People at the Margins: Whose Budget? Whose Rights? Locating Muslim Women in Indian Policy

This paper, by the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), assesses the implementation of the Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme, which aims to improve the socio-economic condition of minorities in India. The BMMA examines the extent to which Muslim women have benefitted from certain schemes under the programme in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.Drawing on official data, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, the paper examines if the programme has been able to meet its objectives. These include improving the living conditions of minorities, enabling their access to education, ensuring they have an equitable share in employment, and preventing communal violence.The four states have made varying progress on meeting these objectives, the paper finds, with gaps in programme’s implementation. For instance, from 2006 to 2014, Gujarat did not set any targets for constructing primary schools in areas with a substantial minority population. While the other three states achieved their targets to varying degrees, on the whole, the access girls had to government schools remained limited.Based on their research, the authors urge policy-makers to prioritise separate schools for girls, include women-headed households in development schemes, create employment opportunities for Muslim women, and collect data on the extent to which Muslim women have benefitted from government schemes.