Title: Does population concentration of Muslims determine their socio-economic trajectories? A geographical valuation of West Bengal

Authors: Md Safikul Islam; Lubna Siddiqui; Md Nawaj Sarif; Neha Parveen

Addresses: Dr. Ambedkar International Centre (DAIC), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, New Delhi, India; Department of Geography, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India ' Department of Geography, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India ' Department of Geography, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India ' Department of Geography, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

Abstract: Muslim concentration varies over the districts of West Bengal, which leads to unequal socio-economic development. The dearth of research on the relationship between Muslim concentration and their socio-economic attributes demands an in-depth study. Therefore, this manuscript is broadly designed to find out the status of Muslims regarding the selected socio-economic indicators, i.e., sex ratio, literacy, and work participation; and to examine the relationship between socio-economic indicators and Muslim concentration in West Bengal. The study is entirely based on secondary sources of data collected from the census of India, and SNAP Report concerning religion-wise data. Population growth rate, location quotient, and coefficient of correlation have been applied for addressing the objectives. The results reveal positive relationships between Muslim concentrations and their work participation and sex ratio, while it is a negative relationship with literacy. Moreover, despite the uneven concentration and literacy, more than 30% of Muslims have engrossed the labour force in every district. Hence, education can rejuvenate the status of Muslims regardless of concentration. This paper contains important ingredients, such as the impact of Muslim concentration on their socio-economic status and the factors influencing their continued backwardness, which are very relevant and useful for Indians as well as global stakeholders, particularly social scientists and policy-makers, to work toward a sustainable society.

Keywords: Muslims; backward community; location quotient; community development; egalitarian society; sustainable development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSOC.2023.135012

International Journal of Sustainable Society, 2023 Vol.15 No.4, pp.352 - 387

Received: 19 Aug 2021
Received in revised form: 30 May 2022
Accepted: 26 Oct 2022
Published online: 27 Nov 2023 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article