes that provide skill, credit, technology and market support in these areas would be critical. Possibility of area specific programmes should be explored, especially in the 58 districts where Muslims constitute more than 25 percent of the population. The main task is to enhance the productivity of the small enterprises where a large segment of the Muslim workers are located. Innovative initiatives for these enterprises might be useful. Some experiments that effectively combine modern managerial, technical and design skills with artisanal skills may require closer study to create effective intervention strategies. While such initiatives would help workers located in growth oriented industries, a ‘transition strategy’ for those who are located in stagnant industries is desirable. Such strategies can be focused around building of new skills, the demand for which is on the rise. Potential for imparting these skills both to those who have completed school education and those who have dropped out of school but have completed middle education needs to be assessed. Most existing technical training programmes require higher secondary education. Given the education levels of the Muslim youth, they are not eligible for such training. Given the school completion rates of Muslims and the significant need for skill up-gradation, provision of certain types of skill training after middle education may be useful. Reduction in minimum qualification for polytechnic type course may also be desirable.


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