New Delhi, November 17
Maintaining silence on the issue of reservations for Muslims, the Rajinder Sachar Committee today said that the community was lagging behind other religious groups in development and asked the government to frame programmes to address its educational and economic backwardness.

The seven-member committee headed by justice Sachar, a former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, was set up to go into the social, economic and educational status of Muslims and submitted its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Asked if the committee had recommended affirmative action like reservations for Muslims, Justice Sachar said this was for the government to decide.

In its report, it said the community was "relatively poor, more illiterate, has lower access to education, lower representation in public and private sector jobs and lower availability of bank credit for self-employment.

"In urban areas, the community mostly lives in slums characterised by poor municipal infrastructure," it said, adding that there was, however, considerable variation in the condition of the community across states and regions.

The Prime Minister observed that he had felt the lack of authentic and updated information about the social, economic and educational status of Muslims.

Such data is necessary for planning and implementing specific programmes to address issues relating to the socio-economic backwardness of any disadvantaged group, he said.