MUSLIM VISION- 37 Muslim specific Rural development programmes
MUSLIM VISION OF SECULAR INDIA: Destination and Roadmap - 37
An Approach Paper aimed at
Presenting a Muslim Perspective of India's national goals; and
Developing a Comprehensive National Plan for Socioeconomic Empowerment of Muslim Indians so that they can play a meaningful role in the national and global affairs
By
Dr. Javed Jamil
Rural Development (contd)
Some Suggestions for Rural Development: urbanization of villages
Ways have to be found out to arrest and reverse the flow of money from the villages to the urban areas. This can be done by taking the following steps:
(i) Creating demands for more agricultural items.
There is scope for huge expansion in the food market, especially the fruits. The fruits cultivators must combine to form an organisation. This organisation must embark upon a full-fledged campaign through mass awareness programmes and media advertising about the relative benefits of fresh fruit juices over the bottled drinks. People must be informed that the bottled drinks have very little nutritious value and are often injurious to health; spending on them is sheer wastage of money. Aggressive advertising for fresh juices of apple, orange, pineapple, sugar-cane, pomegranate, etc, and also for drinks like mango-shakes, milk shakes, almond-milk and milk pista can raise their sales to dizzy heights.Similarly, the sales of milk products, eggs, different types of vegetables and meat may be assiduously pushed. If this is done, the beneficiaries will be mainly villagers and the urban poor. Big farmers will also benefit, but this must be understood that even the biggest farmers are poor, compared with the industrialists.
(ii) At the village level, the villagers may cooperate to establish small firms and shops. They may also set up roadside refreshment centres where fresh juices, milk, and other food items may be sold to travellers. The villagers that are close to the cities may establish some picnic spots, parks etc, and the fondness of the urban middle class and elite for clean and unpolluted atmosphere may be used to attract them.
(iii) Research centres for rural development must be established; these must concentrate not on the borrowed ideas from West but unveiling the sordid designs of the economic fundamentalists to thwart the agricultural growth. Their chief aim must be to ensure that the villages play a more significant role in the circulation of money and that the villagers get shares in the national income proportionate to their population, their hard labour and significance of their work.
Still, there is tremendous scope of employment in the rural areas in the developing counties. Every village must have a police station, a well-furnished hospital, a high school, and a branch of nationalised bank. In a country like India, with about half million villages, this can provide opportunities of employment to more that 50 million people. There must be a reservation of at least 20 per cent in these jobs for the candidates with rural background. There may also be an administrative staff to assist the rural councils (Panchayats.)
Efforts at war footing are urgently needed to redress the situation. Later we will discuss what steps needed to be taken without delay.
Road Development
The conditions of roads in the country are extremely bad. This is true more of the states which are less advanced and underdeveloped cities. The policy of road development too like all other policies depends on the preferences of the Big Business and the political interests of different parties. The lack of good roads results in poor development of small cities and villages.
Disparity in the level of power supply between urban and rural areas should end. Connectivity to roads should be taken care of. Other steps include"
(i) There should be better facilities for primary education. Private institutions may be encouraged to give low-priced franchise to the people interested in establishing primary institutions inside villages (preferably to persons belonging to the villages).
(ii) Higher technical institutions should ideally be opened in the rural areas.
(iii) Special incentives and loans should be given for constructing colonies and houses in rural areas;
(iv) Police network should be expanded to include chowkis in every village.
(v) The village based non-MBBS doctors should be given special training by MBBS doctors of the cities. Every MBBS doctor pf the city should be given charge of a selected number of village based doctors who will maintain regular contacts with each other to ensure better health services within the villages. This will help in the development of a more organized referral system and greater distribution of work among the doctors.
(vi) Rural legal cells of advocates for holding special courts once a fortnight to solve local disputes of petty nature. This will save villagers from running to city police stations and courts; their money will be saved and socioeconomic activity will have a boost. The communication between educated and uneducated people will also help in improvement of educational levels.
(vii)Establishment of one Community centre in each villagewith an arrangement for ceremonies, small library, branches of bans, postal agencies and a market place. (Local panchayats can be given responsibilities to monitor all the activities suggested above.)
(viii)Home water supplies in every village through tanks
(ix) The supply of cooking gas connections should cover all villages.
Rural Extension of Health Infrastructure
The village based non-MBBS doctors should be given special training by MBBS doctors of the cities. Every MBBS doctor pf the city should be given charge of a selected number of village based doctors who will maintain regular contacts with each other to ensure better health services within the villages. This will help in the development of a more organized referral system and greater distribution of work among the doctors.
Part of the Government Programmes
According to the Rural Health Statistics (RHS), 2010, there is shortage of 19,590 sub-centres; 4,252 PHCs and 2,115 CHCs in the country. The 12th Plan says that it is essential to complete the basic infrastructure needed for health delivery in rural upgrading existing PHCs and CHCs to IPHS norms, building Labour rooms and Operation Theatres, which are critical to reducing Maternal mortality and also building new PHCs. Muslim organisations have to ensure that Muslim villages must get greater share of PHCs and sub centres and Muslims should be persuaded to take advantage of the existing services.
One big obstacle in the delivery of health services to the poor people is the rampant corruption. Such is the scale of the corruption that people now pay bribes or "service/facilitation charges" on their own even before being asked, asthey know that the services would not gather pace unless this is done. People find it hard to get admissions and requisite medicines without paying charges to doctors and the paramedical staff. The local political leaders, right from MLAs to Pradhans and party workers often play nuisance though sometimes they also help the people.
12th plan admits that District Hospitals need to be greatly strengthened in terms of both equipment and staffing for a wide range of secondary care services and also some tertiary level services. "They should actually be viewed as District Knowledge Centres for training a broad array of health workers including nurses, mid‐level health workers (e.g. Bachelor of Rural Health Care or Bachelor of Primary Health Practice) Paramedics and other public health and health management professionals." New programmes are being envisaged for developing mid-level health workers (such as Bachelor of Rural Health Care/Bachelor of Primary Health Practice) and nurse-practitioners.
The idea of Mobile Medical Unit is also good. It will have to be ensured that each Mobile Medical Unit has requisite emergency equipment, drugs, basic diagnostics and a trained paramedic assigned to aggressive control of vectors that cause diseases. Municipality members and Pradhans should take it upon themselves to ensure that Muslim population gets benefit from these services.
Special vaccination campaigns along with mother and child care camps should be organised in every village and Muslim Ulama and other opinion leaders should be mobilised to make sure that all children get all the recommended doses of vaccination. Often there have been some doubts about the intentions of the government. Fears should be allayed and misconceptions removed.
Muslim specific
(x) Tablighi missions to villages that must include programmes related to educational, health and social awareness. (Every Sunday there should be such a programme)
(xi) Every mosque should work as an Islamic Development Centre. Special CDs can be prepared for these programmes.
(xii)Muslim cultural gatherings should be increased with mushairas, naat and qirat, essay and speech competitions.
(xiii)Open air restaurants having variety of snacks, coffee, tea, soft drinks, Chinese, Halal non-vegetarian and vegetarian food should be opened in villages close to cities, ideally by village based entrepreneurs. There should be large scale advertising to attract the people of cities to these restaurants particularly on weekends and special occasions. Boating and swings can be added to attract families with children. If these restaurants are hygienically run and the craving for open air and good foot are exploited there is no reason why people will not throng to these restaurants.
(xiv)Marketing of Produce by Muslims: The involvement of villagers in large scale supply of fruits like mangoes is minimal. Ways have to be found out how the distribution network can be organised by villagers themselves. Organisation of Multi-village cooperatives for the purpose of better marketing of the produce of small farmers: Warehouses with the help of bank loans.
(xv)A network of Supply: The increasing preference towards non-vegetarian food in India, increased preference of Halal meet even among Hindus, hotels, etc and the feeling that Muslims are better cooks gives an opportunity to tap this to the maximum. A network of Husbandry, poultry, suppliers, hotels, etc has to be developed.
(xvi)Orchards: Muslims encouraged for producing and supplying good varieties. Muslims traditionally own large orchards of mangoes and other fruits in many areas particularly Uttar Pradesh and Utttrakhand. They are already showing increased interest in producing new marketable varieties. This trend should be encouraged and owners of orchards must be made aware not only of the availability of new varieties but also the need to have a mixture of fruits and medicinal fruits rather than rely on single fruits. Furthermore, it is often seen that Muslim zamindars are not supplying their products through their own teams. The lack of education often is an obstacle in their exporting fruits to other countries. They should develop exportable varieties, should know the techniques of storage and should understand the dynamics of the market. They should also know latest advances in bio‐technology and make full use of marker-assisted breeding methods
(xvii)Farming is going through new stages of modernisation.New techniques are emerging. There is a need to know about these techniques. There is increased demand for technical personnel for inputs into various aspects of farming. Muslim boys particularly living in the rural areas mist also look for opportunities in this field. There is an urgent need for developing agro-climatic zone specific water harvesting and management technology to enable rural communities to withstand the effects of climate change. Similarly, genetic improvement of agricultural crops to develop a flexible portfolio of plant varieties that can thrive in drier or wetter environments, flash floods, pest attacks due to increase and decrease in humidity, etc. is an important area of research that should be explored.
Reactions
Hon.Janab Mr Salman Khurshid saheb,
Minister of Minority Welfare, Govt of India
Being a regular member of NRIndians, I am sure, like all of us, you must also be reading with great interest, Dr Javed Jamil's series, captioned, "Muslim Vision of Secular India: Destination and Roadmap". This series has generated huge interest in the intellectuals belonging to the Muslim community including NRIs as it is perhaps the first work of its kind that has come from a member of the community and focuses on the state of affairs in the most comprehensive fashion. It deals with almost every issue, which is of relevance for the community and the country. The good thing about the document is that it is sure to earn support of both the traditional religious minded people including Ulama as well as modern educated intellectuals and experts in different fields. Another great feature of the document is that it does not only focus on the problem but provides a Comprehensive Solution. It is a well documented roadmap.
It will be in the fitness of things if the Muslim Vision document is included into Ministry of Minority welfare study project for more research and fine tuning and possibly some action plan based on key points mentioned in the paper.
You being Minister of Minority Affairs can surely turn this effort on the part of Dr Jamil into an action plan for some key focus of paper.
I am sure all the members of NRIndians and other Muslims will support my request to you, and they will be willing to contribute in their individual capacities to any plan that comes up in that direction.
Regards
Tariq Umar Farooqui
Riyadh, KSA
I endorse the request made to the Minister.
Abdul Raheem Patel, Chennai
Thank you Tariq saheb. Indeed I am a member and a reasonably diligent reader of posts on the web site. Cannot say that all the thoughts bring comfort but I remain grateful to every contributor, perhaps even more to the silent readers. I will be happy to consider your valuable suggestion but it would help if I can be sent the entire report together. Look forward to working on it together. Best wishes.
Salman khurshid
Dear Dr. Javed Jamil Sb Asakm
In my opinion the offer of cooperation from the honorable minister is a good opportunity and should be taken up with all sincerity.
Your conceptual documentation of the road-map is a very thorough and commendable effort but like all such endeavors the real tests
come during implementation. It would be good if your ideas can be put into practice with the help of Government of the day under the
supervision of a small group of intellectuals, social activists and people who are able to get work done at ground level on a proto-type project.
May Allah swt bless us all with the wisdom, sincerity and courage to lead the community towards a better future(Aamin).
Tarique Azam
Shah Alam,Malaysia
Minister Salman Khursheed deserves our appreciation for his positive response. So does Prof Dr Jafari of Lucknow for offering his support and services for the cause. Dr Javed Jamil should build upon their support to advance his (our) project for the betterment of the community and thereby the country.
M H Zulqarnain
I am forwarding an email from our Honourable Minister that I have received from NRI group. It is a public thank you note from our Honourable Minister of Minority Welfare. Of course all that is written by Dr. Javed Jamil will never go down well with the present day ppl who are at the helm of affairs for protecting Minority interests. I am not quite sure why ppl are so opposed to Rasheed Ansari sb's query about Non Muslim wife affiliations.Nothing personal, but the views and actions of our Honourable Minister of Minority Welfare are definitely a case in point to be studied by the Indian Muslim community to safeguard their interest when they go for selecting/electing heads of organizations who will be directly in charge of making decisions affecting Muslim welfare. I am not quite sure as to how a non Muslim wife can influence decision making faculties of a Muslim head or leader. But definitely inclinations for overlooking the muslim interest in the decision making process cannot be ruled out, I think. I think Rasheed Ansari sb's caution is more related to having the heart and the mind in the same place. Again, Tariq Farooqui sb, indeed the Minister has acknowledged reading Dr. Javed Jamil's vision but he seems to have left the question of agreement and disagreement and for that matter any inclusion of good policy decisions still open. I believe Dr. Jamil's reports are a work in progress. Perhaps a kind of concurrent planning and definitely need concurrent implementation. Not sure if the Ministry of Minority Welfare is ready for any kind of incorporation besides lip service gratifications. A word of caution though, silent readers may not necessarily turn into silent voters.
Zubair VofA
Dear Dr.Javed Jameel Saheb
Assalamoalaikum
I have gone through your letter, it is quite encouraging and hopeful for the community. I am engaged in socio-economic studies since 1985 in one of the leading 27 ICSSR/MHRD research institutions in India. I have covered almost all the districts and their sample villages of U.P. with my research/field staff. Of course in none of these research institutions no research on Muslims is conducted or allowed. On my own I always kept an eye on Muslims and tried to do what ever it was possible. Please see <S.S.A.Jafri> on Google search. Only two reports one for Barabanki district and another for Shahjahanpur district based on field surveyed data on status of Muslims were prepared by me and submitted to ICSSR/Ministry of Minority Welfare/Government of India. Also at state and centre level government seminars I had presented the reports at various occasions. The crux of the report is that in rural areas Muslim households posses only one-fourth assets in comparison to Hindu households. Muslims do not have agricultural land and neither they are employed as farm workers. Majority of Muslims are forced artisans who are bonded workers of Hindu Mahajan/entrepreneur. Average wage per day for Muslim worker is Rs.40/-, woman worker Rs.2o/- and child worker Rs.10/- for 8 hours of hard work. Muslim localities or Muslim dominated villages are deprived of road, drainage, school, hospital, electricity etc. A non Muslim Pradhan never lists a Muslim as BPL. In MNREGA also non Muslim Pradhan never gives work to Muslims. More than 25 per cent school age Muslim children are not going to school, because they are working as child labour. (In one Sociology study in Lucknow city finds that there are 70 per cent Muslim child workers in the city. In Lucknow more than 30 per cent Muslims live but in Lucknow University only less than 2 per cent Muslims are students) Some times Muslim children are enrolled in Schools, but just to get the official list completed and Schools to get more ration for mid day meals. About 4-5 per cent Muslim children go to Madarsa. Among the actually enrolled Muslim children in government run primary Schools, Muslim girls are far a head at the primary level as they are generally not working as child labour, but before going to Middle School level they are discontinued due to female abuse. In the name of minority, government is allocating a huge money, but if you see it is all consumed in salary expenditure of the employees. Any scheme you take Muslims are not there, May be Indra Awas Yojna etc. First Muslims have no time to inquire from government officials and secondly they feel insecure to do so. In some villages I was reported that they are lured to be converted. If they are less than 20-30 per cent in a village/locality they can not build mosques, madarsa and perform animal sacrifice. Over all the socio-economic level of Muslims has gone down below the Dalits (S.C.), it is proved.
In general it is a mass scale mentality of the majority in government or private not to allow financial-educational access to Muslims so that they should submit to what they wish. More than their proportion Muslims are in jails, maximum they are in the police list of criminals.
POSSIBLE SOLUTION:
Recently in National Seminar on Globalization and Indian Muslims: Challenges and Opportunities April 7 - 8, 2012, CEPECAMI, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh,(My paper attached) I said that we saw 65 years after Independence the condition of Muslims has deteriorated, even it would go further down if we depend upon the government. Muslims are simply vote bank and government talks about them only when elections are nearer.
It is first and foremost thing is that we must start our own regional research institutes (with reputed social scientists) where field data should be collected and on the basis of these projects we chalk out our strategy how to help Muslims of both rural and urban India (urban Muslims are equally suffering due to poverty). Our findings should be brought into focus through media so that the government should be exposed and compelled to help. Since more than 80 per cent Muslims are forced artisans/handicraft workers should be freed from the clutches of Mahajan/entrepreneur and they should be empowered by micro finance (community has to do it, as government will never do) to become entrepreneur, as I have seen in Bangladesh.
It is high time that our madarsas should be modernised as it was done in the past from Arabic to Persian to Urdu. Today only about one-fifth of madarsa product is getting employment in mosques or madarsas with extremely meager salary. Now our Madrasa should be modernized, besides teaching theology (which may be spread for few more years to accommodate CBSE) must also teach CBSE course and at X - XII classes students may appear private NIOS exam (National Institute of Open School, New Delhi, in every district there is a registration and exam centre) to get a recognized certificate. After that they would be eligible for government jobs and also they can go for higher studies, besides they are always able to serve the mosque and madarsa. We have to strengthen madarsa which is under our possession run by our community contribution, it's products should come in the main stream "Deen aur Dunia."
ONLY A CORE GROUP OF FEW DEDICATED FINANCIERS AND SOCIAL SCIENTISTS HAVE TO CONCENTRATE ON IT'S PLANNING AND EXECUTION. There should not be any organization with designation of President and Secretary etc to show off and fight for power. Silently and simply working for the community in the name of Allah almighty and his beloved Prophet S.A.
My full life is available free of cost as a servant of Allah, kindly plan and do, it is the first IBADAT.
With extreme regards.
Prof.(Dr.)Syed Shahid Akhtar Jafr(Ret.)
(Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow)
Guest Proessor, Department of Geography
University of Lucknow, Lucknow
Mobile: 091-9335806198
E-mail: jafri_ssa@rediffmail.com
I agree with you in totality, lets have peace cities
Haseebuddin Syed
As.salam.wa.alaikum,
I appreciate your work and concern and at the same time would like to request you to promote basic needs and approach towards it.
What are we doing for education, hygiene and healthcare.
We stop kids coming to mosque in their real developmental age. We don't teach and allow them to how to offer namaz. We expect them to stay behind and learn on their own. At real learning age we left them behind (up to 10-12 years) and by the time they loose a track then we start corrective measures. This takes another 5-6 years and in this process very few come on line and majority remain below average expectation. Are we not responsible for spoiling our next generations? Majority Maulavis are struggling for their daily needs and spreading wrong or inadequate information for the sake of getting worldly benefits, adopting divide and rule policy within the religion.
We have to work hard for next generation (young children) to give them correct message of islam.
Insha.Allah I will discuss more on the topic.
Afzal.Peerzade
Dear Dr. Jamil
There is huge talk now a days about the Green buildings,
If we dig deeper the concepts presented by the US green building council or the Indian Green building council is that of sustainable development and regional and local development.
When one applies for a green building certification for a building he has to fulfill certain criteria which includes, that the building was not constructed on a prime farm land, that the building is giving sufficient open space for the occupants for walking and exercising, that the natural habitat and ecosystem has not been damaged, that soil erosion and sedimentation has been taken care off, that potable water is not wasted in landscaping, that the building is properly insulated and weatherized to safe energy on cooling for heating load, that the indoor environmental quality is maintained, encourages agriculture and farming, that renewable energy is generated on site , that the building has utilized regional products in the construction to support local businesses and so on.
Haseebuddin Syed
- Dr Javed Jamil is Executive Chairman, International Centre for Applied Islamics, Chief Editor, "Islam, Muslims & the World" and Director PEACE. He is also author of more than a dozen books including "Islam means Peace", "The Essence of the Divine Verses", "The Killer Sex", "Rediscovering the Universe", "The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism" and "Islamic Model for Control of AIDS". Also has more than 200 articles and papers to his credit. His soon-to-be-published works include "Scientific & Social Principles based on Qur'an" and "Westernism: the Ideology of Hegemony". He can be reached at doctorforu123@yahoo.com. Phones: 91- 8130340339
Contents
Preface 3
1- Introduction: 6
2- What has gone wrong? 11
3 - Time to Reverse the Tide: Objectives to be achieved15:
4- Changes in Government Policies & Economic Ideology Required: Economic Disparity to be drastically reduced, Steps required for countering commercialisation of human weaknesses, Emphasis on Rural Development, Emphasis on Development of undeveloped urban areas particularly civic amenities 26
5 Political Empowerment & Governance
Radical Steps needed by Muslim Community 55
6- Religious Education: Applied Islamics, Mosques as Islamic Centres, Khutbas, 55
- Modern Education: Primary, Secondary, Higher 65
7. Scope of Islamic Economics in India 88
* Dynamic Theory of Economics: Wealth Generation
* Exploring the scope of large scale Muslim participation in Corporate Sector, especially the Consumer Market: People's Corporate India
* Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
* Economic Relations with Muslim Countries
* Islamic Finance
* Shariah-compliant stock exchange
8- Health Infrastructure: Special Efforts on Health Front needed by Muslim Community 139
9- Urban Development 184 Civic Amenities, Peace Cities
10- Rural Development 194
11- Social Empowerment and Security: 206 Reservation, Unity of Muslims, Interfaith, Equality, Campaign against Social Evils, Employment.
12- Empowerment of Women within Islamic Parameters 222
13. NGO Sector 241
14- The Fourth Estate: Let Muslims also Own it
15- Management of Awqaf Properties 264
17- Security Issues: Psychological, Physical and Social 273
18- Roadmap: Need for a National Level Organisation of Muslims 296
19- Muslim Perspective of National Development and Socioeconomic Empowerment of Muslim Indians: Measures Suggested (more than 170 measures enlisted here)
20- Last Word
The Man behind the Work
Annexure
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