HYDERABAD: Emigration to the Gulf is not uncommon among Muslim families residing in the Old City area of Hyderabad. But corroborating this information with the data that unemployment is as high as 21 per cent among Muslims in the Old City gives an insight as to what might be the underlying cause. While emigration is common across Telangana, the dependence on remittance is higher among Muslim families due to socio-economic backwardness.
As per the data available, the number of Muslim households receiving remittances is about twice as much as Hindu households. Another statistic that highlights the higher dependence on remittances among Muslims is while 19 per cent of Hindu families look at remittances as a source of pursuing education, among Muslim families it is 35 per cent. These, and other such data derived by analysing National Sample Surveys conducted in the ‘Inland North-Western’ and ‘Inland North-Eastern’ regions of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh provide a multi-faceted view of the hurdles that cause socio-economic backwardness among Muslims in Telangana.
These have been presented in a book titled ‘Muslims in Telangana — A discourse on equity, development and security.’ The book has been authored by academicians who were involved in the Telangana government’s ‘Commission of Inquiry on Socio-Economic and Educational Conditions of Muslims’ and has been edited by Chairperson of the Commission and retired IAS officer G Sudhir, educationist MA Bari, Dr Amir Ullah Khan of Dr MCR HRD Institute of Telangana (MCR-HRDI) and Prof Abdul Shaban from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.
Many factors affect status of Muslims
The book provides insights into the status of Muslims of Telangana in various aspects — health, economic status, education, employment, wages, share in workforce, financial inclusion etc. The book urges the government to identify and work on various factors that affect socio- economic status of Muslims. For instance, it claims that the various push factors which make it tough for Muslims to access the domestic labour market, hence causing them to seek jobs abroad, are education, skills, entrepreneurial environment and financial inclusion. RB Bhagat and Imtiyaz Ali, who contributed to the book, point out, “A comprehensive migration survey of the Muslim community of Telangana at destinations of Gulf Cooperation Council countries will be helpful in devising suitable health programmes and policies.”