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Minorities at the Margins - continued
The available data shows that a sizeable proportion of the population of Malegaon town lives in multidimensional poverty and penury: ill health, unemployment and lack of education, housing and other infrastructure (Shaban 2012). TISS sample survey data shows that about one-third of the town's population survives on a per capita income of less than Rs 500/month. The share of population living below the poverty line (according to the poverty line suggested by the Suresh Tendulkar Committee, updated per capita income of Rs 961.1 per month for 2010-11 is used to calculate the level of poverty) is 72.0%. Poverty among Muslims is more acute -- about 77.5% of the total Muslim population lives in poverty, while among non-Muslims the share of population living below the poverty line is 49.7%. Figure 1 shows that about 82% of the total population lives below the per capita income of Rs 1,000, and thus may be considered extremely vulnerable. The vulnerability among Muslims is significantly higher than among the city's non-Muslim population.
Given that Mumbra is located at the periphery of Mumbai, a major metropolitan centre and commercial and financial hub of India, one expects that poverty levels among the people living here will be lower as work and income opportunities are better. A study conducted by TISS in 2012 shows that though the condition of Mumbra's residents is relatively better than in Malegaon, even here about 27.6% of Muslims live below the poverty line while another 43.4% live on the margin or just barely above the poverty line, their per capita income ranging between Rs 1,163 and Rs 2,500 (Table 4). It is noteworthy that middle- and upper-middle-income groups among Muslims are almost missing as about 93% of the total population lives below the per capita income of Rs 5,000 per month. It may also be noted that the purchasing power of the rupee is quite low in the Mumbai region and the state average urban poverty line income of Rs 1,162 for the year 2012-13 barely enables a person to keep body and soul together.
Summing up
Available data reveals that Muslims in India, specifically those in urban areas, suffer acute poverty. Except for Buddhists, they have the highest poverty level among all religious groups in the country. There is a sharp regional divide with respect to the socio-economic situation of Muslims in the country. The relative situation of Muslims with respect to share of population living below the poverty line has worsened in northern and western states of India, whereas it has relatively improved or is stable in southern states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Among the eastern states, West Bengal has also shown stability in relative poverty among Muslims. This shows that southern states and West Bengal have a more inclusive social order and the fate of all communities moves together, while the northern and western states have been more exclusionary towards Muslims. India's western and northern states have been more affected by right-wing politics and the state machinery and society in general are more communalised. Communal violence over the last 100 years has been concentrated in these states. Gujarat and Maharashtra are among the major states with a significant share of Muslim population. However, in these two states, due to increasing communal polarisation, Muslims are located in specific towns or specific Muslim-concentrated areas within cities. Malegaon and Mumbra are two typical examples of this pattern and the available data shows that a large segment of the Muslim population of these towns lives in sub-human conditions, without any significant developmental intervention from the state.
References:
Census of India (2001). Population Census 2001. Data on CD. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi
Census of India (2011). Provisional Population Totals Paper 2 of 2011: India (Vol II). Viewed on November 7, 2012 (http://www.censusindia.gov. in/2011-prov-results/paper2/ data_files/India2/Table_2_PR_ Cities_1Lakh_and_Above.pdf )
Government of India (2009). 'Report of the Expert Group to Review the Methodology for Estimation of Poverty'. Planning Commission, New Delhi, November
Government of India (Sachar Committee Report) (2006). 'Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India'. Cabinet Secretariat, New Delhi
Masselos, Jim (1994). 'Postmodern Bombay: Fractured Discourses', in Sophie Watson and Kathie Gibson (eds), Postmodern Cities and Spaces, pp 199-215. Oxford: Basil Blackwell
NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation) (2007). 'Employment and Unemployment Situation among Major Religious Groups in India 2004-2005, NSS 61st Round (July 2004-June 2005)'. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi, March
Panagariya, A and Mukim, M (2013). 'A Comprehensive Analysis of Poverty in India'. Policy Research Working Paper 6714, The World Bank. Viewed on June 6, 2014 (http://elibrary.worldbank. org/doi/pdf/10.1596/1813-9450- 6714 )
Phadke, Shilpa (2007). 'Dangerous Liaisons: Women and Man -- Risk and Reputation in Mumbai', Economic and Political Weekly, 42 (17): 1510-18
Robinson, Rowena (2005). Tremors of Violence: Muslim Survivors of Ethnic Strife in Western India. New Delhi: Sage Publications
Shaban, A (2010). Mumbai: Political Economy of Crime and Space. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan
Shaban, A (2011). 'Socio-Economic and Educational Status of Muslims in Maharashtra -- A State Report'. Maharashtra State Minorities Commission, Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai
Shaban, A (2012). Multi-Sectoral Development Plan for Malegaon. Submitted to Minorities Development Department, Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai
(Abdul Shaban is Professor and Deputy Director of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Tuljapur Campus). Shaban has been teaching 'Social Justice and the City' to MPhil and PhD students at TISS (Mumbai). His areas of specialisation are social exclusion in the city, and Muslims and development. He is the author of Mumbai: Political Economy of Crime and Space(Orient Blackswan, 2010) and Lives of Muslims in India: Politics, Exclusion and Violence(Routledge, 2012))
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