Sachar Committee Report

On March 9, 2005 the Prime Minister issued a Notification for the constitution of a High-Level Committee to prepare a report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community of India.

The seven-member High Level Committee, chaired by Justice Rajindar Sachar, submitted its final report to the Prime Minister on November 17, 2006. The Government tabled the Justice Rajindar Sachar Committee Report in Parliament on November 30th.

Main Recommendations

The Committee made a number of recommendations to address the status of the Muslim community in India, including:

• Set up an Equal Opportunity Commission to look into grievances of deprived groups like minorities.
• Create a nomination procedure to increase articipation of minorities in public bodies.
• Establish a delimitation procedure that does not reserve constituencies with high minority population for SCs.
• Increase employment share of Muslims, particularly where there is great deal of public dealing. Work out mechanisms to link madarsas with higher secondary school board.
• Recognise degrees from madarsas for eligibility in defence, civil and banking examinations.
• The Committee suggested that policies should “sharply focus on inclusive development and ‘mainstreaming’ of the Community while respecting diversity.”

Implementation of Recommendations of Sachar Committee

The Central Government accepted 72 recommendations out of the 76 recommendations listed from the Sachar Committee Report. Three recommendations were not accepted and one recommendation was deferred. The Government has taken 43 decisions in respect of the 72 recommendations, which have been accepted. Some of the recommendations were clubbed together for taking follow-up action. The responsibility of implementation of the decisions taken by the Government on the recommendations of the Sachar Committee has been given to the concerned Ministries/ Departments of Government of India. Ministry of Minority Affairs monitors the progress of implementation of the decisions of the Government on the recommendations of the Sachar Committee.