Sachar panel report

Subject: Governance

Concept:

The Rajya Sabha on Friday took up a private member’s resolution urging the government to implement the recommendations of the Sachar Committee and other reports that have discussed educational and social backwardness of the Muslim community.

Sachar Committee

The Sachar Committee was a seven-member High Level Committee in India established in March 2005.
The committee was headed by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Rajinder Sachar.
Aim of the committee: To examine the socio-economic and educational status of the Muslim community in India. The availability of data on religion was useful in highlighting the relative deprivation of minorities.
The report highlighted a range of disabilities faced by the Muslim community.
It placed Indian Muslims below Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in backwardness.
It highlighted the huge mismatch between the percentage of Muslims in the population and in decision-making positions such as the IAS and IPS,
It highlighted poor representation of the community in the police.

Main recommendations of the committee

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 the participation of minorities in public bodies.
Establish a delimitation procedure that does not reserve constituencies with a high minority population for SCs.
Increase employment share of Muslims, particularly where there is a great deal of public dealing. Work out mechanisms to link madrasas with the higher secondary school boards.
Recognize degrees from madrasas for eligibility in defence, civil and banking examinations.

Private Members Bill /Resolution

Any Member of Parliament (MP) who is not a minister is referred to as a private member.
Its drafting is the responsibility of the member concerned.
Its introduction in the House requires one month’s notice. Whereas government bill requires 7 days’ notice.
The government bills/public bills can be introduced and discussed on any day, private member’s bills can be introduced and discussed only on Fridays.
In case of multiple Bills, a ballot system is used to decide the sequence of bills for introduction.
The Parliamentary Committee on Private Member’s Bills and Resolutions goes through all such bills/resolutions and classifies them based on their urgency and importance.
Its rejection by the House has no implication on the parliamentary confidence in the government or its resignation.
14 private member’s bills — five of which were introduced in Rajya Sabha — have become law so far.