Minorities Welfare in Bangaru Telangana

Minorities welfare in Telangana

On 03 March 2015, the Minorities Welfare Department, Telangana Government established the Commission of Inquiry to study the Socio Economic and Educational Status of Muslims in the State of Telangana under Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952. The Commission’s study and final report will help the Government to plan for holistic growth of Muslims in the State of Telangana.

The Commission is requested to carry out its study and submit the Report and its recommendations to the Government within six months from the date on which it commences its inquiry. Accordingly, the Telangana Government Published the notification in the Extraordinary Issue of the Telangana Gazette on 04 March 2015. The committee members would like to study the Social, Educational and Economic status of Muslims of the State.

Commission of Inquiry Roles & Responsibilities

1. To prepare a comprehensive report on the Social, Educational and Economic status of Muslims in the Telangana State.
2. Obtain information from State and Central Government Departments, agencies/institutions.
3. Collate data, conduct intensive study/survey on the social,educational, economic conditions of the Muslims in Telangana State.
4. Report on the income levels and educational levels across the state.
5. Report on the educational indicators like literacy rate and health indicators MMR and IMR compared with other sections of the
6. society.
7. Percentage of Muslims in employment in the Government/Quasi Government/Private Sector employment.
8. Report on the access of Muslims to banking credit and allied services provided by the Government compared with other communities.
9. Report on the availability of Government Welfare Infrastructure and Institutional Mechanism for implementation of Government
10. Welfare Schemes in Muslim dominated areas.

Consolidate the information through its study and survey and analyze the data gathered and submit a Report to the Government within six months, recommending the steps to be taken to remove the impediments in the improvement of the overall social,educational, economic conditions of the Muslim Community and to provide for reservation in Education and Employment to poor deserving Muslims of Telangana State, wherever necessary.

Who can contribute the data?

• State and Central Government Departments
• Commissionerate / Directorate, Minorities Welfare
• Telangana State Minorities Finance Corporation, Ltd., Hyderabad
• Telangana State Urdu Academy, Hyderabad.
• Dairatul-Maarif-il-Osmania
• Telangana State Minorities Commission, Hyderabad
• State and Central Government agencies/institutions

Center for Educational Development of Minorities, Hyderabad
Private Sector Employers
Universities / other private Education institutions
Citizens of Telangana.

Surveys
Background:
The Government of Telangana (GoTS) has been committed to formulate evidence-based policies and programmes for improving the socioeconomic conditions of Muslims in the State. In pursuance of this, a Commission of Inquiry has been set up by the Government to examine in detail the socioeconomic and health status of Muslim population and come out with recommendations to assist the Government of Telangana to formulate suitable policies and interventions to improve the overall living conditions of Muslims in the State.

The Commission has started working to generate empirical evidence on social, educational and economic status of Muslims in the State based on analysis of information from State and Central government departments, agencies/institutions, and also collecting primary data on the social, educational, economic conditions of the Muslims in Telangana. The Commission is also mandated to report on income and educational levels – literacy rate, enrolment rate, retention rate, etc, and health indicators, such as infant mortality rate (IMR) and maternal mortality ratio (MMR), for Muslims; percentage of Muslims in employment in the government/quasi government/private sector employment, extent of access of Muslims to banking credit and allied services provided by the government compared with other sections of the society.

The Inquiry Commission has been entrusted with the task of analysis and consolidation of information and submission of report with recommendations and steps to be taken to remove the impediments in the improvement of the overall social, educational, economic conditions of the Muslim community and to provide for reservation in education and employment to poor deserving Muslims of Telangana.

Objective & Methodology
Study objective
The present study is intended to carry out a representative sample survey of households in the State of Telangana to obtain primary data on socioeconomic and health conditions of Muslims, Hindus and other minority religious communities in order to understand the achievement/progress of Muslims in various development indicators as compared with Hindus and other religious groups.

Study Methodology
The determination of the sample size for the present study is governed by several considerations, including the religious groups (Hindus, Muslims and other religious minorities), for which the estimates are required, the desired level of precision of the estimates, degree of representativeness of the sample and the availability of resources and time. A representative sample is one in which the characteristics of the sample are approximately the same as those of the target population. A good representative sample can be obtained by adjusting the sample size and using an appropriate method of selecting the sample units. Although sample size and representativeness are two related concepts, but they are in a way different issues. The size of the sample does not reflect its ability to accurately represent a target population. Large unrepresentative samples are as bad as small unrepresentative samples.

The size of the sample is determined primarily by two things: the availability of resources, which sets the upper limit of the sample size and the requirements of the proposed plan of analysis, which sets the lower limit. The decision to fix the optimum sample size cannot be made satisfactorily, because often we do not possess enough information to be sure that our estimated sample size is the best one.

Broadly speaking, the sample size must be large enough

(1) to undertake reliable and a meaningful analysis of cross-tabulations,

(2) to provide for desired levels of accuracy in estimates of proportions/percentages, and

(3) to test for the significance of differences between proportions.

Religious Group	Sample size (No. of HHs)
Muslims	4000
Hindus	3000
Other religious groups	1000
Total	8000

1 Sample Size Determination
Keeping the above points in mind, we have to fix the sample size so that it represents the diverse characteristics of Muslim population in Telangana state and also the size of the sample is adequate to undertake a meaningful bi-variate analysis. According to 2011 census, 85.1% of the total population of Telangana state were Hindus, 12.7% were Muslims and the rest (2.2%) were distributed among a variety of minority communities such as Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains. The main focus of the present study is to examine religious differentials in socio-economic and educational indicators. Further, the religious differentials need to be examined separately for rural and urban areas. In the State of Telangana, Muslims are mainly concentrated in urban areas (75%), while Hindus are predominantly living in rural areas (70%). Keeping in mind the diversity in the settlement pattern of these two religious communities, we need to select sufficiently a large sample of Muslims spread over in all the 10 districts of the state.

A sample of 4000 Muslim households in the state of Telangana would be an adequate size for the present study. As the objective of the study is to examine religious differentials in several socio-economic and environmental variables, it is necessary to sample 3000 Hindu households to represent the population of Hindus in the state. Since the other minority communities constitute a meagre 2.2% population, it is proposed to cover 1000 HHs from other minority religious groups. Therefore, the sample size proposed for the study is as follows:

The sample of households is to be allocated to rural and urban areas based on proportion of rural and urban population according to religion in 2011. The distribution of sample households in each district will be based on proportion of rural urban population.

2 Sampling in Rural areas
A multi-stage stratified sampling design is proposed to be adopted for the selection of households in the sample units. In multi-stage sampling, the sample is selected in multiple stages.

All mandals in the district according to 2011 census frame will be arranged and 15% of the total mandals in each district will be selected by PPS sampling method. There are 464 mandals in the state and 15% of the total (70 mandals) will be selected.
In each of the selected mandal, villages are arranged according to population size and select a fixed number of villages randomly after stratifying the villages using certain criteria. Stratification is needed to ensure the inclusion of villages with diverse socioeconomic characteristics in the sample. All the villages will be stratified by a number of variables such as village size, percentage of population belonging to scheduled castes or scheduled tribes and female literacy. The number of villages to be selected from each stratum is proportional to the stratum size. In each stratum, a sample of villages will be drawn randomly.

The third stage involves the selection of households. If we want to use simple random sampling method, a list of households in the selected villages would need to be obtained. A rapid house-listing exercise will be undertaken considering the time and resources required. Alternatively, we may consider following the WHO recommended 30 by 7 cluster methodology for the selection of households.

3 Sampling in Urban areas
In urban areas, the sampling frame for the first stage of selection is the list of all wards in the state. The Primary Census Abstract (PCA) provides details of all the wards in each city or town in urban area. The list will be arranged by geographical regions and then by female literacy. A sample of urban wards from the list of wards will be selected by PPS sampling. From the selected ward, a sample of census enumeration blocks (CEBs) attached to the ward will be selected randomly, and then in the third stage households will be selected using the method adopted in rural areas.

4 Sampling in Hyderabad City

Hyderabad city is divided into five zones and 150 wards, ranging from 17 wards in the East zone to 50 wards in the Central zone as shown below:

All wards with population in each zone according to 2011 census frame will be arranged and four wards in each zone will be selected by PPS sampling method. This gives us 20 wards representing all the five zones of Hyderabad city.

Each ward is divided into several urban blocks. From each selected ward, 3 blocks will be selected again by PPS method. This gives us 60 blocks from 20 wards.

Zone	No. of wards
East zone	17
South zone	43
Central zone	50
West zone	14
North zone	26
Total	150

The third stage involves the selection of households. If we want to use simple random sampling method, a list of households in the selected villages would need to be obtained. A rapid house-listing exercise will be undertaken considering the time and resources required. Alternatively, we may consider following the WHO recommended 30 by 7 cluster methodology for the selection of households.

G.Rajendera Kumar