Assam to conduct socio-economic survey of indigenous Muslim communities

The Assam government said that it will conduct a socio-economic survey of the state's five indigenous Muslim communities so that measures can be taken for their upliftment.

Guwahati: The Assam government on Tuesday said that it will conduct a socio-economic survey of the state’s five indigenous Muslim communities so that measures can be taken for their upliftment.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma held a meeting with senior officials at the state secretariat regarding it.

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“In a meeting held at Janata Bhawan, HCM Dr @himantabiswa directed the officials concerned to carry out a socio-economic assessment of Assam’s Indigenous Muslim communities (Goria, Moria, Deshi, Syed & Jolha),” the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) posted on X.

The findings of the assessment will guide the state government to take suitable measures, aimed at comprehensive socio-political and educational upliftment of the indigenous minorities, it said.

The development comes a day after the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar released findings of its much-awaited caste survey, months ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which revealed that OBCs and EBCs constitute 63 per cent of the state’s total population.

Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia said a survey should be carried out for all communities, especially the backward ones, in Assam.

“Goria and Moria are indigenous Muslim communities and belong to the OBC category. Then why is the government doing a selective survey? If they have any good intentions, the survey should be done for all OBCs as well as SCs and STs,” he said.

Saikia asserted that there are constitutional provisions for a survey for the Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).

“Conducting a survey only for the Muslims, mainly the OBC Muslims, is a divisionary tactic of the BJP government. It is also a reactionary move after the Bihar government’s caste survey, which was published yesterday,” he added.

The senior Congress leader further said that funds were allocated by the Sarbananda Sonowal-led Assam government for the socio-economic survey of the indigenous Muslim communities, but it was never done.

While presenting the state budget for 2019-20, Sarma, who was then the finance minister, hailed the important role played by the indigenous Muslims — Goria, Moria, Ujani, Deshi, Jolha, Poimal, Syed — in the social and economic progress of the state.

He had announced plans to establish a development corporation for the indigenous Muslims to take up various programmes aimed at the holistic development of this section of society, including self-employment opportunities.

According to the 2011 census, Assam had a total Muslim population of 1.07 crore, making up 34.22 per cent of the total 3.12 crore residents of the state. There were 1.92 crore Hindus in the state, around 61.47 per cent of the total population.