Problem of religious minorities

Definitional Problems

• Indian Constitution recognizes two types of minorities based on language and/or religion but does not define it any where.
• The Supreme Court and various High Courts have so far depended on the statistical criterion.
• Any community that does not constitute more than Minorities 50% in the state.
• Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) have been notified as minority communities under section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
• The Muslims in India constitute the largest religious minority in the country. According to 2001 Census, 18.4 per cent of our population belongs to Minority communities. Muslims constitute 13.4 per cent, Christians 2.3 per cent, Sikhs 1.9 per cent, Buddhists 0.8 per cent and Parsis 0.07 per cent of the country’s total population. In absolute numbers,

Problems of minorities

• Minority problem is not just related to its numerical representation in a society,it is related to its oppression. Besides, it is to be perceived on the basis of language, culture, religion, etc. in relation to that of a dominant group which is, very often, a majority group in a society.
• Minorities feel a threat to their identity.
• The minorities claim that as compared to majorities, they are relatively deprived in areas like employment, politics and social facilitation.
• Minorties in India also feel a threat of physical security, administrative machinery of the state sometimes tend to victimize members of minority groups.The then Rajiv Gandhi government at the Centre was severely criticised for its failure to provide adequate security for the Sikh community of Delhi because of the communal riots that broke out after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984.
• There may be no discrimination in law or even by state functionaries. But the psychological insecurity of minorities is such that they perceive themselves to be the targets of discrimination.
• Sociologically, perception of discrimination is as detrimental as actual discrimination for members of minority groups and affects their motivation, aspirations and achievements.
• Apart from these general problems which as faced by different minorities in varying degrees, there are certain specific grievances too.
• Economically, Muslims are the most backward community with the lowest employment rate. Work participation Rate for Muslims at 31.3 percentis the lowest. Furthermore, about 35.7% Muslims live in urban areas and 36.92% of them are below the poverty line.
• Literacy rates among Muslims, both for men and women, have been the lowest among all the religious Minorities.
• Christian missionaries of the country have been alleged to be involved in conversion activities that led to communal conflicts which witnessed large scale attacks on the churches and Christians in Gujarat, Orissa and several other states. The very recent attacks on Christians and churches in the Kandhamal district of Orissa shook the entire Christian community of the world.
• The Constitution provides for reservation to scheduled castes even if they profess Buddhism & Sikhism and as such the members of these communities should not be deprived of their rights. Dalit Christians have also been demanding reservation for long.
• The rise of numerous Sikh sectarian organisations that emphasised the distinct Sikh identity. Claiming Punjab as their motherland, the Sikhs had developed a very strong sub-national identity, leading to wide spread disturbances in the state of Punjab.
• Sikhs (786) and the Jains(870), who have better female literacy figures, the sex ratio is alarming.

Solution to minority problems

• The rights of the minorities were recognised as far back as 1928 in the Motilal Nehru Draft Constitution and Subsequently, Jawaharlal Nehru writing a note on minorities in Young India on May 15, 1930,
• The Karachi Charter on Fundamental Rights of 1931 acknowledged the right of the minorities to their religion, the freedom to profess and practice any religion and laid down that the state should be neutral in religious matters. The right of the minorities to cultural autonomy was expressly granted
• During the second session of the Round Table Conference, a Memorandum on the “Congress Scheme for a Communal Settlement” was presented before the Minorities Committee on October 28, 1931.
• The report of the Sapru Committee, which was set up by the non-party conference in November 1944, recommended full religious tolerance, non-interference in religious beliefs, practices and institutions, and protection of the language and cultures of all communities.

Constitutional provisions

Various articles of the constitution provide freedom to these groups to keep intact their religious cultural and linguistic identities. The Preamble of the Constitution of India sets the tone of the governance of the country. It imbibes secularism along with socialism as the main theme for the people of this country.

• Similarly, Article 14 of the Constitution states about equality before law and Article 15 prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.
• Article 29 and Article 30 guarantee certain cultural and educational rights to minorities to establish and administer educational institution.
• Article 29(3) lays down that no citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the state or receiving aid, funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any one of them.
• Article 29(l) stipulates that ‘‘any section of Article 30(1) enjoins that All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their own choice while Article 30(2) states that “ the state shall not discriminate against any educational institution in respect of grant-in-aid on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language”.
• Article 350A directs the state to endeavor to provide adequate facilities for institution in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minorities groups.
• Article 350 B makes provision for appointment of special officer for linguistic minorities to investigate into all matters relating to safeguards provided for linguistics minorities under the constitution.
• Since India is a secular nation, Article 28(l) prevents state run institutions from imparting any religious instruction in these institution. There is, however, no bar to imparting any religious instructions in any educational institutions established under any endowment or trust, which requires the imparting of such instruction under Article28(3). This article however gives freedom to a child to decide whether he/she desires to attend religious instruction or not.
• Article 30(2) states, the state shall not discrimate in granting aid to an educational institution on the grounds that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language.

Institutional arrangement

• In 1989, an autonomous, non-political, non-profit organization, the Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF), was set up to promote education amongst educationally backward Muslims in general and Muslim girls in particular.
• National Commission for Minorities was set up as a Statutory Commission on 5th July, 1992. To ensure that the provisions and benefits of the Constitution of India are enjoyed by the minorities throughout the country, it was felt necessary that the State Governments should also set up State Minorities Commissions on similar lines. However, at present 15 State Minorities Commissions (SMCs)
• In 1994, the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) was established to give concessional credit under Term loan scheme, Educational loan scheme and Micro Finance scheme.
• The Ministry of Minority Affairs was carved out of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and created on 29th January, 2006 to ensure a more focused approach towards issues relating to the notified minority communities

Programmes for Minorities

15 Point Programme

A High Level Committee to study their conditions was set up in 1980 under the Chairmanship of Dr. Gopal Singh. The Committee, in its report, concluded that the poor among the Muslims could not avail the opportunities in education, employment and economic activities because of isolation and various historical factors. In view of this, in 1983, the Prime Minister’s 15 Point Programme was launched to provide a sense of security to minority communities. In 2006, the Prime Minister’s new 15 Point Programme for welfare of minorities has been declared. The earlier 1983 15-Point Programme centered on communal riots, representation of Minorities in services and ensuring flow of benefits to individual beneficiaries, the focus of the new Programme is to make certain that benefits of various schemes/programmes flow equitably to the Minorities.

The 15 Point Programme has been recast to focus action sharply on issues intimately linked with the social, educational and economic uplift of minorities and provide for earmarking of outlays in certain schemes so that the progress is monitorable. The Programme covers the following points:

•  Enhancing opportunities for Education

Equitable availability of ICDS Services

Improving access to School Education

Greater resources for teaching Urdu

Modernizing Madrasa Education

Scholarship for meritorious students from minority communities

Improving educational infrastructure through the Maulana Azad Education Foundation.

• Equitable Share in Economic Activities and Employment

Self- Employment and Wage Employment for the poor.

Upgradation of skills through technical training.

Enhanced credit support for economic activities.

Recruitment to State and Central Services.

Improving the conditions of living of minorities

Equitable share in rural housing scheme

Improvement in condition of slums inhabited by minority communities.

• Prevention & Control of Communal Riots

Prevention of communal incidents

Prosecution for communal offences

Rehabilitation of victims of communal riots

The Cabinet has also decided that 15% of the funds may be earmarked wherever possible in relevant schemes/programmes, for the nationally declared minorities.

The existing 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of minorities was formulated in May 1983. It covered 15 different aspects for action, commonly known as the “Prime Minister’s 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities”. These points were reiterated by the then Prime Minister, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, in his letter dated August 28, 1985 addressed to all Chief Ministers.

Multi sectoral Development Programme

MsDP Launched in 2008-09 , stands for Multi-^th-

Objectives

• The programme aims at improving the socio-economic parameters of basic amenities for improving the quality of life of the people and reducing imbalances in the Minority Concentration Areas.
• Identified ‘development infrastructure for school and secondary education, sanitation, pucca housing, health, drinking water, skill and electricity supply, besides beneficiary oriented schemes for creating income generating activities.
• Absolutely critical infrastructure linkages like connecting roads, basic health infrastructure, ICDS centres, skill development and marketing facilities required for improving living conditions and income generating activities and catalyzing the growth process would also be eligible for inclusion in the plan.
• The Multi-sectoral area development plan of a district/block/town have to be prepared in such a manner that these districts are saturated with schemes included in the Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities within the Eleventh Plan period.

Population criteria for identifying Minority Concentration Area

• Substantial minority population’ in the context of the Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme has been used for identification of districts which are relatively backward in which at least 25% of the total population belongs to minority communities has been used for identification of MCD, MCBs and MCTs.
• where a minority community is in majority in the six States/UTs, 15% of minority population other than that of the minority community in majority in that State/UTs, has been used.

Education and Skill Development

Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakaram

Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK) seeks to provide better socio-economic infrastructure facilities to the minority communities particularly in the field of education, health & skill development which would further lead to lessening of the gap between the national average and the minority communities with regard to backwardness parameters. PMJVK is restructured and renamed version of the erstwhile Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP).

Scholarship Schemes

Students belonging to notified minority communities viz. Muslim / Christian / Sikh / Buddhist / Jain / Parsi (Zoroastrian) can avail following scholarships based on their eligibility-

• Pre-matric Scholarship Scheme for Minorities (for Class I to X)

• Post-matric Scholarship Scheme for Minorities (for Class XI to Ph.D.)

• Merit-cum-Means Scholarship Scheme (For Professional and Technical courses)

• Begam Hajrat Mahal National Scholarship for Meritorious Girls belonging to Minorities-Implemented by Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) (for minority girls studying in Class XIth and XIIth Standard).

Seekho aur Kamao (Learn & Earn)

Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India on 23 September 2013 launched a central sector scheme for Skill Development of Minorities. Main Objectives of scheme are:

• To bring down unemployment rate of minorities during 12th Plan period (2012-17).

• To conserve and update traditional skills of minorities and establish their linkages with the market.

• To improve employability of existing workers, school dropouts etc and ensure their placement.

• To generate means of better livelihood for marginalised minorities and bring them in the mainstream.

• To enable minorities to avail opportunities in the growing market.

• To develop potential human resource for the country.

Padho Pardesh (for overseas studies at Masters, M.Phil. and Ph.D. Level)\

Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India has introduced a scheme for providing 'interest subsidy' for minority students for overseas studies. This scheme came into force from 2013-14. The annual income of the parents should be less than 6 lakhs.

Nalanda Scheme

Union Ministry of Minority Affairs has launched the Nalanda Project for Minorities Higher Educational Institutions on 4 March 2014. Nalanda Project is an innovative Faculty Development Program of Union Ministry of Minority Affairs. The Nalanda Project is being taken up at Aligarh Muslim University, a premier Minority University of world fame. The Aligarh Muslim University is also a Nodal Staff College of University Grant Commission.

Minority Cyber Gram (MCG)

The MCG programme seeks to introduce digital literacy skills in identified minority clusters in India through designated Digital Fellows towards knowledge empowerment and entitlement gains of minority focused groups and beneficiaries.

Economic 

Nai Roshni

The scheme is envisaged to reach out to women through nongovernmental organizations who will be provided with financial support for conducting leadership development trainings so that women are empowered and emboldened to move out of the confines of home and community and assume leadership roles and assert their rights collectively or individually.

Health

Maulana Azad Sehat scheme

Under the scheme, Sehat Card will be issued to every student of the Institution financially aided by Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF).

Others

• Jiyo Parsi, the Central Sector Scheme was launched by the Ministry of Minority Affairs in 2013. The main objective of the Jiyo parsi scheme is to reverse the declining trend of Parsi population by adopting scientific protocol and structured interventions, stabilize the Parsi population and increase the population of Parsis in India.
• USTAAD: The Scheme aims at upgrading Skills and Training in preservation of traditional Ancestral Arts/Crafts of minorities.
• Hamari Darohar: The Scheme aims to preserve rich heritage of minority communities in context of Indian culture.
• Khwaza Garib Nawaz Senior Secondary School is being established at Ajmer by Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) to give a fillip to minority education.
• Nai Manzil: A bridge course to bridge the academic and skill development gaps of the deeni Madrasa passouts with their mainstream counterparts.
• Strengthening of State Wakf Boards: The scheme envisages to provide assistance for meeting the training and administrative cost of State Wakf Boards, removal of encroachment from Waqf Properties and also strengthening of Zonal/Regional offices of Waqf Boards