Sachar Committee

Polity & Governance glossary

Also called: Prime Minister's High Level Committee · Topic: Safeguards for Vulnerable Sections: SCs, STs, OBCs, Minorities, Women and Children · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 3 "Gender, Religion and Caste"

Meaning

The Sachar Committee was a high-level committee headed by Justice Rajinder Sachar. It worked from March 2005 to November 2006 and studied the social, economic and educational condition of Indian Muslims. It found that Muslims lagged behind in literacy, graduation, formal jobs, bank credit and government employment. On some indicators they were close to, or below, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It recommended an Equal Opportunity Commission, a National Data Bank and a diversity index, which would measure how far institutions reflect different groups.

Example

The committee projected that the Muslim share of India's population would rise by only 3-4% over 50 years. Class 10, Gender, Religion and Caste cites this figure. The Kundu Committee (2014) later checked how far its agenda had been carried out.

Don't confuse with

  • Ranganath Misra Commission (2007): it recommended reservation for minorities (15%, with 10% for Muslims) and delinking SC status from religion. Sachar mainly recorded Muslims' backwardness and did not propose a religion-wide quota.

Related concepts

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