Hyderabad: “Why religious minorities like Muslims are still behind Dalits and Adivasis in jobs, higher education, housing and other areas of life? SCs and STs have got reservations and could find better ways to get education, jobs and all other public benefits,” said Prof. Sukhadeo K Thorat, Chairman, Indian Institute of Dalit Studies (IIDS), New Delhi & Former Chairman, University Grants Commission while delivering the online keynote address on the topic “Why Inter-group inequality still persists?”.
Prof. Syed Ainul Hasan, Vice-Chancellor, presided over the inaugural.
The seminar “India @ 75 and status of socio-religious groups in India” was organized by the Department of Economics, Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) in collaboration with IIDS, New Delhi & Roxa Luxumburg South Asia (RLS). This was the second dialogue under Democracy 2022 dialogue series.
Dr. G C Pal, Director, IIDS also presented his message to the seminar.
Prof. Thorat while discussing the area of intergroup inequality that persists even now, said that in India the problem of discrimination is more in the private sector than at the government level.
He advised MANUU to take up studies in the areas where Muslims lag behind other communities. Exclusion Studies centres can play important role to undertake studies on Dalits, especially among Muslims in India and other religious minorities. Gap between various religious minorities can also help us to understand the problems of backwardness and exclusion in India, he added.
Ainul Hasan said that MANUU has been looking for opportunities for equal and inclusive development. He asked Prof. Thorat to guide the University in future research and development.
Tauqueer Ali Sabri, RLS shared his interest to collaborate with MANUU and also provide fellowships to Ph.D. scholars to travel abroad for studies.
Earlier, Prof. Farida Siddiqui, Dean, School of Arts & Social Sciences & Coordinator, Seminar, briefed the idea behind holding this dialogue series.
The Book “Reading Minorities in India: Forms & Perspectives” authored by Dr. KM Ziyauddin, Assistant Professor & Co-ordinator seminar was also released on the occasion.
Prof. Vinod Kumar Jairath, formerly Dept. of Sociology, HCU chaired the session “Socio-economic status of Dalits in India”. Prof. Aseem Prakash, Dr. Prashant Kain, Dr. R. Thirunavukkarasu were the panelists.
