Zarvan
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KOLKATA: Even as West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee says that her government has already completed 99 per cent work for the development of the minorities in the state, a recent report titled as 'Living Reality of Muslims in West Bengal', co-produced by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's Pratichi Institute and Association SNAP, claims otherwise.
The report, released by Amartya Sen some days back in Kolkata, suggests that "Muslims in West Bengal are economically more deprived than others since, unlike in most other states, proportionately more Muslims reside in rural West Bengal compared to the general rural population."
In a shocking revelation, the report says, only 1 per cent households are fortunate to have salaried jobs in the private sector as their main source of income. To add to the misery, the report further states, about 47 per cent of all Muslims in rural Bengal, who work, belong to the category of agricultural and non-agricultural labour.
About 80 per cent of the Muslim households in rural Bengal earn Rs 5000 as household income per month, which is close to the cut off level of income for poverty line for a family for five, the report says. The observations include another striking detail about the economic status of Muslims in Bengal.
The reports says, at least 38.3 per cent Muslim households in rural West Bengal earn Rs 2500 or less per month, which is one-half of the cut-off level of income for the population below the poverty line. At the other end of the spectrum, only 3.4 per cent households reported to earn Rs 15,000 and above per month.
With the analysis presented in the report, it appears that Muslims in Hooghly and Howrah, where TMC did fairly well in the elections, are relatively well off. However, in the districts like North Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and Purulia, where TMC's poll performance was relatively bad, Muslims live below poverty level.
The relatively high incidence of poverty among the Muslims households in Nadia and East Midnapore. However, it does not go along with the economic condition of the households in general in these districts.
Interestingly, the budget allocation for the minority affairs has taken a five times jump from what the allocation was during the last term of the Left Front and what has been in the first term of Mamata Banerjee government. In the 2016-17 budget, the finance minister Amit Mitra has proposed Rs 2500 crore for the minority affairs department.
Mitra in the assembly said, "More than 97% of the state's Muslim population has been recognized as OBC. Moreover, reservation is now available for OBC in higher education and government jobs."
Muslims a poor lot in Mamata land: Amartya Sen’s report - Times of India