Default in exclusion and discrimination needs to be corrected soon: Ansari

Vice President Hamid Ansari today said that the default by the State in terms of deprivation, exclusion and discrimination needs to be corrected by the State at the earliest.

New Delhi, Oct 30 : Vice President Hamid Ansari today said that the default by the State in terms of deprivation, exclusion and discrimination needs to be corrected by the State at the earliest.

Addressing the annual convocation of Jamia Milia Islamia here, Ansari said: "The default by the State in terms of deprivation, exclusion and discrimination is to be corrected by the State; this needs to be done at the earliest".

"Political sagacity and public opinion play an important role in it," he said, adding that there is another default referring to "the inadequacy of the autonomous effort by the community itself in relation to its social perceptions."

Noting that Muslims in India today number about 150 million and constitute a significant segment - 13.4 percent - of Indians, Muslims have the highest child sex ratio of any social group in the country - 986 girls per 1000 boys, they are more urbanised than the general population, the literacy rate among Muslims is 59.1 percent, against a national average of 65.1, but the incidence of poverty among urban Muslims is even higher than among the urban SCs/STs, is well above other OBCs, and is almost double of the national average, Ansari said: "These figures speak for themselves in terms of the imperative for correcting social imbalances resulting from social immobility."

"The manner in which Asian Muslim societies like Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran and Turkey have addressed the questions of knowledge and gender deficit needs to be studied, perhaps emulated," said Ansari.

ANI