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Arvind Panagariya and Megha Mukim in a World Bank’s policy research working paper released earlier in December argue that “poverty has declined steadily in all states and for all social and religious groups” in India *. In fact, a sharper decline in poverty was observed for periods of rapid economic growth in 2004-05 and 2009-10.
Economic growth has helped reduce poverty in India. The challenge now is to spread the benefits of growth evenly over the diverse Indian socio-cultural and economic fabric. The poverty landscape in India is spread unevenly across the States and amongst the social and ethnic groups. Poverty has not declined at the same pace for some religious groups, including Muslims. At the same time, the decline in poverty for scheduled castes and tribes has been faster than that for non-scheduled castes.
Panagariya and Mukim estimated the poverty rates for the 17 largest states in India. They generated separate estimates for urban and rural populations and further disaggregated their estimates for socio-economic and religious groups. They wanted to determine if the economic growth had helped reduce poverty in India. Furthermore, they wanted to ascertain if the benefits of growth were evenly distributed among the major socio-religious groups in India.
The scheduled castes and tribes have a much higher incidence of poverty than the rest in India. Consider rural India where incidence of poverty among the scheduled tribes at 30.5 per cnet in 2009-10 was almost two times that of the non-scheduled castes. At the same time, since 1983 poverty declined at a lower rate of 53 per cent for the rural scheduled castes and tribes than others.
Source: Arvind Panagariya and Megha Mukim. World Bank’s policy research working paper # 6714
Poverty amongst Indian Muslims
While India is a multi-religious, multicultural society, still Hindus comprise an overwhelming majority of 82 per cent of the population. Indian Muslims account for 12.8 per cent of the population, whereas Christians are 2.3 per cent and Sikhs are 1.7 per cent of the population. Almost 34 per cent of the 133 million Indian Muslims live in urban areas with a higher rate of urbanisation than the Hindus.
The incidence of poverty amongst Muslims in India is higher than Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs. Furthermore, Muslims in urban India experience a much higher incidence of poverty than others. The incidence of poverty in rural India is almost the same for Muslims and Hindus where nearly one in five in each community lives below the poverty line. The difference, however, is more pronounced in urban areas. Almost 34 per cent of all Muslims in urban India were below the poverty line compared to 19 per cent of Hindus. And whereas poverty for Hindus in urban India declined by 52 per cent between 1983 and 2009-10, the rate of decline for urban Muslims was much slower at 39 per cent.
Source: Arvind Panagariya and Megha Mukim. World Bank’s policy research working paper # 6714
With the exception of Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, Muslims experienced a higher rate of poverty in 2009-10 than Hindus in the remaining States in the sample.
Purveyors of the Gujarat Model beware
The State-wide breakdown of poverty for various religious groups paints a revealing picture that challenges several myths that have dominated the development discourse in India. The conventional wisdom on economic development, as is portrayed by the BJP and its sympathisers, projects the BJP-led Gujarat as the model for economic development. The statistics, however, paint a very different picture.
In 2009-10, incidence of poverty for Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat was almost twice as that for Kerala, which is a socially progressive state in India known for its secular and socialist policies. Almost 38 per cent of Muslims were below the poverty line in Gujarat compared to 22 per cent of Hindus. And whereas the poverty amongst Hindus in Gujarat declined by 74 per cent during 1993-94 and 2009-10, Muslims in Gujarat experienced a decline in poverty of mere 11 per cnet. For the same time period, poverty amongst Muslims in Kerala declined by 61 per cent. In fact, incidence of poverty amongst Muslims in Gujarat increased between 2004-05 and 2009-10.
Source: Arvind Panagariya and Megha Mukim. World Bank’s policy research working paper # 6714
Well done, Abba!
The debate about defining the poverty line has largely been an academic exercise amongst economists. The matter is far from settled in India and other developing nations where economists continue to debate over who is poor. In the meanwhile, the most insightful definition of the poverty line comes from Ashok Mishra who wrote the screenplay for the Bollywood film Well done Abba!. Ashok explains the intricacies of the poverty line through the eyes of the poor. The lead character in the movie, Armaan Ali (played by Boman Irani), is a Muslim and if he were to be below the poverty line, he’d qualify for a subsidized well to be dug on his property under the Kapildhara scheme. To establish his poverty bonafides Armaan Ali explains to a government official that he begins each month above the poverty line, but as the days pass and he pays bills and other dues, he falls below the poverty line.
The causes of persistently higher poverty rates among Muslims and other minorities in urban India need to be further explored. Why religious and other minorities have experienced a slower decline in poverty is a question that should concern Indian planners. The reasons behind such anomalies could be more complex than one would assume. Consider that a large proportion of the educated middle-class of urban Muslims in India left for Pakistan in 1947. The inter-generational effects of losing the educated middle class could take several decades to mitigate.
The post-1990 economic growth in India and China has lifted hundreds of millions out of abject poverty. The Panagariya-Mukim paper offers further evidence for growth induced reduction in poverty in India. The bigger challenge for Indian planners and decision-makers is to find ways for a more even distribution of benefits of economic growth and prosperity.
- A comprehensive analysis of poverty in India by Arvind Panagariya and Megha Mukim. The World Bank. Policy Research Working Paper # 6714. December 2013. Wahington, DC.
Murtaza Haider is a professor of Real Estate Management at Ryerson University and a Director of Regionomics Inc. He is also a syndicated columnist with Post Media and writes a weekly column on urban economics in Canada. He is the author of the book Getting Started with Data Science: Making Sense of Data with Analytics.
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Comments (59) Closed
Dec 18, 2013 06:22pm
"The causes of persistently higher poverty rates among Muslims and other minorities in urban India". And pray who are these 'other minorities'? Or is it mentioned just for the sake of writing something. Even academics like the author do slip up & reveal their biases.
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Dec 18, 2013 06:25pm
Separate Muslim laws allowing multiple wives leading to more children does not help.
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Dec 18, 2013 07:44pm
The author would find a similar pattern of poverty level among Muslims in Canada, USA and the UK.
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Dec 18, 2013 08:33pm
lol........ there are more muslim flim actors in mumbai than hindus though many so called educated muslims migrated out of india
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Dec 18, 2013 09:17pm
Why should a Pakistani author, who resides in another country write about an issue internal to India?? It would've been more appreciated had the author chosen to highlight the plight of other oppressed communities like Dalits too... Such a myopic view on author's end. Shame!!
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Dec 18, 2013 10:24pm
Yes, this is an observable fact, but one wonders if religion is the identifier? If you started without any land in urban areas, then you become poorer, as there is no land to appreciate or make money of. If you started without an education, then it is highly unlikely that your kids will get a good education, because urban government schools are bad and private education is expensive. Hopefully, free school meals will force more kids to stay in school, and hopefully, with the scar of partition left behind, more can be integrated economically. Middle east used to be a place to find jobs, even if lowly qualified but skilled enough, but those places have become cauldrons of war and destruction.
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Dec 18, 2013 10:57pm
Good article based on facts and figures. Poverty is a curse on all humans. That such a large number of modern day Indians are still live below poverty line is a shame on the Indian society. Part of the explanation is corruption. But, also important is the fact that Indian/Hindu traditions glorify poverty. Breaking the hold of traditions on Indias is a huge task and the current education system in India is unsuccessful in this important task. The Muslim community in India has suffered more than any other community in the country. This is partly because of lack of education and partly because of backwardness of the society. Muslims need to unite and demand their educational rights. The Muslims in India need more and better education.
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Dec 18, 2013 11:50pm
"Consider that a large proportion of the educated middle-class of urban Muslims in India left for Pakistan in 1947. The inter-generational effects of losing the educated middle class could take several decades to mitigate."
You really make me laugh. I have a great faith in the old adage "nobody is indispensable in this world". Period.
In any event, abject poverty in large proportions still prevails in most communities of India and to single out that the Muslims have suffered the brunt of it is probably an oversimplification of other underlying symptoms.
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Dec 19, 2013 12:59am
Three reasons come to mind:
1. Large families. Average urban Hindu family is has less than 3 children whereas Muslims have significantly larger families.
2. Single income: Average urban Hindu family has more than 1.5 earners whereas very few Muslim women work
3. Education: Educational level among urban Muslims is lower than Hindus for cultural reasons
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Dec 19, 2013 01:53am
There is a continuous process ongoing.
Things will improve certainly cause of rule of the land gives equal right to all.
But
I would like to raise the issue of minority in Pakistan,their inhumane living conditions like being in consistent fear.
This space could have been put to better use to highlight problems of minority in Pakistan where they are praying for surviving each day leave along the question of poverty or development.
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Dec 19, 2013 01:56am
Good Article. But the recipe of success in 21st century for anyone is simple.
Look at A.P.J Abdul Kalam a tamil muslim who is the role model for every person including muslims in the sub continent. First thing is keep religion within check i.e within oneself, in one's heart and mind and respect the kindness and goodness in every human.
"I inherited honesty and self-discipline from my father; from my mother, I inherited faith in goodness and deep kindness as did my three brothers and sisters."
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Dec 19, 2013 02:40am
I have been living with Muslims in Muslim populated towns for several decades. The one main reason for the poverty of Muslims is because they do not pay much attention to normal education which is the route for good jobs. There are times of riots occasionally. But on the whole Hindus and Muslims live peaceably and Muslims are not discriminated against. Madrasas, which Muslim children attend in large numbers, are not the route for jobs. Herein lies the cause for poverty. The same reasoning goes for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Local leaders should play positive role to encourage seeking good education.
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Dec 19, 2013 02:57am
" Why religious and other minorities have experienced a slower decline in poverty is a question that should concern Indian planners."
I have lived all my life in Delhi. I have never seen a poor Sikh. If the auther considers Sikhs, Christians and Jains as minorities, the the above blanket statement does not hold true.
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Dec 19, 2013 03:06am
Minorities are at a disadvantage everywhere even the largest democracy boasting of being tolerant. Native population of the lands colonised by the europeans are living on handouts.
The majority very conveniently discriminates and then blames the minority for being lazy etc. They will give you an example of a handful sportsmen, artists etc as a proof minority is not discrimintaed but these are mostly very talented people who could not be stopped.
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Dec 19, 2013 03:37am
I am not sure why such statements are added in such a well written article - "... Why religious and other minorities have experienced a slower decline in poverty is a question that should concern Indian planners. " Perhaps you should look at what the tables say in the articles itself. The rate of decline in poverty is much better for Sikhs and Christians who are also minorities. Muslims are mainly poor because of lack of education. If muslim women get educated then you will see much better improvement in next decade.
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Dec 19, 2013 04:07am
Studies that focus on specific years (like 2009-2010) leave themselves open to the question if they are picking specific years to make their point. I remember an editorial in the New York Times which apologized about its comments regarding Gujarat because they based comments on specific years and found that when all years were considered things had improved significantly. I frequently talk to a Muslim driver in Gujarat who tells me that there is a marked improvement in the quality of life for Muslims in Vadodara. In Gujarat, the religion Hindus nor Muslims are engaged in is making money.
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Dec 19, 2013 05:16am
The author says in this paper on 16th May, 2012 that ''Pakistan-born immigrants are the new face of poverty in urban Canada. The Canadian census revealed that 44 per cent of Pakistan-born immigrants fell below the poverty line making them the second most poverty prone group of immigrants in Canada.'' He also says ''The latest Census data for income for 2005 revealed that Pakistan-born immigrants reported the second highest incidence for the low-income cut-off, a proxy for poverty line in Canada. In comparison, only 18 per cent of India-born immigrants in Canada reported being a low-income person or belonging to a low-income economic family. '' Are the Indians to be blamed for that?
Muslims, whether they are in UK, USA, Canada or India, on the average have a large family, four to six children are common. They have more children and they are also less educated. They are also less likely to mix socially with the local people. And majority of them are for easy money.
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Dec 19, 2013 06:14am
Clearly, this must be the will of Allah, else it would not be so!
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Dec 19, 2013 07:43am
This article is -black and white in its essence.where is the data of education,number of children in each family,children drop out rate and type of school they attend etc..First of all-- Muslim constitute 2nd largest population in India thus why are they called Minority?.If Sikh and Christian are doing better then Muslim then -the fault lies with them and not with majority Hindus.Pl also ask the question --why are Muslim backward -in rest of the world?.
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Dec 19, 2013 07:59am
The reason muslims are poor in urban india is nothing but difference in education. I have seen muslims educating their kids in urdu schools and shun the private schools to stay away from secular model of education. I live in nagpur (pop. 5 million) and have seen many rich muslim families but the difference between rich and poor muslim is education nothing else. Also, the influence of local mulla on the lives of illiterate muslims is also a major factor. Islam khatre main hai (islam is in danger) mentality of local mulla is taking its toll on the average muslim here.
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Dec 19, 2013 08:40am
Would be very interesting if you can also publish data from Pakistan. Probably with similar benchmark..
If religious right model does not work in Gujrat I am sure condition is Pakistan must be worse. If that is established, Pakistan should slowly go away from Islamic republic to just peoples republic...
Anyway giving advice is easy, self examination is more difficult..
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Dec 19, 2013 08:46am
Hi dears,
the main problem of poverty in india is large families., and in ur article u just the mentioned the poverty levels of various "religions" in bharath., and for ur kind information u forgot to mention whats the size of the families among the poor irrespective of religion. I m not against the article., but its biased as its mentioning a particular community., Bro, this is the same in ur country too.,and in our bharath the condtions of our brothers are way better. We are in the same situtation , the poverty., and the main way to eradicate is bring consciousnes in people regarding small families.
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Dec 19, 2013 09:31am
Good reading, it's a proof of what many in Pakistan guess and proves the likes of Abul kalam azad and their followers wrong.
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Dec 19, 2013 09:42am
In 2009-10, incidence of poverty for Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat was almost twice as that for Kerala, which is a socially progressive state in India known for its secular and socialist policies. Almost 38 per cent of Muslims were below the poverty line in Gujarat compared to 22 per cent of Hindus. And whereas the poverty amongst Hindus in Gujarat declined by 74 per cent during 1993-94 and 2009-10, Muslims in Gujarat experienced a decline in poverty of mere 11 per cnet. For the same time period, poverty amongst Muslims in Kerala declined by 61 per cent.....
Dedicated to all keralites who praise Gujarat model development
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Dec 19, 2013 09:44am
I always appreciate Murtaza Haider articles since they are based on statistics. I would like to correct him in his last lines. "The causes of persistently higher poverty rates among Muslims and other minorities in urban India need to be further explored. Why religious and other minorities have experienced a slower decline in poverty is a question that should concern Indian planners." This is not true for other religious minorities such as Sikh and Christian. The decrease in their poverty is much higher than Hindus. Also comparing the development model with Kerla is not justified where almost one member of each family is in Middle east. In recent time the Kerala development model is criticized for it social implication on sociality, where the main bread earner is away from family for years and it bring unwanted consequences in family.
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Dec 19, 2013 10:04am
thank goodness my grandfather chose to migrate to Pakistan
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Dec 19, 2013 10:13am
that was feared and expected before partition and was the big reason for muslim pakistan and currently almost 25 crore muslims are in india and facing oppression by hindu majority in all fields including govt jobs and majority hindus should understand,they are creating circumstances yet again for another pakistan as this is not a minority to be ignored ,25 crore is not a small population to be ignored and suppressed
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Dec 19, 2013 10:28am
It is the education that lifts one up. When I started my corporate career some 30 odd years ago, there were only handful of people with Muslim names. But now, every year, I see Muslim background young employees joining the workforce. More often then not, these employees come from smaller towns.
Give children the education and they will bootstrap themselves (and the family) out of the dreaded poverty line, irrespective of religion or color of skin. It is really the education that makes one free.
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Dec 19, 2013 10:32am
To a great extent I will attribute this to female education in Muslim families and restrictions that are put against their growth and professional opportunities. Economically developed societies treats men and women fairly and that is something which Muslims in the subcontinent need to implement.
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Dec 19, 2013 11:03am
In this competitive world, one needs to spend lot of time in learning science, maths and computer education to increase his status in the society. But muslims spend unbelievably useless time in prayer and therefore they lag behind others. They themselves are only to be blamed. But there is a positive thing happening, Indian muslims have started embracing scientific education like never before and in 10 years, we will see a completely different picture than what it is today.
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Dec 19, 2013 11:55am
I agree with the author on most of the points presented by the author except that it's the responsibility of the planners to iron out the differences in development of various communities. The urge to use the opportunities should come from the community itself. The best example would be the Christian community which lays a lot of stress on education. You can find many Christians in professional education, and they are represented in a percentage higher than their share in the population. A study released a few months back found that Sikhs have the highest per capita household spending followed by the Christians, Hindus and Muslims. Of course, the parsis are the cream of the society with immense wealth and excellent education. Muslims are generally well off in south India from where I come. The only reason being they give more importance to education than their counterparts in the north.
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Dec 19, 2013 12:05pm
Hope similar type of article will be published by dawn for Hindus in pakistan. waiting for it.......
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Dec 19, 2013 12:09pm
Poverty knows no religion. Only two things lead to poverty. First is absence of regular income - this could be due to unemployment (normally urban areas), dithering crops (rural), natural calamities causing loss to property (both urban and rural). Second is ability or inability to stretch the rupee to cover all the expenses. Here is where the difference comes. In any normal Indian family both educated and uneducated, family planning is well practiced. While 2 children is a norm, in exceptional cases 1 or 3 can be seen. Every family tries to spread its income to cover food, education and other expenses for those. In case of most Muslims, they consider it against their religion to limit children. So irrespective of social status, they keep it going. It is common to see even very poor of that community having 4 - 5 children. This will impact the economic status and house hold income cannot afford good education and sometimes not even good food. Lack of education will lead to lack of employment which again leads to poverty. It's a vicious circle!
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Dec 19, 2013 01:29pm
Author ignored simple fact that muslims ignored modern education for three generation. urban india accepted it wholeheartedly except muslims. In village agriculture allows you to grow without education.
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Dec 19, 2013 02:44pm
@Vish:
i am a minority from india
but i have never felt like a minority in my life,
i am a goan catholic living in mumbai, so if u take christion they are around 3% catholic 1/12 %, goans .01% catholic goans 1/2 of that,
so my community is .05% of indian pop,
m i a minority, looking for govt charity NO,
i have same rights as everyone, and we work hard to progress, build schools ect
problem with muslim is the mullah and the nos of children they have even when they cannot afford, hence education suffer and they are engulfed in poverty, stop blaming the govt
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Dec 19, 2013 03:01pm
The reason for more poverty among muslims is simple. The hindus have an average of 2 children, due to which they are able to feed, educate their kids and improve their lives.
Wheras the muslims have 4 to 6 kids and their income is just enough to feed them. Without education their children will continue doing menial jobs and remain in poverty. Government provides free birth control, but their religion forbids them. So the blame is not with the Indian system, but the muslims themselves must act to improve themselves.
Overall, very happy with India's progress in reducing poverty, astounding. Keep it up.
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Dec 19, 2013 03:44pm
Mr Haider has missed out on the deep statistics and also the question why as stats only reflect what? this issue is something that needs much more than statistic to comprehend. Firstly the difference in % as pointed should consider that change happen on certain demography, the difference found out between growth for Muslims and Hindus is in clear percentage so wanting the equal growth in % for 14 muslims among 100 Hindus is not quite practical. The other important factor is the governing dynamics of Muslim society like different land laws under Waqf board, marriage laws, primary education under Madarssa significantly hampers growth of muslim society. Muslims in India should abolish their self ghettoisation and assimilate themselves in the mainstream, on side note they need to not pin their hopes on certain party be it political or religious. India altogether need to leave behind class/religious system for a healthy and progressive society.
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Dec 19, 2013 03:46pm
I have traveled the world and Muslims seem to the worst off compared to all minorities. In uk the Indians and Chinese are at the top with wealth and education and guess who us at the bottom? Why?
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Dec 19, 2013 03:48pm
@Chris:
why Indian christians are suffering with poverty and burning churches when they have lesser children and one wife.Indian hardliners want to keep minorities on miserable conditions this is their policy.
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Dec 19, 2013 04:22pm
Excellent writing & a deep routed problem exhumed. The fact cannot be denied. Something should be done to bridge the gap & reduce the sufferings
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Dec 19, 2013 04:22pm
if person can't feed himself then how can he can have multiple wives,children and dozen.
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Dec 19, 2013 08:42pm
The author has discussed poverty level among Pakistanis living in Canada on this paper on 16th May, 2012. The author, should he like to explore, would find the same reasons prevailing among poor Muslims all over the world, specially in non-Muslim countries. religion, not education, gets the first priority among the Muslims.
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Dec 19, 2013 11:49pm
@Indian:
I think Author will be equally commended if paint real pictures of Hindus in Pakistan
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Dec 20, 2013 06:08am
"Consider that a large proportion of the educated middle-class of urban Muslims in India left for Pakistan in 1947. The inter-generational effects of losing the educated middle class could take several decades to mitigate."
This is a plausible hypothesis and you can compare the poverty levels of Pakistani Muslims to Indian Muslims to explore this further.
Also when you compare poverty levels across 25 years within Indian states, the conclusions are confounded by the fact the migration takes place across state borders. It is possible that poor people from poorer states move to more prosperous states in search of economic opportunities. This will depress the poverty reduction estimates in richer states.
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Dec 20, 2013 11:34am
Lack of education(mostly female education) , lack of interest to modern things and practices , over belief in religion , intolerance of other views are few factors to be blamed
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Dec 20, 2013 12:09pm
Murtaza Haider ji their is lot of things behind this problem.The main reason is lack of self awareness about modern education in muslim community.In India their is free education system up to primary, and very less charges up secondary education.Most of the children having poor background will easily access these government education schools without any cost. But in muslim community most of the kids left their education before completing primary education and join the religion education system. for reference please read (www.irjcjournals.org/ijmssr/Jan2013/12.pdf? ) & (articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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Dec 20, 2013 02:13pm
Yes you are right but Muslims in India are still in better condition than their counterparts in Pakistan.
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Dec 21, 2013 03:52am
Almost one third of all taxi drivers in UK are Muslims.
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Dec 21, 2013 09:15am
@Akil Akhtar:
Sikhs are more a visible minorities than Muslims in anywhere in the world be it India, Canada or USA but how come there is less poverty among Sikhs than Muslims. This article only says that Sikhs have the lowest poverty rate than any other religion in India. It is a mind set and if you want to do well in life you will find ways to get ahead.
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Dec 21, 2013 09:59am
Muslims in india are doing much much better than pakistanis.......and i would like to read an article on development of minorities of pakistan in in pakistani newspaper.......
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Dec 21, 2013 06:35pm
India is a scular, democratic country where everyone enjoys equal rights. Muslims are not barred from either securing modern education nor govt jobs or running businesses. When I want to buy something from the market, I just want a good bargain irrespective of whether it is given by a Muslim or Hindu or any one else. Having myself been a recruiting officer in the Indian armed forces I can assure the readers that there is no policy or secret bias against Muslims. So, if Muslims don't come forward to avail the opportunities offered by the Indian nation, they themselves are to blame. Many readers have commented that causes of MUslim poverty are lack of modern education and large families. I agree with them. Muslims in India seem to only interested in raising the bogey of "Islam in Danger" at the slightest opportunity. My humble submission to my fellow Muslim Indians is that they should rise above religion and enjoy the fruits of modernity that is offered by India.
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Dec 21, 2013 06:37pm
I wonder if poor Indian Muslims would prefer to migrate to Pakistan so that they can become rich?
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Dec 21, 2013 06:42pm
What i will say now is nothing new or what has not been said before. Yes, low priority on education, an obsession with their religion and lack of progressive thinking is the root cause of Muslim backwardness in India. Having said that, what's important also is that there are still a very very large number of highly educated, progressive thinking moderate muslims in India doing very well for themselves and contributing to the welfare of our country. We will of course choose to criticise and judge the poor and backward only.
I volunteer English teaching and do social work at a goverment primary school in our locality here in Bangalore. What is heartening to see is that quite a number of muslim girls enrolled in a grade three class, attend school regularly, answer questions very brightly and are quite fluent in English too. We implore upon the parents of these girls to please let them continue their education till high school at least, and not pull them out midway as most of them do. If given the chance to study, these girls would go very far indeed. The govt and private schools are all there doing all that they can. Muslim attitudes have to change and keep with the times.
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Dec 21, 2013 06:58pm
@Muthu: My first job was in a public sector company in Delhi and among a thousand executives in the company, there were only three Muslims and all three are from Tamilnadu, where Muslims dominate in leather processing and making finished leather products and their progeny pursue higher modern education rather than go to a madrasa.
There are other minuscule minorities like Parsis, Sikhs, Jains, Chrisitians who are represented in working population more than their percentage of population. It is their aptitude towards modern education that is helping them
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Dec 21, 2013 07:15pm
Reminds me of the saying, "You can take a horse to the water but you cannot make it drink". Government can implement all kinds of subsidies and programs to uplift muslims. But unless muslims themselves decide to change their mentalities, and adopt education and family planning, the poverty rate will remain the same. If you want to educate muslims, it has to start with the mullas and muslim leaders because they control muslim communities.Children can wait.
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Dec 21, 2013 08:42pm
@Pakistani:
Same is true for Minorities in pakistan miyaan
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Dec 21, 2013 10:35pm
Will any of the Pakistani readers kindly explain why Muslim children in UK, USA and Canada are far behind than their Hindu and Sikh compatriots in education. There is no Modi in those countries.
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Dec 21, 2013 10:37pm
@Noor:
As if you have progressed so much in education in the last sixty years. India produces more Ph.Ds in one year what Pakistan did in the last fifty years. Ask Professor Attaur Rahman.
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Dec 21, 2013 10:56pm
Once again very well written article with facts and data. If one just concentrate muslims plight in India only as per this article, this is very true percentage wise.
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