Education and the Low-Level: Equilibrium Trap of UP Muslims Are We Mis-specifying the Nature of the Problem?

This chapter has attempted to understand the educational and labour market issues of Muslims in UP. The research method it followed is to carry out inter-social group comparisons for a variety of educational, skills, and labour market outputs and outcomes, within UP and also the same indicators for other states of India, especially the northern state of J&K (with a predominantly Muslim population) and a few southern states. In UP, the illiterate population is highest among Muslims (48.8 per cent), followed by Hindus (38.1 per cent). The distribution by religious affiliation of the population with graduate education is lowest among Muslims (2.7 per cent). Second, in the lower age group (5-14), for the current attendance rate in school, the percentage share is the least among Muslims (76.2 per cent) followed by Hindus (87.8 per cent). Third, we find that the situation of professional/technical education in UP is significantly poorer as compared to that at the all-India level. In addition, both Muslims and Hindus fare poorly at all-India levels as well as in UP as compared to Christians and Sikhs. Finally, the Muslim religious group is the worst performing religious group in terms of professional/technical both at the all-India level and in UP. The study concludes that the outcomes for Muslims are shaped more by the overall human development levels of the state they reside in than by their religious identity, with states performing well on human development enabling all social groups to thrive.