Muslims, SCs and STs most backward: Prof Kundu

Hyderabad: Prof Amitabh Kundu, internationally known expert in micro-economics, said on Tuesday that the Muslims and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are found on the lowest rung of socio-economic parameters in the country.

Speaking with the candidates for all India services examinations at Maulana Azad National Urdu University Prof Kundu said that the backwardness of these socio-religious groups in the smaller cities is starker than in villages. “The access to public health services among Muslims is lower than the SCs and STs. However, ante-natal care among Muslim women is almost at par with their counterparts among SC and ST women...On the other hand, infant and child mortality among Hindus is higher than other segments of the society,” he said.

Muslims in India, he said, are found more in the cities and towns than in villages. Their presence is as high as 38 percent in some urban conglomerates.

Prof. Kundu, Prof. Hargopal G., an academic and civil rights activist, and A. K. Khan, Advisor to Telangana State on Minorities, were speaking at the opening session of the daylong national conference on Understanding Civil Services in the Present Era organized by the Civil Services Coaching Academy at MANUU. The inaugural session was presided over by Dr Shakeel Ahmad, In-charge Vice Chancellor of the University.

Prof. Hargopal, sharing his experience with bureaucrats and bureaucracy, presented example of two civil servants in the united Andhra Pradesh who excelled in empathising and working for the disadvantaged sections of the society. They were S R Shankaran and B D Sharma. He said that Shankaran was so upright that he took away the excess land of the Revenue Minister of the State and distributed it among the landless. Because of his reputation as an honest and sincere officer, he could negotiate an agreement between the government and the Marxists (Naxalites). Sharma, on the other hand, lived among the tribal groups for five years to appreciate their problems and resolve them. Because of his deep understanding of the tribal issues, he was made Vice Chancellor of a university in the North East for long years. “Brilliance, empathy and hard work should be your tools when you serve as a civil servant,” he said.

Khan informed that more candidates from the rural background are making it to the Civil Services than before. “They come with a mindset that is appreciative of village level issues,” he said.

Dr Shakeel Ahmad released the journal Junoon which has been edited and produced by the Civil Services Examination Academy students.

The deliberations on various dimensions of the Examination continued till late in the evening.