Though the epicenter of the Hajj celebration is Mecca, the excitement over the ceremony is no less in South Asia, the home the world’s largest number of Muslims. The season is the biggest mover of man, money and materials, and, naturally, economy of the region. It also brings the best out of the event organizers, managers, corporates and their service networks. Hajj is the best example.

No word is good and strong enough to admire and describe Saudi Arabia’s uncanny ability to organize as large, as methodical and as peaceful an international congregation as Hajj for as long a period as 40 plus days, year after year. The number of Hajj performers keeps swelling every year and the physical infrastructure and the support system keep expanding in tandem. Name anything – the number of flights in and out of Jeddah to transport the pilgrims, accommodation, local transportation, food and drinks, arrangement of mobile phone SIM cards with international connectivity for visitors, availability of gifts and memorabilia and even the number of goats for sacrifice – is all there to meet the demand of the pilgrims.

The West Asian kingdom has been doing it meticulously for years with Muslim devotees of all hues, colours and linguistic cultures coming in increasing numbers from all over the world. Hajj is among the holiest and most solemn of Muslim religious rites, one of the five tenets of Islam. Hajj is obligatory for every sane, financially sound and able-bodied adult Muslims.

Not many may be aware and appreciative of the fact that the Hajj ceremony is also probably the biggest internationally organised mover of man, money and materials, the mankind has ever seen, by air, sea, land and cyber space. In the process, it necessarily serves as a major economy mover for both the Saudis as well as other major participants across the globe such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia, which together accounts for around 35 per cent of the 1.5-billion-plus strong global Muslim population and almost 30 per cent of the total number of Hajj pilgrims. A fault-free co-ordination and communication system between the Saudi authorities and the respective governments or government-prodded autonomous agencies from participating countries such as India’s Hajj Committee make these near-flawless movements possible.

Although few – except the Saudi authorities – would know the economic benefit the holy Hajj ceremony brings to the world’s richest kingdom in real terms, the impact on the Saudi Arabian economy is variously estimated at well over US$ 10 billion or more than 20 per cent of the nation’s annual non-oil GDP. Fully-loaded Hajj flights have been the single biggest source of annual sales revenue of India’s national carrier, Air-India, as also of Pakistan’s PIA and Biman of Bangladesh among others. On ground, the mass human movement has created thousands of service sector jobs across the country as it has created in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, the UK, France, Germany, Turkey, Sudan, Yemen, UAE and elsewhere. Many of them are run by charities.

The Hajj season means a boom time for the travel and tourism business in countries sending large entourage of pilgrims. The current year’s season is already on. This year, around 2.8 million Muslims from around the world are registered to perform Hajj, a giant leap from only some 100,000 reportedly participated in 1950. The number has been increasing progressively. The number of unregistered Hajj pilgrims, comprising the rich and famous, would be another 750,000, this year. The governments have been generally liberal to meet the demand of the pilgrims from the respective countries though some of them maintain some form of a quota allocation system. This could be due to several domestic reasons, including foreign exchange constraints and logistics.

The Pakistan government’s Hajj scheme is officially involved in sending over 200,000 Hajj performers this year, mostly from the middle income group, through recognized packaged tour operators. The average total cost per person could be up to US$ 4,000. The rich spend much more. They use their own private tour and travel agents for extra comfort during the 40-day sojourn. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the country’s national carrier, alone will lift, this year, some 109,000 Hajj pilgrims from seven airports in 305 flights to Jeddah. Saudi Arabian airlines will service most of the rest. Pre-hajj flights began on September 30. The operation will be completed on October 31. The return flights start from November and end in early December. PIA has pressed into service several Boeing 747s, Boeing 777s and Airbus A 310 for the purpose.

India will officially send a total of some 125,000 Hajj and Umrah pilgrims through its highly experienced nodal agency, Hajj Committee. As in Pakistan, the Indian Hajj committee’s number does not include the rich who make their own private arrangements for the tour. This year, the number of such rich pilgrims from India is estimated at 40,000. They spend anything between US$ 5,000 and $ 10,000 per person for the entire trip.

The national carrier Air-India is expected to lift a sizeable number of the pilgrims through its dedicated service to Jeddah from as many as 21 inland embarkation points. Others will fly Saudi Airlines. The air travel cost is highly subsidized. The round trip from India is only Rs. 16,000 per person. Earlier, the airfare was pegged at Rs. 12,000 per person for several years. Air-India is expected to rake in a gross sales revenue of nearly Rs. 10 billion, including the government subsidy, this year, on account of the Hajj traffic alone.

In 2008, when the number of Hajj pilgrims was much lower, the hajj subsidy was officially given as Rs. 7.7 billion. Given the latest fall in Indian Rupee’s exchange rate vis-à-vis international hard currencies, including Saudi Riyals and USD, the subsidy amount may actually exceed Rs. 8 billion. The 2011-12 expenditure budget of the Government of India provided for only Rs. 6 billion towards Hajj subsidy. The underestimation could be deliberate.

India started Hajj subsidy in 1993, a year after the demolition of Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. Many Indian Muslim scholars criticize the government dole to Hajj pilgrims as un-Islamic. No Islamic country, not even Pakistan and Bangladesh, is known to follow such a practice. The round trip airfare from Bangladesh to Jeddah for Hajj pilgrims, this year, is quoted around US$1,300 (over Rs. 65,000) per person. India’s Minority Affairs Ministry is in favour of phasing out the Hajj subsidy by 2017.

Right now, Bangladesh is in the process of dispatching some 107,000 Hajj pilgrims to Jeddah. A large majority has already been transported to Jeddah. Biman, its national carrier, and Saudi Arabian airlines are on the job since September 29. In addition, there are 14 ‘third’ carriers, which have been pressed into service for smooth passage of the pilgrims. Bangladesh has created an additional standby capacity of nearly 36,000 passengers, just in case. Richer Bangladeshis are making their own private arrangements to perform Hajj. Their number could be as large as 30,000.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, had earlier announced an increase in this year’s Hajj travel quota by 10,000. Well over 200,000 pilgrims from Indonesia are expected to perform Hajj within the next two months under the quota system. In addition, there will be a large number of unregistered travelers. The total number may make it the largest contingent from any country, this year, befitting the size of the country’s population. Generally, 10-12 per cent of a country’s total Muslim population undertakes the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Many private tour operators from countries like Pakistan are said to be thinking of offering a shorter 11-25 days’ package option to attract more people to perform Hajj. They think such an option also makes a better business sense since Hajj is expensive. For instance, the minimum cost of a SIM card facility, which is important for visitors to stay in touch with people back home during their long stay, is 400 Saudi Riyals (SAR). The minimum meal cost per person could be around SAR 800. The cost of a goat for sacrifice could be SAR 400 or more. On top of the Hajj package price offered by tour operators, it is advisable to carry a minimum of SAR 2,000 per person to meet other expenses.

No religious congregation – be it India’s periodical Kumbh mela at Haridwar and Allahabad, annual Ganga Sagar Mela at Kapil Muni Ashram in West Bengal, or the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala, the world’s largest pilgrimage with an estimated 45-50 million devotees visiting every year, and the annual visit of the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq, during Arba’een, attracting 10-14 million people – can be compared with Hajj, simply in terms of logistics, international character, global participation, duration of stay and costs involved. Ironically, the common essence of all religious meets is peace, unity and international brotherhood. (IPA Service)