By Maeeshat.in,

Mumbai, July 23: In population, Muslims are almost equal to Scheduled Castes in Maharashtra, but in higher education enrolment, according to the latest government survey, they are four times lower than SCs.

As per the All India Survey on Higher Education or AISHE 2015-16, more than 39.87 lakh students were enrolled in higher education and more than 4.88 lakh or 12.24% of them were from the Scheduled Castes who constitute 11.81% of the state population as per Census 2011.

While Muslims constitute 11.54% of the state population but in higher education, they were just 3.07% (or 1.22 lakh out of total 39.87 lakh), reveals the AISHE 2015-16 report of Union HRD Ministry released in New Delhi last week.

The share of Muslims in higher education enrolment is lower than even the Scheduled Tribes. STs have 4.54% enrolment in higher education though their population in the state is smaller (9.35%) than Muslims (11.54%).

At national level, the total enrolment in higher education, by 30th Sep 2015, was estimated to be 34.6 million, of which OBCs constituted 33.75%, SCs 13.9%, STs 4.9% and Muslims 4.7%.

In Oct 2013, the Mahmoodur Rahman committee of Maharashtra government had recommended 8-10% quota for Muslims in job and education. In June 2014, the Congress government approved 5% quota for Muslims. But soon after coming to power, the BJP government scrapped the quota for Muslims in March 2015.