Muslims, who constitute the largest religious minority comprising about 13.4% of the total population and about 73% of the total Minority population of the country, lag behind others in terms of economic, health and educational indices.
Economic Indices: The majority of them are engaged in traditional and low paying professions, or are mostly small and marginal farmers, landless agricultural labourers, small traders, craftsmen and so on. Only a few of them are reported to have benefited from various developmental schemes. The other Minority communities on the whole enjoy a comparatively better socio-economic status, although there are segments among the Christians and Buddhists, Mazhabi Sikhs and even sections of Zoroastrians/Parsis who are disadvantaged.
Health: As per the National Family Health Survey–3 (2005–2006), the Infant Mortality Rate by community is as follows: Buddhists/Neo-Buddhists (53), Muslims (52), Sikhs (46) and Christians (42). All the figures are better than the national average of 57. Christians and Sikhs have relatively low mortality rates at all ages under five years. With respect to Perinatal Mortality, the figures are 47 for Muslims followed by 40 for Christians and 31 for Sikhs. The figure is 49 for all-India.
With respect to pregnant and lactating women, the NFHS-3 report states that Muslim women are among the least likely to purchase iron and folic acid tablets. Births in a health facility are most likely among, Buddhist/Neo-Buddhist mothers (59 per cent) and Sikh mothers (58 per cent). Births to Muslim mothers (33 per cent) are much less likely to take place in a health facility. The report also states that births to Muslim women are least likely to be followed by a postnatal check-up.
Economic: The Work Participation Rate (WPR) for all religious communities was 39% in the Census of 2001. Buddhists had 40.6% WPR (31.7% for women), Christians 39.7% (28.7% for women), Sikhs 53.3% (20.2%) and Muslims 31.3% (14.1% for women).
The gender gap in the work participation rate is large among Muslims (33.4% points) and Sikhs (33.1% points). The gender gap in WPR is 26.1% points at the national level.
According to the High Level Committee to Examine the Socio-Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community in India, the participation of Muslims in salaried jobs is low at only 13%.
More than 12% of Muslim male workers are engaged in street vending as compared to the national average of less than 8%. Muslim workers are also found to be in a majority in the industrial sectors of tobacco (41%), wearing apparel (30%) and textiles (21%). The figures indicate that Muslim workers are largely concentrated in the informal sector which is characterized by low wages, bad working conditions and little or no social security.
