The first of this two-part information sequence checked out intra-religious inequality amongst Muslims and located that they’re as unequal a society as Hindus in India. These measures of inequality don’t inform us concerning the materials well-being (or lack of it) of Muslims as an entire vis–a-vis different spiritual teams in India. An evaluation of the related numbers exhibits that they’re the poorest spiritual group within the nation. Here are 4 charts which clarify this intimately.

Muslims have the bottom asset/consumption ranges amongst main spiritual teams…

An HT evaluation of unit stage information from the most recent All India Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS) and Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) exhibits that they’ve the bottom asset and consumption ranges amongst main spiritual teams in India. Average consumption and asset values for Muslims are 87.9% and 79% of the all-India common and 87.8% and 79.3% of the common values for Hindus. Religious teams which have a inhabitants share of lower than 1% have been clubbed within the “others” class.

See Chart 1: common MPCE and asset worth for main spiritual teams in India

Which implies that they over-populate the ranks of the poor in India

There is usually loads of dog-whistling concerning the inhabitants of Muslims growing at the next tempo than different spiritual teams in India. While most such commentary is ill-informed – this was mentioned intimately in these pages (https://tinyurl.com/2mhjxnn2) — Muslims do have an overrepresentation drawback with regards to their relative share in inhabitants among the many poor. A comparability of relative share – amongst each decile class by belongings ; it principally measures the share in a given decile class divided by total share in inhabitants – exhibits that Muslims are concentrated within the backside half of India’s inhabitants and outnumber the Hindus in relative phrases in every of the underside six deciles.

See Chart 2: Relative share in asset class for main religions

Even Muslim higher castes are poorer than Hindu OBCs

A comparability of common asset/MPCE values throughout social teams amongst Hindus and Muslims exhibits this clearly. The common asset worth for non-SC/ST/OBC Muslims – they’re the non-Pasmanda Muslims – isn’t just decrease than the common worth for non-SC/ST/OBC Hindus but additionally decrease than that of Hindu OBCs, which exhibits that the claims of Muslim higher castes having fun with disproportionate financial energy are simply not true.

See Chart 3: Average asset/MPCE by social group amongst Hindus and Muslims

Poor employment and academic alternatives appear to be the first reason behind financial backwardness for Muslims

The PLFS offers information on each the standing of staff (whether or not common wage, self-employed, or informal) and the kind of enterprise (reminiscent of authorities, private and non-private restricted firms) at which a employee is employed. This exhibits that even non-SC/ST/OBC Muslims have a low share in common jobs (the common wage in such jobs is the best) in comparison with different religions. A comparability with caste teams amongst Hindus exhibits that non-SC/ST/OBC Muslims solely do higher than ST and SC Hindus. The drawback for Muslims turns into even greater if one appears to be like at their share in authorities jobs, a truth which has been identified by the Sachar Committee amongst others. To make certain, the low share of Muslims among the many higher jobs in India needn’t essentially be a results of discrimination within the hiring course of. Rather, it could possibly be the results of Muslim job-seekers lagging by way of instructional {qualifications}, which is sure to have an enormous function in employability. And positive sufficient, an HT evaluation of PLFS information exhibits that the share of individuals with a graduate or increased diploma amongst India’s Muslim labour pressure is the bottom amongst all main religions.

See Charts 4, 5, 6: Relative share of main spiritual teams in common jobs/ common govt jobs and graduates or above within the labour pressure

The numbers mentioned on this two-part information sequence clearly present that whereas Muslims don’t have an even bigger intra-community inequality drawback in India, they’re desperately in want of total instructional and financial upliftment. While there’s some advantage within the declare that such aspirations are sometimes lacking within the articulation of most Muslim politicians — a bit of Muslim political management in India has been self-serving, conservative, even communal, one can’t however ask the query whether or not or not the majoritarian flip in India’s politics has relegated the financial considerations of majority of Muslims behind their considerations over identification. Even right here, the poorest Muslims are the worst victims. To give an anecdotal instance, vigilante teams forcibly shutting down meat retailers on varied events typically harm the poorest Muslims.

This is the final of a two-part sequence taking a look at inequality inside and vis-a-vis Muslims in India. The first half checked out whether or not Muslims have the next intra-community inequality than different spiritual teams.