Rising Beyond the Ceiling - Research & Analytics

Muslim Women In India

Research & Analytics

The population of Muslim women in India is estimated to be 100 million today. This is a large cohort, larger than many countries in the world and many Indian states. However, there is limited research, data and analysis on this demographic. This initiative curates research, analytics and evidence on the socioeconomic and development trends among Indian Muslim women and is rooted in the principle of Leaving No One Behind (LNOB), the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Reducing inequalities and ensuring no one is left behind are integral to achieving the SDGs. Leaving no one behind means moving beyond assessing average and aggregate progress, towards ensuring progress for all population groups at a dis-aggregated level. This will require dis-aggregating data to identify who is being excluded or discriminated against, how and why, as well as who is experiencing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and inequalities. In practice, most people, women and girls in particular, face more than one kind of deprivation and/or disadvantage or discrimination. For example, women from marginalized communities often experience different intersecting and multiple layers of deprivation, disadvantage and discrimination ranging from economical, social, spatial and/or political. These could be, for example, due to ethnicity, race, gender, age, disability or a combination of these. In all societies, those experiencing deprivations and disadvantages related to all five factors, namely, socio-economic, geographical, discrimination exclusion, governance and shocks/fragility, are the most likely to be among the furthest behind (Source United Nations 2019 link). A compendium of studies and publications is envisaged to be put together by a team of researchers to build a repertoire of evidence and information to inform policy and programming. The research will conduct a meta-analysis of published studies and papers from India and abroad on the status, issues, challenges and recommendations related to the Muslim women in India. Some samples of research on educational and employment status of Muslim women in India are shared here to initiate the repertoire.

Publications on India Muslim Women (1990 onwards)

A.R. Kidwai

Ghazala Wahab

A.R. Engineer

Zoya Hasan

Juhi Gupta

Mudassar Ahmed Kazi

Mufti Samiya Tabassum

Noor Jahan Safia Naz

Rakshanda Jalil

Samiullah M. Ghanchi

Shahida Lateef

Shahla Tabassum

Shaista Inamdar

Shibani Roy

Usha Nayar

Zakia Soman

Farah Naqvi

Ghazala Jamil

Hajira Kumar

Mengia Hong Tscalaer

Research Papers & Reports on India Muslim Women

Muslim Women in India

This Report has been commissioned and is published by MRG as a contribution to public understanding of the issue which forms its subject. Author of the report SEEMA KAZI specializes in women and development. She has been educated in India, the Netherlands and Norway. She is associated with the network Women Living Under Muslim Laws and has carried out research on Muslim women in India. She currently works as an independent researcher on Muslim women in India and human rights education in Muslim societies. Report available at https://minorityrights.org/wp-content/uploads/old-site-downloads/download-130-Muslim-Women-in-India.pdf © Minority Rights Group 1999

Factors Affecting Gender Disparity in Muslim Education in India

Reshmi Sengupta First Published January 23, 2018 Research Article https://doi.org/10.1177/2455133317737936

Education is the basic and fundamental requirement for the progress and development of overall society. Gender disparities in education reflect the unequal position of women in highly gender biased social order. This is true not only of developed societies but also of developing societies like India where women are at a disadvantage despite a series of educational programs and reforms. Among all the religious communities, Muslims are the lowest educated section of Indian Society and Muslim women the least one. The backwardness among Muslim women in comparison with non-Muslim women in India has become a matter of concern at present. Although Islam as a religion gives its full emphasis on attainment of women"s education, yet there are several social reasons for their backwardness such as large family size, poverty, negative attitude towards girl"s education, lack of link between madrassa education and modern education, etc. The study aims to highlight the educational status of Muslim women in India, the reasons for their backwardness, the issues and challenges they face and recommendations for their integration with the mainstream society

Today’s Developmental World and the Educational Status of Muslim Women in India

Shaikh, Ahmad, Today’s Developmental World and the Educational Status of Muslim Women in India (January 7, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3515350 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3515350

Education is the basic and fundamental requirement for the progress and development of overall society. Gender disparities in education reflect the unequal position of women in highly gender biased social order. This is true not only of developed societies but also of developing societies like India where women are at a disadvantage despite a series of educational programs and reforms. Among all the religious communities, Muslims are the lowest educated section of Indian Society and Muslim women the least one. The backwardness among Muslim women in comparison with non-Muslim women in India has become a matter of concern at present. Although Islam as a religion gives its full emphasis on attainment of women‟s education, yet there are several social reasons for their backwardness such as large family size, poverty, negative attitude towards girl's education, lack of link between madrassa education and modern education, etc. The study aims to highlight the educational status of Muslim women in India, the reasons for their backwardness, the issues and challenges they face and recommendations for their integration with the mainstream society.

Educational Status of Muslim Women in India: Issues and Challenges

Hussain, Dr & Khan, Manzoor & Khan, Farooq. (2018). Educational Status of Muslim Women in India: Issues and Challenges. 6. 311-316. 10.21276/sjahss.2018.6.2.5.
Education is the basic and fundamental requirement for the progress and development of overall society. Gender disparities in education reflect the unequal position of women in highly gender biased social order. This is true not only of developed societies but also of developing societies like India where women are at a disadvantage despite a series of educational programs and reforms. Among all the religious communities, Muslims are the lowest educated section of Indian Society and Muslim women the least one. The backwardness among Muslim women in comparison with non-Muslim women in India has become a matter of concern at present. Although Islam as a religion gives its full emphasis on attainment of women"s education, yet there are several social reasons for their backwardness such as large family size, poverty, negative attitude towards girl"s education, lack of link between madrassa education and modern education, etc. The study aims to highlight the educational status of Muslim women in India, the reasons for their backwardness, the issues and challenges they face and recommendations for their integration with the mainstream society.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330535000_Educational_Status_of_Muslim_Women_in_India_Issues_and_Challenges

Indian Muslim Women's education and employment in the context of modernization, religious discrimination and disadvantage.

Sonya Rastogi, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Directed By: Associate Professor, Sonalde Desai, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland USA

Research on Muslim women in India has increased in recent years, but remains sparse. The few existing studies rarely examine the interplay of religion and gender on Muslim women, nor do they investigate the historical influences shaping Muslim women’s lives. Using the National Sample Survey (NSS), this dissertation seeks to make a unique contribution to the literature by examining Muslim women’s educational enrollment and wage employment in the context of three historical forces: modernization, religious discrimination and disadvantage, and the rise of Hindu fundamentalism and Muslim identity politics. We find that modernization has played an important role in increasing school enrollment for children ages 12 to 15. Modernizing forces have also influenced employment in India, modestly increasing wage employment. While Muslims have benefited from modernizing forces, they continue to face discrimination and disadvantage in the educational system and labor market; therefore they have lower levels of school enrollment and slightly lower engagement in wage employment compared to non-scheduled caste Hindus. There is also evidence that the rise of Hindu fundamentalism has had a negative impact on Muslim enrollment and wage employment over time, however these effects appear greater for Muslim enrollment compared to Muslim wage employment. Evidence suggests that enrollment for Muslims above the poverty line may have been more affected by Hindu fundamentalism relative to poorer Muslims from 1983 to 1987; however, wealthier and poorer Muslims appear similarly affected by Hindu fundamentalism after 1987. Contrary to expectations, results suggest that poorer Muslim’s wage employment is more affected by the rise of Hindu fundamentalism relative to wealthier Muslims. As expected, the interplay of religion and gender has affected Muslim women’s enrollment and wage employment. Specifically, they experience lower levels of enrollment and wage employment compared to Muslim men and Hindu men and women. Muslim women have been further affected by the rise of Hindu fundamentalism and Muslim identity politics in both enrollment and wage employment. However, it appears that these factors have been relatively more detrimental to Muslim women’s wage employment compared to their enrollment.

Educational Status of Muslim Women in India: An Overview

Firdaus Bano Research Scholar KolhanUniversity, Chaibasa, Jamshedpur, India

Women constitute almost half of the population of the world.Education for women is the best way to improve the health nutrition and economic status of a household that constitute a micro unit of nation economy. Gender disparities in education and all other social and demographic indicators reflect the unequal position of girl and women in highly sexist gender discriminatory social order. While historically there has always been a gap between the boys and girls in India, the case of Muslim Women has been yawing. The Study aimed at giving a brief overview of education status of Muslim women and to explore the future directions and strategies for integrating and galvanizing women of all walks of life for playing their role in building and sustaining the 21st Century. And more importantly building an equitable social order and a society that will give its women not only formal equality but a life of dignity. http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol.%2022%20Issue6/Version-3/C2206031013.pdf

Muslim Women’s Low Labour Force Participation in India: Some Structural Explanations

Das, Maitreyi. (2004). Muslim women’s low labour force participation in India: Some structural explanations.

The low participation of women in market employment as measured by large labour force surveys in India is well-known. Disaggregated by religion, we find that based on the National Sample Survey, 50th round, 1993-94, over 36 percent of Hindu women and only 16 percent of Muslim women are employed. Data on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are analyzed in some depth, mainly because these groups are considered to be the poorest and because policy makers and scholars are curious about the impact of reservations in public employment and educational institutions, but similar analyses of Muslim employment are hardly ever undertaken. While the low economic status of Muslims is a fact well-recognized by academics, and often by policy makers as well, the economic status of Muslim women seldom gets any attention, due to two main reasons. First, low educational status of Muslim women in comparison with their Hindu counterparts is implicated in the latter’s lower labour force participation. Second, cultural norms of status and seclusion are all too often emphasized in explaining Muslim women’s lower visibility in politics, economic leadership and high status occupations.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300833317_Muslim_women's_low_labour_force_participation_in_India_Some_structural_explanations

Muslim Women’s Work Participation in India

Nahid Sarikhani Department of Sociology, Mysore University, Manasagotri, Mysore, Karnataka, India (2008)

The present study aims at investigating “Muslim women’s work participation in India “based on: population census in 2001. In this study has been used of “descriptive research”. Results have indicated that Muslim constitutes 13.4 percent of India’s population. Indeed, India has the second largest Muslim population in the world. Sex ratio among Muslim population at national level is 936. Illiterate rate of Muslim women is high and they have not been able to take full advantage in society. There also exists a wide gap between the works participation rate of males and females. In additional, a significant part of Muslim women are recorded as unskilled work sources in the country. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.560.1719&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Determinants of Muslim Female Participation in the Labour Force

Maria Khan, Scholar, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Mehrauli Road, Delhi - 110 067, India. Volume 7, Issue 5, September-October 2018 - Labour and Demographic Economics .

Status of Muslim Women Entrepreneur in India: A Muslim Minority Country

Khatoon, Sabiha. (2015). STATUS OF MUSLIM WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR IN INDIA: A MUSLIM MINORITY COUNTRY. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN COMMERCE & MANAGEMENT. VOLUME NO. 6 (2015), ISSUE NO. 05 (MAY) ISSN 0976-2183

The birth of a sustainable, profit-making entity that contributes to the development of a society is a task not all can shoulder. Entrepreneurs are bearers of this exalting burden. Although hailing from different backgrounds and cultures, all entrepreneurs share the courage to venture into the unknown. Though entrepreneurship knows no boundaries of faith, the present paper specifically looks into the status of Muslim women entrepreneur in India. Muslim women are overwhelmingly self-employed (engaged in home-based work) in India. Sewing, embroidery, zari work, chikan work, readymade garments, agarbatti rolling, beedi rolling are some of the occupations in which Muslim women workers are concentrated. There is high share of Muslim women workers engaged in selfemployment activity like in own account worker in household enterprise 29.1% and employer in household enterprise 0.7% (higher than Hindus). As compared to all other socio religious groups, a much larger proportion of Muslims (both men and women) work in self-owned proprietary enterprises. This is particularly so in urban areas. Participation of women workers in women-owned proprietary enterprises is significantly higher for Muslims (13.7%). However, as enterprises of Muslim women are mainly home-based, they are typically engaged in sub contracted work with low levels of earnings. KEYWORDS Entrepreneurs, Women Entrepreneur, challenges, growth. INTRODUCTION n the manufacturing sector today, human capital is still essential for most factories to carry out a variety of task. The concept of entrepreneurship was first established in the 1700s, it refers to the activities related to undertaking the efforts to set up an industry or business establishment. Entrepreneurship has different meanings to different people. In practice Entrepreneurship is about creating something new, or discovering a new way of making something that already exists (Henderson, 2002; Schumpeter, 1947). An entrepreneur undertakes innovations or introduces new things in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods. Drucker (1985) stated that Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice. The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield. In economics, entrepreneurship combined with land, labour, natural resources and capital can produce profit. An entrepreneur is a person who mobilized the resources for more benefits with lowering the cost. Entrepreneurs develop new goods or processes that the market demands and are not currently being supplied. Innovation is needed for the development of new methods in production process, exploration of new sources for raw materials, finding out new segment of markets and development of strategies. An entrepreneur is a risk taker, intelligent decision maker, recognize potential profit opportunities, and conceptualize the venture strategy. WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP- THE CONCEPT According to the general concept, women entrepreneur may be defined as a women or a group of women who initiate, organize and operate a business enterprise. The Government of India has defined a women entrepreneurship as “an enterprise owned and controlled by a women having a minimum financial interest of 51% of the capital and giving at least 51% of the employment generated in the enterprise to women”. A female who plays a fascinating role by frequently interacting and actively adjusting herself with socio-economic, financial and support spheres in society is called women entrepreneur (Anjum, et. al). Women entrepreneurship means the enterprise established and managed by women. REASONS FOR THE SLOW GROWTH OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN INDIA In spite of the initiatives taken by the government, the growth of women entrepreneurship is very slow in the state. The reasons are outlined as below: 1. Unfavourable family background. 2. Lack of business education. 3. Dual role of women. 4. Lack of aptitudes and training. 5. Absence of individualistic spirit. 6. Lack of freedom to choose a job according to ability, influence of sex, custom etc. 7. Inadequate infrastructure facilities. 8. Shortage of capital and technical knowhow. 9. Lack of adequate transport and communication facilities. 10. Shortage of power. 11. Lack of security. 12. Absence of ideal market conditions. 13. Corruption in administration. PROBLEMS OF MUSLIM WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIA The basic problem of a woman entrepreneur is that she is a woman. Women entrepreneurs face two sets of problems specific to women entrepreneurs. These are summarized as follows: 1) Shortage of Finance: Women and small entrepreneurs always suffer from inadequate fixed and working capital. Owing to lack of confidence in women’s ability, male members in the family do not like to risk their capital in ventures run by women. Banks have also taken negative attitude while lending to women entrepreneurs. Thus women entrepreneurs rely often on personal saving and loans from family and friends. 2) Shortage of Raw Material: Women entrepreneurs find it difficult to procure material and other necessary inputs. The prices of many raw materials are quite high. 3) Inadequate Marketing Facilities: Most of the women entrepreneurs depend on intermediaries for marketing their products. It is very difficult for the women entrepreneurs to explore the market and to make their product popular. For women, market is a ‘chakravyuh’. 4) Keen Competition: Women entrepreneurs face tough competition from male entrepreneurs and also from organized industries. They cannot afford to spend large sums of advertisement. 5) High Cost of Production: High prices of material, low productivity. Underutilization of capacity etc. accounts for high cost of production. The government assistance and subsidies would not be sufficient for the survival.

Women Entrepreneurship among minorities in India

H. Yasmeen Sultana Department of Economics, School of Management Pondicherry Central University, Puducherry- 605014, India.

Economic development of a nation encompassed by different types of activities, again the economic development will not take place spontaneously. A special human force is needed; the person who is offering the driving force to execute the process of economic development is entrepreneur. From the available source, it can be traced that Schumpeter (1951) underscored that the French economist Richard Cantillon, was the first who introduce the concept "entrepreneur" in his famous work published in 1755. The world-famous economist Schumpeter (1967) rightly remarked that economic development consists of “employing resources in a different way is doing a new combination in means of production”, in fact, entrepreneurs are acting as a hero in the production process. The role of entrepreneur in an economy is to create an environment which is conducive to the optimum utilization of the available resources such as money, man power or material. The emergence of women entrepreneurs and their contribution to the national economy is quite visible in India. The number of women entrepreneurs has grown over a period of time, especially in the 1990s. Women entrepreneurs need to be lauded for their increased utilization of modern technology, increased investments, finding a niche in the export market, creating a sizeable employment for others, and setting the trend for other women entrepreneurs in the organized sector. According to government reports, Muslim women are among the poorest, educationally disenfranchised, economically vulnerable, politically marginalized group in the country. In 1983, the Gopal Singh Committee instituted by the government, declared Muslims as a “backward” community in India. A central feature of this “backwardness” is their exceedingly poor socio-economic status, particularly of Muslim women. Most Muslim women remain “invisible” workers in the informal economy. The minority Muslim community was specifically targeted as historically, they have been one of the most backward, poor and marginalized communities in India. Hence, the present study is an attempt to assess the entrepreneurship development among Muslim community in Chennai city. As this study is focusing on only the Muslim community, it is displayed the existing entrepreneurial spirit among this community, nature of their business and available support system particularly in Chennai city. The present study conducted in Chennai city particularly places where Muslim women are involving in the entrepreneurial activities. In order to execute this research, both the primary and secondary data has been used. Secondary data have been collected from the published reports and materials while primary data have been collected from 300 sample respondents from simple random sampling method. The analysis of data collected has been carried out by using simple frequencies and percentages for multiple responses as well as weighted averages scores has been collected and use of factor analysis and chi-square been made to draw the inferences from the study. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Major variables in this study include, socioeconomic variables, factor influenced to become as an entrepreneur, nature of entrepreneurial activity, size of investment, total members employed, value of output, marketing and problems faced by Muslim women entrepreneurs in Chennai city, India. https://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/Women-Entrepreneurship-among-Minorities-in-India.pdf

Indian Muslim Women and Education- Status, Issues and Remedies

Zeba Ilyas (2020). Indian Muslim Women and Education- Status, Issues and Remedies . International Journal For Research In Social Science And Humanities | ISSN: 2208-2697, 6(11), 01-10. Retrieved from https://gnpublication.org/index.php/ssh/article/view/1436

Considering Indian situation, women in India enjoy special status. Post Independent India made several attempts to raise level of education in general and for the women in particular as it was considered to be instrumental to bring overall development, i.e. social, economic, cultural and political development, of the society. Many commissions and committees were set up to improve the status of women education during Post Independence in India. Many positive steps were taken by the state to enhance the participation of women at all levels of education. Constitutional provisions also guaranteed the education of women and made special provisions for the state to take appropriate and affirmative action for their education. However it seems that the muslim women in India have not taken full advantage of the benefits of such schemes and provisions. Muslims in India are the largest minority comprising 14% of the total population of the country and the literacy rate of muslims is the lowest among all the religious groups and the literacy rate of muslim women is lower than their counterparts and the worse among all the women groups in the country. In almost all fields of education the condition of muslim women is deplorable and is a subject of grave concern for the parents, muslim intellects, educationists and the policy makers as the development of the nation may not be achieved ignoring education of such large section of the society. Hence, the present paper will examine the issues involved in muslim women education, approach of the state and the religious intellect and the role of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs). The paper will also suggest the measures to overcome such a plight so that the women may shoulder educational, economic and political responsibilities with their counterparts in an equal manner.
https://gnpublication.org/index.php/ssh/article/view/1436

A Sociological Study on Empowerment of Muslim Women in Darrang District of Assam

Md. Abdul Wahab, M.A (Sociology), B ED, SET, Maniza Khatun, M.A, B ED, Department of Education, Kharupetia College, Darrang, Assam, IndiaIOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 20, Issue 10, Ver. V (Oct. 2015) PP 19-24 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org

Women Empowerment can be considered a change in the context of a woman ’s life that enables her increased capacity to lead a fulfilling human life, characterized by external qualities such as health, mobi lity, education and awareness, status in family, participation in decision making and level of material security, as well as internal qualities such as self-awareness and self confidence. In the era of globalization women empowerment is a vital issue of al l over the world. Promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women is one of the fifteenth Millennium Development Goals declared by the UNO. Without empowerment of women in every field like - economic, social, cultural, political etc. no one can think about all round development of the society and the concept of sustainable human development. Women constitute important segment of the society and perform multiple roles such as mother, housewives, wage earners etc. and education is very much essential for performing all these activities more efficiently. Education is one of the most important means of empowering women with knowledge, skills and self - confidence necessary to participate fully in the developmental process which reduce the gender inequality, discriminations etc. GOI has initiated various policies and legislations for women empowerment considering as development of capacities, powers and skills to make a person more confident, more self-reliant and able to take self decisions from the time of i ndependence but unable to reach towards the proper destination mostly the rural area including the entire north -eastern region. Illiteracy, communication gap, male dominant society, less political participation in decision making process, traditional nor ms, culture, social negligence, unorganized economic participations are some of the problems of women empowerment. But the women participation in the fields of economic, social, political, cultural sector are increasing slowly and steadily day by day in ev ery nook and corner of the country not only from the urban but the rural women becoming more advanced trend. But in Assam the grim picture is that 80% pregnant women suffering from malnutrition, 39% girls children out of reach in school, Gender Equality In dex ranked 29t h , Gender Development Index rank 26 t h and the maternal mortality rate is the 2 n d in India. This paper is an attempt to analyze the constraints and prospects of empowerment of Muslim women of Darrang district of Assam.
https://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol20-issue10/Version-5/D0201051924.pdf