- Why did NDA-II not carry clause-7 of UPA-II PM’s New 15 Point Prog for Welfare of Minorities?
Not only Minorities/Minority affairs have always remained in focus in India but even the definition of minority has not been so far laid in clear and plain terms. To be brief even after 7 decades in India the vote bank politics focussing on religion/caste/sect/region/minority ‘welfare’ has not gone out of focus. Like the caste based reservations in services/education institutions/socio-economic support the ‘minority’ welfare slogans too have been stretched much beyond the original targets of a decade or so after 1950. It was in 1978 that Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) India under a Resolution envisaged the idea of setting a Commission for Minorities and in 1984 Minorities Commission (a non- statutory body) was appointed under the Ministry of Welfare.
Parliament of India enacted the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 Act No. 19 OF 1992 that came into force 17 May 1992 (extending to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir) replaced the Commission for Minorities by a statutory National Commission for Minorities. The Act did not specifically define the term “Minority” and left it for the Central Government to define ( Section-2-ii: “Minority”, for the purposes of this Act, means a community notified as such by the Central Government:) and so was also left the job of constitution of the Commission ( Section-3.:- i. The Central Government shall constitute a body to be known as the National Commission for Minorities to exercise the powers conferred on, and to perform the functions assigned to, it under this Act. ii.
The Commission shall consist of a Chairperson, a Vice Chairperson and five Members to be nominated by the Central Government from amongst persons of eminence, ability and integrity; Provided that five Members including the Chairperson shall be from amongst the Minority communities). The function of the National Commission for Minorities under Section-9 among other obligations included: (a) evaluating the progress of the development of minorities under the Union and States; (b) monitoring working of safeguards provided in Constitution & in laws enacted by Parliament and State Legislatures.
It was Ministry of Welfare GOI that had notified five communities (1.Muslims. 2. Christians. 3. Sikhs. 4. Buddhists. 5. Zoroastrians /Parsis) as minorities communities ( of course surely community was recognised on religion basis) at the national level on 22th October, 1993 Vide Notification No: S.O. 816(E).The first Statutory National Commission for Minorities was set up on 17.5.1993 vide a Gazette notification No. 993 dated 23-10- 1993 by the then Ministry of Welfare Government of India. Ministry of Minority Affairs was established by Government of India in 2006 as an apex regulatory body for the development and affairs concerning minority communities in India and the operations shifted from the Welfare Ministry to Ministry of Minority Affairs. .And vide notification S.O 267( E ) dated 27th January 2014 of Ministry of Minority Affairs Jains were also notified as another minority community at national level making the total as six i.e 1. Muslims. 2. Christians. 3. Sikhs. 4. Buddhists. 5. Zoroastrians /Parsis and 6. Jain.The population of the notified religious communities as minorities as per 2011 Census stood at 1.Muslims 14% , 2. Christians – 2.3 percent population (2.78 crores people),3.Sikhs – 1.7 percent population (2.08 crores people), 4.Buddhists – 0.7 percent of the population (8.4 million people) 5.Jains – 0.4 percent of the population (4.5 million people),6.Parsis – Around 57000 people (estimate).
So far as per the information that available only 18 states ( subject to correction) have appointed State HR Commissions but all states have nominated same communities as minorities as have been by GoI.
Guidelines for implementation of Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities at para/ point- 7 say 7. (a) The target group of the programme consists of the eligible sections among the minorities notified under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, viz, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) + Jain added in 2014. (b) In States, where one of the minority communities notified under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 is, in fact, in majority, the earmarking of physical/financial targets under different schemes will be only for the other notified minorities. States Punjab, Meghalaya, Mizoram & Nagaland and UTs if J&K &.Lakshadweep have one of national level minority as a majority at state level..
The inferences that could be taken by a common mind from the contents of The National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 Act No. 19 of 1992 and orders / guidelines regarding minorities issued by government may be like (i) for the Government of India and State Governments the Linguistic minorities do not come under the purview of The National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 Act No. 19 of 1992 and it is in relation to religious communities only ‘ (ii) any religious community that is more than 50% at national level will be taken as minority community by the National Commission for Minorities and Central Government (iii) State governments also believe in the Minorities identified at national level and have not hence notified the minorities at state level (iii) so unfortunately even the senior Indian leaders believe that the backwardness of the minority communities is due to the reason that the majority community in India (ofcourse Hindu) does not fairly treat other communities minority communities since had it not been so the Section-3 (ii) of the Act ‘would’ not have drafted the way it has been drafted the way it is < ii. The Commission shall consist of a Chairperson, a Vice Chairperson and five Members to be nominated by the Central Government from amongst persons of eminence, ability and integrity; Provided that five Members including the Chairperson shall be from amongst the Minority communities>.’Seniors’ must have a relook.
A15 Point Programme was drawn in 2005 by UPA government seeking to ensure welfare of religious minorities through, increasing educational and employment opportunities, Improving living conditions, preventing and controlling communal riots and rehabilitation of victims of communal riots. The objective being to enhance opportunities for education and ensuring an equitable share for minorities in economic activities & employment through existing and new schemes; enhanced credit support for self-employment& recruitment to State & Central jobs in districts which have substantial population (M).
The term ‘substantial minority population’ in the 15 Point Programme referred to such districts/sub-district units where at least 25% of the total population of that unit belongs to minority communities. The programme covers 121 districts of the country where population of Minority Communities is concentrated. The programme advocated allocating 15% of plan outlays of welfare schemes identified under the 15 Point programme which are related to various ministries.
The President, in his address to the Joint Session of Parliament on February 25, 2005, had announced that the Government would recast the 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities with a view to incorporate programme specific interventions. Prime Minister, in his address on the occasion of Independence Day, 2005, also announced inter-alia that “We will also revise and revamp the 15 Point Programme for Minorities. The new 15 Point Programme will have definite goals which are to be achieved in a specific time frame”.
In pursuance of these commitments, the earlier programme was in October 2009 revised as the Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities in 2009 and three more schemes were brought in the scope (National Rural Drinking Water Programme ,2.Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns 3.Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG).
All is good. But states of Punjab, Meghalaya, Mizoram & Nagaland and UT of Lakshadweep & UT J&K have one of the notified national level religious minority as a majority community there in on state / ut level.. So, in case any welfare / reforms policy or order of the government in any way appears cultivating some conflicting instincts / impressions/ understandings amongst the people of India the Executive as well as the Legislature must take timely steps for removing the misunderstandings and / or any improper drafting. In the instant case there is need for taking some reformative steps at the level of Union atleast for implementing the para/ clause/point 7 of the PM’s 15 point programme for the welfare of minorities that requires disallowing benefits like National scholarships offered by GOI to six religious minorities notified by GOI to the members of those communities who reside in states that have that community in Majority at state level and distributing that unused share to left over minorities in other states since otherwise it sends wrong signal to the world community about the community that is in majority numbers at the National Level. And ofcourse the condition of having atleast 5 members from notified national level religious minorities for constituting the National Minority Commission too needs a relook for strengthening the bonds between the notified minorities and the ‘majority’ community.
(Daya Sagar – Sr Journalist and social activist dayasagr45@yahoo.com).