New Delhi, Dec 29: The Ministry of Minority Affairs was established on January 29, 2006 and since then, it has been working for the welfare and socio-economic development of six notified minority communities, including Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains, which constitute more than 19 percent of India’s population.
The Ministry adopted a multi-pronged strategy for development of minority communities with focus on educational empowerment; infrastructure development; economic empowerment; fulfilling special needs; and strengthening of minority institutions.
Various steps have been taken by the ministry in the year 2021 to uplift the minority population and their contribution for the country’s development.
For 2020-21, Rs 4005.00 crore has been allocated for the ministry, out of which Rs 3998.56 was incurred. For the year 2021-22 the total of 4810.77 crore budget has been allocated.
In addition to this, the education scheme for Madrasas and Minorities” has been transferred from the Ministry of Education to Ministry of Minority Affairs from the year 2021-22 for which an amount of Rs.174.00 crore has been allocated.
For the educational upliftment of the minorities, ministry is running various Pre-Matric Scholarship, Post-Matric Scholarship and Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship.
More than 4.52 crore beneficiaries have been provided different scholarships through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) out of which more than 53% beneficiaries are female.
Around 69,544 candidates have been benefitted under the Naya Savera scheme and 5.83 lakh beneficiaries have been trained/allocated under the Seekho aur Kamao scheme.
Under the USTTAD Scheme, which is one of the major initiatives of the minister to provide job opportunities and markets to artisans/craftsmen, has organised 35 “Hunar Haats” event across the country. Under the scheme, more than 7 lakhs artisans and people associated with them have been provided employment and employment opportunities, out of which more than 50% beneficiaries are women.
The government has sanctioned 100 Hunar Hubs in different parts of the country, under which training is being provided to master artisans, craftmen and traditional culinary experts, according to modern needs in these Hunar Hubs.
Under the “Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karykram” (PMJVK) more than 43 thousand basic infrastructure projects have been created such as schools, colleges, hostels, community centres, common service centres, ITIs, Polytechnics, Girls Hostels, Sadbhavana Mandap, Hunar Hub etc in backward Minority concentrated areas across the country.
In addition, the Maulana Azad Education Foundation implements Begum Hazrat Mahal National Scholarship for meritorious girl students, belonging to the minority communities and whose total annual family income is less than Rs.2 lakh, and who are studying in Classes IX to XII.
Maulana Azad National Fellowship Scheme provides financial assistance to students from notified minority communities, to pursue higher education such as M.Phil and Ph.D.
The government has allocated Rs. 99 Crore for the scheme, till November 2021 Rs 65 core has been dispersed to the students.
Another major decision from the ministry in 2021 was the appointment of Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities.
