Abstract
India’s economic growth cannot be conceived in isolation of its household and tiny level industry such as the Aligarh lock industry. It is more so as the growth of India’s petty industrial units has not at par with the over all, rather rapid economic growth of the country and the artisans engaged in the household and tiny level units have also not been equally benefitted with the consequential profits. The Muslims who constitute large number of artisan class have particularly been at a loss as they tend to excessively concentrate in the low-paying jobs, engage in artisanal sectors, or else serve as casual labour. Most of them are self-employed in low income artisan based works. Above all, they are educationally more backwards than their counterparts in other communities. Restrained further by over all security scenario all this goes to curtail their mobility. The present field based study that ascertains the status of Muslim artisans of Aligarh lock industry brings forth the fact that the artisans have been struggling hard for sustaining with the bare minimum of resources (income), yet aspiring to stick to the same hereditary profession. Availing of educational facilities is a far cry for them. Yet, they like to expose their children to formal education, even though it looks the least beneficial to them. This takes us to the next stage: how to improve their lot through educational means that could be geared to provide craft centred education to them all and educate them in the art of marketing their product, a more profitable step for raising levels of income.
Highlights
The rapid economic growth— over six percent GDP growth since the 1980s (IHD, 2014, p. 1)—has given India a heightened status in the global economy
Aligarh is famous for its Muslim University and lock industry
After conducting the interviews and having taken field notes it was found that the lock industry employed three categories of workers that are regular, casual, and family workers
Summary
The rapid economic growth— over six percent GDP growth since the 1980s (IHD, 2014, p. 1)—has given India a heightened status in the global economy. The benefits of economic development have not improved the quality of life of a vast number of socio-religious groups which remain largely conditioned by structurally and historically defined exploitative contexts. Due to the persistent conditions of structural disparity and social inequality, the economic development boom may hardly generate desired social change and class mobility at an equal rate for all social classes, caste groups, and religious minorities. Accounting for 14.4 percent of India’s vast population, making it the largest of all religious minorities in India, the community has been the subject of considerable development discourse, for it has the lowest levels of educational attainment when compared with major socioreligious groups in India and the lowest standard of living in the country (see Ghosh, 2013).
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