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Educationally Muslims are very backward in the state. Traditionally, majority of the Muslim population are poor, they are not taking interest in education as there is no such facility available for these folks except the madrasas. Education is considered to be for elites, though the poor are send to the madrasa to get only religious knowledge/education till recently. In the modern era it is felt that, it is also important to impart education to the marginalized sections of the society.   

Roughly, 200 million Muslims live in India. In some parts of the country they are in sufficiently large numbers and in others they are in limited numbers for historical and geographical reasons. In some states the Muslim population exceeds 10 percent. In Andhra Pradesh Muslims constitute 9.16 percent of the total population of the state.

According to the 1991 census, the ratio of Hindu population in Andhra Pradesh was 89.26 percent while it was 91.76 percent according to the 1911 census. The 1971 census showed that there had been continuous decline in the Hindu population, their ratio had come down to 87.72 percent. But during the last decade their population rose upto 89.26 percent.

During the last decade there was a two percent increase in the Muslim population in Andhra Pradesh. In 1911 the Muslim population was 6.65 percent and in 1991 it increased to 8.91 percent.

Geographically, the distribution of Muslim population varies in different areas. For example, in coastal districts like Vishakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram, East and West Godavari, Muslims are meagerly populated. In Nalgonda, Warangal, and Krishna districts their population ranges between five to six percent whereas in the western coastal districts of Guntur and Nellore, Muslim population is around nine percent. After the reorganization of some districts in 1971 the population of Krishna, Nellore and Guntur went up to around nine percent.

Telugu is the dominant language in these districts therefore, Muslims consider it as their mother tongue and medium of instruction which differs from Telangana Muslims and influenced from Hindu Culture. In Rayalseema region’s Chittor district, the southern part of the state (adjacent to Tamil Nadu) the population of Muslims is fairly large. In Kurnool, Cudappa and Anantpur their population is approximately 17, 15 and 17 percent respectively.

According to 2001 census, total Muslim population in United Andhra Pradesh is 69, 86,856 (9.16% of the total population of the state). Of them, 35, 62,239 are males and 34, 24,617 are females. Out of the total Muslim population in the state, 29, 28,569 live in rural areas and 40, 58,287 live in urban areas. Sex ratio works out to 961 females per 1000 males. Literacy rate in the community is 68%. Of them female literacy rate is 59.10%.[1]

In the present Andhra Pradesh, highest Muslim population is found in Kurnool (16.22 per cent) district and the lowest in Srikakulam (0.31 per cent) district. Muslims in the rural areas of the state are basically small and marginal farmers and agricultural labourers and in urban areas most of them are wage labourers, artisans, small traders, etc. According to 2001 census, total Muslim workers are 23,60,983. Of the total workers 1,75,759 are cultivators, 5,15,682 are agriculture labour and 1,44,833 are working in household industry.

After the bifurcation of the Andhra Pradesh the state has become limited to Rayalseema region and Seemandhra region. It has 13 districts i.e. Anantapur, Chittoor, Dr.YSR Kadapa, East Godavari, Guntur, Krishna, Kurnool, Prakasam, Sri Potti Sri Ramulu Nellore, Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, West Godavari.[2] Muslim population in these districts are very less and all together they constitute around 6.5 percent of the total population of the State.

Social and Cultural Aspect

The Andhra Muslims have been little influenced by foreign cultures i.e. Persion and Arab. Barring a few of the Telangana districts, they almost universally speak a variant of Decani i.e. South Decani as their mother tongue and can communicate in Telugu quite well. However, many can manage a smidgen of standard Urdu, largely because of the dominance of Urdu in Islamic publications in India. In their food habits and other secular practices, they are indistinguishable from their Non-Muslim neighbors.

There are mainly two major groups prevailing among the Muslims in the country and the same trend is found in the state i.e. ‘Shia’ and ‘Sunni’. Majority of the Muslims are ‘Sunni’ where as a large number of population belongs to the ‘Shia’ sect/community in the state. After the bifurcation of the state large number of ‘Shia’ Muslim is with the Telangana state. This community mainly concentrated in Hyderabad with is now the part of this (Telangana) state. As mentioned above that except few pockets largely from the urban areas rest of the population in the community is from Sunni sect.

Like women from other communities, Muslim women are differentiated across gender, class, caste and community and are subjected to the interface between gender and community within the Indian social, political and economic context. After more than six decades of independence majority of Muslim women are one of the most disadvantaged, least literate, economically impoverished and politically marginalized sections of Indian society.[3]

Economic Status of the Muslims in the State

Economic wellbeing provides an opportunity to an individual to gain in other field. It empowers an individual or a family with purchasing power, enabling them to acquire subsistence as well as consumption goods to satisfy the basic needs, comfort and leisure. With this freedom an individual or a group can also think of investments, this can take the form of purchase of durable consumption goods and investments in areas like education, health and capital assets. Such investments are critical for increases in future incomes and for sustaining growth at the level of the individual as well as the economy. While economic benefits derived from such an increase in the entitlements are substantial, employment also has significant non-economic benefits. The belief that one is engaged in some worthwhile activity provides a sense of esteem and well-being to the worker. Ownership of physical assets (especially land) and human capital (especially education) not only affects employment opportunities but also determines occupational patterns.

Relatively poor access to these assets may force workers to remain at the lower end of the labour market hierarchy. Employment, education and investments in physical assets interact dynamically. It has been argued that the positive impact of education crucially depends upon the existence of market (employment) opportunities. Without economic returns to education provided in the form of a higher probability of getting employment or earning higher income, investment in human capital formation will not occur. Similarly, while ownership of physical capital creates opportunities for employment, growth in employment generates resources for new capital formation.

Muslims in Andhra Pradesh are broadly engaged in agriculture as like rest of the population in the state. Many Muslims are also found in various craft work business, some passed on for generations. Significant number are involved in small businesses somewhat known as “Kutir Parishrama.” Due to lack of higher education among Muslims in the state their representation among executive level jobs are limited, however many Muslims have held distinguished posts with in state and private sector. In the present state majority of the people are workers. The working population is broadly distributed into four occupation groups. They are, wage labour, petty business, skilled workers such as Tailoring, auto driver, carpentry, electrician, mechanic, agarbathi making, beedi making etc. and employees. Majority of the workers around 73.05% are wage labourers and this category includes both agriculture labour and non-agriculture labour.[4]  It is interesting to note that percentage of females found in wage labour among the total workers is more than that of men. Then comes under skilled workers in which most of the people from the Muslim community are engaged in then followed by people who are in petty business. Very less number of the people are employees that too in some districts. In the field of skilled work, the percentage of male is more than female.

Samir Ghosh (2023) examined the National Education Policy -2020 and suggested that the recommendations will be effective only by development of infrastructure, improving work culture and to some extent it should be modified on the basis of reality.

The main thrust of the welfare of Muslims are focused on the socio-Historical situations of the lower caste Muslims in different life of the Society. According to the Ali and others the conditions of the OBC and Dalits Muslim is even worse in some case of SC Dalits. Ali et al., propound more reservations to the OBC and Dalit Muslims.  In this connection, the findings of Sachar and Mishra, reports also have recommended the reservation for the OBC and Dalit Muslims have been endorsed. However, the Muslims Community is unable to make any concrete steps for uplifting the OBC and Dalit Muslims.  On the contrary, some groups, particularly, the elites Muslims are demanding the reservation for the whole community on the basis of backwardness after the 65 years of Secular democracy.

Even though it is uncommon among the Muslims to differentiate among them, several studies have done by both colonial anthropologists and the Indian sociologists in post-colonial India, along with several committees, commissions and census reports have also compiled data on the basis of caste and Community. And these reports and census has mentioned and listed several caste groups in Muslim Society (Census India, 1901, 1931). However, the religious, social, political elite of the community completely rejected the caste practices within community till few years ago. Once they accepted its existence, they passed the blame on to the Hindu Social milieu. Before going into intensive discussion about the caste system in Muslims society, let us visit some facts about presence of various caste groups in the lights of reports commission appointed by government.

In this background, first time, at the all India level two such commissions have so for been appointed – Kaka-Kalekar Commission and Mandal Commission. The first backward commission submitted its report in 1955. The Commission emphasized the lower status in caste hierarchy as the determining factor for backward along with other considerations such as educational levels, income levels and representation in public employment. The commission was the first instance in which certain caste and communities among Muslims (and other religious minorities) were also declared backward and brought within the purview of affirmative actions. The second Backward classes commission (Mandal Commission, 1980) too relied on the caste criterion, however, the tangible indicator to ascertain a caste or any social groups ‘backward’ included lower position in the caste hierarchy, lower age at marriage within the group, higher work participation, higher school drop rate, inaccessibility of drinking water, lower average value of family assets, higher occurrence of kutcha houses and so on (Alam, 1961). Sociological studies on the social structure of Muslims in India have emphasized on the presence of decent based social stratification among them Features of the Hindu caste system, such as hierarchical ordering of social groups, endogamy and hereditary occupation have been found to be simply present among the Indian Muslims as well.

According to the committee, there was a consensus among the participant that Muslims were a differentiated group and this should be reflected in the al policy initiatives of the Government. In this context, activists made a strong case for the inclusion of the Muslim groups with similar occupation as that of Hindus in the SC list. The gross under representation of Muslims in public and also in private sector employment was seen as a matter of concern. The representation of Muslim OBC was seen even worse. Therefore, there was need for the separate quota for them within the OBC quota. Further committee noted that the complements of Women because according to them, benefits of reservation were always usurped by the male members of the community. However, majority of Muslim women were self-employed and hence recurred different measures (Alam, 192-194).

This paper is based on secondary and primary data collected from the field.

According to 2011 census the literacy in the united Andhra Pradesh was 67.89, which is improved more than 7 percent in comparison to previous (2001) census.

The literacy rate among the Muslims in the state is relatively very low when compared to the general Hindu literacy rate. Literacy at Matriculation level is around 45% in Muslims and for Hindus it is 60%. The literacy rate for even higher studies among Hindus in the state is 45% whereas for Muslims it is a meager 13%.The data shows there is a huge drop out level among Muslims after the matric level, this is primarily due to the shortage of schools and colleges in the Muslim dominated areas. There is a shortage of Urdu medium schools as well; the state only has 2252 primary schools, 378 upper primary schools and just 331 high schools in Urdu medium. This indeed is a more than enough evidence to show the pathetic condition of educational opportunity to the Muslims, in their mother tongue.

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) in its annual report 2012-13 shows that the level of education and literacy in the state has increased. Children and schools were tested on different indicators and found that many children are performing well. The level of out of children has been decreased but still girls are more out of school than boys.[5] In rural Andhra Pradesh during the year 2006 more boys (2 percent) were not in school than the girls (around 1 percent) at primary level where are the at upper primary level girls (8 percent) were more out of school than the boys (5 percent). Similarly, the out of school children situation in 2013 is almost similar at primary stage but there is an improvement at upper primary level. Two percent of improvement in the girls’ enrolment and one percent of boys’ enrolment have been improved as compared to the previous years out of school children percent. Though the rate of children not in school has decreased but it was very irregular during 2006-2013. In other words there is a constant fluctuation in the number of out of school children.[6]

Census 2001 suggests that the total population of the present Andhra Pradesh were around 45222736 (around 45 million) out of which Muslim are 3133645 (around 3 million). They constitute only 7% of the population in the state. The literacy among the Muslim is 4.4 percent which suggest that the community is still far behind than other community in the field of education.

The DLHS-3 state report exhibits the educational condition of the Muslims in the state.

Table: 1

Level of education of women aged 15-49 years

Source: DLHS-3, 2007-08

In the above table the data suggested that the educational level of Muslim is better that other religious community. There are around 46 per cent of the sample married women have no education which is very less that the Hindus (58 per cent). Like many other state the percentage of literate without going to school is higher than other religious community. That suggests still large number of children are getting their education either at home or at Madrasa. It is important that the number of children receiving this kind of education in Andhra Pradesh is very less as compare to other state. Table also suggests that the elementary and secondary education among the Muslims is higher than others. While, Muslims are lagging behind at higher secondary stage, just 8 percent of the children were able to complete 11 or more year of schooling in the state.

The above table represents literacy rate among the major socio religious group. Highest literacy is found among the male (86 percent) and female (77 percent) in other religion which comprises Jain, Buddhist, and Sikhs. Christian literacy is 73 percent, Male literacy among the Christian is around 79 percent and female literacy is 66 percent.  On an average Muslim male (77 percent) is more literate than Muslim female (58.27). The Muslim literacy is more where they constitute less in numbers. These districts are East Godavari, West Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagram, and Sirkakulam. In districts where the Muslim population are in good numbers such as Kurnool, Guntur, Prakasam etc. in those places female literacy is 42 percent, 48 percent and 49 percent respectively which is less that 50 percent and even less than the state average 63 percent. Similarly, in the Hindu community female are more illiterate than other socio religious group. Their literacy is just 51 percent which is not only less than the state average but also the Muslims. Similarly, the literacy among male in the Hindus (71 percent) is less than other religious community. It is evident from the above analysis that the Muslims are not in a bad condition in many places and they are doing much better than Hinds in the field of education. The above analysis shows that in every religious community women’s literacy and education is not given preference especially in the Muslim and Hindu community that too in the rural area.

The literacy rate of the Muslims is much better as compare to other disadvantage group. It should be kept in the mind that majority of the Hindu population in Andhra Pradesh is dominated by the Other Backward Class (OBCs).

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) in a report found that the attendance of the sampled population shows substantial difference between children from Muslim families and those from the other religious background. In their three visits to the sample schools found that the children from Muslim families were present less in numbers than were children from families with other religious affiliation. In the analysis of data shows that Muslim children are performing better than others but they do not translate into better learning outcome. The data suggest that at the initial stage of schooling i.e. in class I and II, attendance of the Muslim students is good but at the end of the primary stage i.e. class IV and V, attendance of the Muslim students become poor. This reflects the problem of dropout among children is higher as they move upwards in the education ladder.[7]

Graph: 1

In the annual report published in the Andhra Pradesh government website, the condition of the Muslims at elementary level are overall improving as compare to the past. The enrollment level according to the report is above 95 per cent and in some districts such as Kurnool, Anantapur etc. the enrollment level of girls is more that the boys.[8] While the out of school children is higher in Guntur where more than 50 per cent of the school going age children are out of school from the Muslim community girls out of school rate are higher than the boys.

Similarly, the dropout is quit high in the Guntur and Kurnool as compare to other districts of the state at primary stage, it constitutes more than 50 per cent of children who are out of school. At upper primary stage dropout of the children is less but in district which is having highest number of Muslim population have large number of dropouts. Girls leaving out the school more than the boys at this stage in the above mentioned districts.  

Table:3

Literacy among Rural and Urban MuslimsLiteracy in Andhra Pradesh

Source: Census 2001

The above table reflects the literacy status among the Muslims at rural and urban place. We can see that the rural literacy in the state is 63 percent among the Muslims in which male are 74 percent literate and females are only 52 percent literate. Female literacy in the rural area is worse as compare to the state average.

Graph: 2

1. Bhattacharjea Suman, Wilima Wadhwa and Rukmini Banerji (2011), Inside Primary Schools: A study of teaching and learning in rural India, Assessment Survey Evaluation Research (ASER), New Delhi.

2. Reddy, G.Prakash. (2006).Perception of Muslim Women of Their Rights and Status in the State of Andhra Pradesh, Noble Social and Educational Society, Tirupati.

3. Raju, V. P. S., (2022), Non-Enrolment and Drop-out of Muslim Children at Elementary Stage: Comparative Study of Uttar Pradesh and Combined Andhra Pradesh, NIEPA, New Delhi (unpublished research report).

4. Saheb, S. A. A. (2003). Dudekula Muslims of Andhra Pradesh: An Ethnographic Profile, Economic and Political Weekly, 38(46).

6. Census 2001

7. NFHS-3

8. DLHS 3

9. Census 2011

Websites:

1. http://www.apsdps.ap.gov.in/Annual-plans/Muslims%20in%20AP%201.pdf
2. http://www.aponline.gov.in/apportal/webdirectory/webdirectory.html?=4
3. wcd.nic.in/research/Perception-Muslim%20Women.doc
4. wcd.nic.in/research/Perception-Muslim%20Women.doc accessed on 20^th July 2014
5.http://img.asercentre.org/docs/Publications/ASER%20Reports/ASER_2013/ASER2013_report%20sections/ ase2013fullreportenglish.pdf
6. ACER (rural) 2013, page 83.
7. Inside Primary School, A study of Teaching and Learning in rural India; by Suman Bhattacharjea, Wilim Wadhwa, Rukmini Banerji (2011) ACER,Mumbai.      
8. http://www.apsdps.ap.gov.in/Annual-plans/Muslims%20in%20AP%201.pdf
9. https://www.milligazette.com/Archives/2004/16-31Aug04-Print-Edition/163108200423.htm
10. Samir Ghosh (2023) National Education Policy 2020,An Analysis of New Education System published by Social Research Foundation International, Kanpur pp. 83-92.