National Commission for Minorities was set up by Union government as a statutory body under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. The Act provides for the following mandate for the commission :

• Evaluation of the progress of the development of minorities under the Union and States;
• Monitoring of the working of the safeguards for minorities provided in the Constitution and in laws enacted by Parliament and the State Legislatures;
• Making recommendations for the effective implementation of safeguards for the protection of the interests of minorities by the Central Government or the State Governments;
• Looking into specific complaints regarding deprivation of rights and safeguards of minorities and taking up such matters with the appropriate authorities;
• Conducting studies, research and analysis on the issues relating to socio-economic and educational development of minorities and making periodic reports and suggesting appropriate measures to the government.

However, NCM as an institution suffers from several major structural inefficiencies and challenges in fulfilling its mandate such as:

• Capacity related challenges: It is characterized by human resource deficiency at various key positions, and under-utilization of technology. Consequently, it results in high case pendency, non-redressal of grievances and lack of predictability in hearings.
• Financial planning and expenditure related challenges: Funds allocated are limited, a majority of which is spent on salaries and very little, if at all, on research studies and publications.
• Legal and constitutional authority related challenges: Absence of constitutional authority, render it incapacitated to fulfill its mandate. Further, State Minority Commissions are not given adequate powers to implement, monitor, and review developmental programs for Minorities.

Measures that can be taken to address the challenges faced by NCM :

• Setting baseline targets to keep pendency in check and result based management to ensure accountability and transparency in the operations.
• Human resource assessments should be periodically done for its efficient functioning considering the volume of cases.
• Stakeholder Satisfaction Survey should be undertaken for citizens to anonymously provide feedback regarding the qualitative redressal of their grievances.
• Institutionalizing “e-hearing” mechanism which connects appellants from their home districts to the Commission to obviate the need for people to travel far distances for attending hearings.
• Delineating and strengthening the role of state level commissions by segregating cases between National and State commissions based on financial loss, extent of hurt, extent of social injustice etc.

Constitutional status to NCM along with the above measures would ensure that NCM is able to carry out its legal mandate effectively.