Reports

This page highlights the historic significance of India’s Sachar Committee and Kundu Commission reports, the first comprehensive government efforts to objectively assess the socio-economic conditions of Muslims in India.

Commissioned by the UPA government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, these reports broke new ground by revealing deep-rooted inequalities and underrepresentation faced by Muslims—issues never systematically examined before.

Motivated by growing concerns about social justice and inclusion, the reports aimed to guide policy reforms for equal opportunity.

The page explains why these landmark studies were necessary, their lasting impact, and provides direct access to the reports, their findings, and recommendations.

This work is significant as it highlights the socia-economic status (along with probable causes and remedies) of Muslims of Indian origin. The lessons and recommendations from these reports are relevant to the Indian diaspora, including the Muslim community in Canada. The reports provide a framework for understanding the challenges faced by Muslims in India, which can inform community-building efforts and policy advocacy in Canada as well.

Sachar Committee Report (2006)

Commissioned by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh under the Congress-led UPA government in March 2005, the Sachar Committee was chaired by Justice Rajinder Sachar. The committee’s mandate was to provide a comprehensive assessment of the social, economic, and educational status of Muslims in India.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

The seven-member committee submitted its landmark 403-page report in November 2006. The findings revealed that Muslims faced significant disadvantages, including underrepresentation in government jobs (only 2.5% of bureaucracy despite being 14% of the population), poor access to education, and economic insecurity.^{[2][3][4][5][7]}

The report concluded that Muslims’ conditions were even worse than those of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and it brought national attention to their marginalization.^[3][5][7]

The committee recommended measures to remove barriers to Muslim participation in mainstream society, such as establishing an Equal Opportunity Commission, improving data collection, and increasing access to education and employment.^[2][3][5][8]

Here's the report in it's entirety:

Download the full report here.

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Sachar Committee's Recommended Actions (2006)

The committee made 76 recommendations, of which 73 were accepted by the government. Key proposals included:

• Setting up an Equal Opportunity Commission to address discrimination against minorities.
• Reforming the delimitation process so constituencies with high minority populations are not reserved for Scheduled Castes.
• Linking madrasas with mainstream education and recognizing their degrees in public services.
• Increasing Muslim representation in public bodies through nomination procedures.
• Creating a National Data Bank to track socio-economic indicators for all communities.
• Incentivizing diversity in universities by linking funding to student population diversity.
• Expanding access to government schemes and scholarships for Muslims.

The recommendations aimed to ensure Muslims could participate fully and equally in India’s economic, social, and political life.

Here's the full report on these recommendations:

Download the full report here.

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Kundu Commission Report (2014)

The Kundu Committee, chaired by Prof. Amitabh Kundu, was constituted in September 2013 by the Ministry of Minority Affairs under the Congress-led UPA government, with Dr. Najma Heptulla as Minister.^[4][5][7][8]

Its mandate was to review the implementation of the Sachar Committee’s recommendations and the Prime Minister’s 15-Point Programme for minorities. The 10-member panel submitted its report in October 2014.^[4][5][6][7]

The committee found limited progress on Sachar’s recommendations, with persistent underrepresentation and lack of access for Muslims in areas such as government jobs, education, and urban development.^[5][6][7]

The Kundu Committee recommended enacting comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, incentivizing diversity in education and employment, conducting targeted recruitment drives, and expanding welfare schemes.^[4][5][7]

It also called for a statutory definition of discrimination and civil remedies, and suggested that Dalit Muslims be moved from the OBC to the SC list for affirmative action.^[5][7]

Here's the report in it's entirety:

Download the full report here.

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Sachar Committee Followup Report (2019)

By 2019, follow-up on the Sachar and Kundu reports was minimal.^[1][2][3][5]

Both the UPA and NDA governments failed to fully implement the Kundu panel’s recommendations.^[2][3][5]

The government stated the report was still under consideration, and experts noted that most of the original Sachar recommendations remained unfulfilled.^[2][3][5]

As a result, there was little improvement in the socio-economic status of Muslims, with persistent underrepresentation and ongoing challenges in education and employment.^[2][3][5]

Here's the full report:

Download the full report here.