National Commission for Minorities

Last updated

National Commission for Minorities
NCM
National commission.png
Commission overview
Formed17 May 1993;31 years ago (1993-05-17)
Preceding Commission
  • Minorities Commission 1978
Jurisdiction Flag of India.svg Republic of India
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Annual budget₹5,020.50 crore (US$600 million) (2022–23) including Ministry of Minority Affairs
Minister responsible
Deputy Minister responsible
Commission executive
Parent Commission Ministry of Minority Affairs
Website ncm.nic.in

The Union Government set up the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Six religious communities, viz; Muslims, Christians, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) have been notified in Gazette of India as minority communities by the Union Government all over India. [2] Original notification of 1993 was for five religious communities: Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians and Muslims; later in 2014, Jains were also added. [3] [ failed verification ] As per Census 2001, these six communities consist of 18.8% of the country's population. [4]

Contents

UN Declaration

The NCM adheres to the United Nations Declaration of 18 December 1992 which states that "States shall protect the existence of the National or Ethnic, Cultural, Religious and Linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity.” [5]

List of Chairpersons

List of Chairpersons of National Commission for Minorities
Nos.NamePortraitPrime MinisterAppointment dateRetirement date
1. Justice Sardar Ali Khan P. V. Narasimha Rao 5 July 19934 July 1996
2. Syed Ghayorul Hasan Rizvi Narendra Modi 26 May 201725 May 2020
3. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi addressing media (cropped).jpg
Narendra Modi 25 May 202012 April 2022
4. Iqbal Singh Lalpura
Iqbal Singh Lalpura Chairman Of National Commission for Minorities.jpg
Narendra Modi 13 April 2022Incumbent

Functions and Powers

The Commission has the following functions: [6]

  1. Evaluate the progress of the development of Minorities under the Union and States.
  2. Monitor the working of the safeguards provided in the Constitution and in laws enacted by Parliament and the State Legislatures.
  3. Make recommendations for the effective implementation of safeguards for the protection of the interests of Minorities by the Central Government or the State Governments.
  4. Look into specific complaints regarding deprivation of rights and safeguards of the Minorities and take up such matters with the appropriate authorities.
  5. Cause studies to be undertaken into problems arising out of any discrimination against Minorities and recommend measures for their removal.
  6. Conduct studies, research and analysis on the issues relating to socio-economic and educational development of Minorities.
  7. Suggest appropriate measures in respect of any Minority to be undertaken by the Central Government or the State Governments.
  8. Make periodical or special reports to the Central Government on any matter pertaining to Minorities and in particular the difficulties confronted by them.
  9. Any other matter which may be referred to it by the Central Government.

The Commission has the following powers:

Composition of Commission

The act states [7] that the Commission shall consist of:

Demographic Information (As per the Census 2011) [8]

As per the Census 2011, the percentage of minorities in the country is about 19.3% of the total population of the country. The population of

Rights & Safeguards of Minorities [9]

Although the Indian Constitution does not define the word Minority, it has provided constitutional safeguards and fundamental rights to minorities:

Under Fundamental Rights Part III of Indian Constitution

Indian state is committed to administer these rights which can be enforced by judiciary

  1. Right of ‘any section of the citizens’ to ‘conserve’ its ‘distinct language, script or culture’; [Article 29(1)]
  2. Right of all Religious and Linguistic Minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice;[Article 30(1)]
  3. Freedom of Minority-managed educational institutions from discrimination in the matter of receiving aid from the State;[Article30(2)]

Under Part XVII Official Language of Indian Constitution

  1. Rights for any section of population for language spoken by them ;[Article 347]
  2. Provision for facilities of instruction in mother tongue ; [Article 350A]
  3. Provisioning a special officer for linguistic minorities and defining his duties ; [ Article 350B]

Sachar Committee Report

On 9 March 2005 the then Prime Minister issued a Notification for the constitution of a High Level Committee to prepare a report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community of India. Recommendations contained in the Report of the High Level Committee on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India headed by Justice Rajindar Sachar (Retd.):

  1. Need for Transparency, Monitoring and Data Availability - Create a National Data Bank (NDB) where all relevant data for various socio-religious categories are maintained.
  2. Enhancing the Legal Basis for Providing Equal Opportunities Set up an Equal Opportunity Commission to look into grievances of deprived groups like minorities.
  3. Shared Spaces: Need to Enhance Diversity: The idea of providing certain incentives to a 'diversity index' should be explored.
  4. Education: a process of evaluating the content of the school text books needs to be initiated to purge them of explicit and implicit content that may impart inappropriate social values, especially religious intolerance. Need to ensure that all children in the age group 0-14 have access to free and high quality education.
  5. High quality Government schools should be set up in all areas of Muslim concentration. Exclusive schools for girls should be set up, particularly for the 9-12 standards. This would facilitate higher participation of Muslim girls in school education. In co-education schools more women teachers need to be appointed.
  6. Provide primary education in Urdu in areas where Urdu speaking population is concentrated.
  7. Mechanisms to link madarsas with higher secondary school board.
  8. Recognise degrees from madarsas for eligibility in Defence Services, Civil Services and Banking examinations.
  9. Increase employment share of Muslims, particularly where there is great deal of public dealing.
  10. Enhancing Participation in Governance: appropriate state level laws can be enacted to ensure minority representation in local bodies
  11. Create a nomination procedure to increase participation of minorities in public bodies.
  12. Establish a delimitation procedure that does not reserve constituencies with high minority population for SCs.
  13. Enhancing Access to Credit and Government Programmes: Provide financial and other support to initiatives built around occupations where Muslims are concentrated and that have growth potential.
  14. Improve participation and share of minorities, particularly Muslims, in business of regular commercial banks
  15. Improving Employment Opportunities and Conditions

The Committee suggested that policies should “sharply focus on inclusive development and ‘mainstreaming’ of the Community while respecting diversity.” [10]

Related Research Articles

The Uniform Civil Code is a proposal in India to formulate and implement personal laws of citizens which apply on all citizens equally regardless of their religion. Currently, personal laws of various communities are governed by their religious scriptures. Personal laws cover marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and maintenance. While articles 25-28 of the Indian Constitution guarantee religious freedom to Indian citizens and allow religious groups to maintain their own affairs, article 44 expects the Indian state to apply directive principles and common law for all Indian citizens while formulating national policies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom of religion in Pakistan</span>

Freedom of religion in Pakistan is formally guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan for individuals of various religions and religious sects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North-West Frontier Province</span> Former Province of British India (1901–1947) and Pakistan (1947–1955; 1970–2010)

The North-West Frontier Province was a province of British India from 1901 to 1947, of the Dominion of Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, and of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 1970 to 2010. It was established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the British Punjab, during the British Raj. Following the referendum in 1947 to join either Pakistan or India, the province voted hugely in favour of joining Pakistan and it acceded accordingly on 14 August 1947. It was dissolved to form a unified province of West Pakistan in 1955 upon promulgation of One Unit Scheme and was reestablished in 1970. It was known by this name until 19 April 2010, when it was dissolved and redesignated as the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, by President Asif Ali Zardari.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes</span> Official designations given to various groups of indigenous people in India

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designated in one or other of the categories. For much of the period of British rule in the Indian subcontinent, they were known as the Depressed Classes.

Freedom of religion in India is a fundamental right guaranteed by Article 25–28 of the Constitution of India. Modern India came into existence in 1947 and the Indian constitution's preamble was amended in 1976, to explicitly declare India a secular state. Supreme Court of India ruled that India was already a secular state from the time it adopted its constitution, what actually was done through this amendment is to state explicitly what was earlier contained implicitly under article 25 to 28. Every citizen of India has a right to practice and promote their religion peacefully. However, there have been numerous instances of religious intolerance that resulted in riots and mob violences; notably, the 1984 Sikh Massacre in and around Delhi, 1990 Exile of Kashmiri Pandits (Brahmins) from Kashmir (Cashmere), the 1992–93 Bombay Riots in Mumbai (Bombay), the 2008 Anti-Christian riots in Odisha (Orissa) and other anti-Christian violence in India. Some perpetrators of the 1984 Sikh Massacre have not been brought to justice despite widespread condemnation.

Pakistan has five major ethno-regional communities in Pakistan: Baloch, Muhajir, Punjabis, Pushtuns and Sindhis, as well as several smaller groups. There are also religious and sectarian groups such as Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus, Kalasha, Parsis and Sikhs, and Shia Muslim sects including Ismailis and Bohras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in Pakistan</span>

The official religion of Pakistan is Islam, as enshrined by Article 2 of the Constitution, and is practised by an overwhelming majority of 96.35% of the country's population. The remaining 3.65% practice Hinduism, Christianity, Ahmadiyya, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism and other religions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jainism in India</span> Indias seventh-largest religion

Jainism is India's sixth-largest religion and is practiced throughout India. Per the 2011 census, there are 4,451,753 Jains in the 1.35 billion population of India, the majority living in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. However, the influence of Jainism has been far greater on the Indian population than these numbers suggest. Jains can be found in every state and all union territories, varying from large societies to smaller. The state of Jharkhand, with a population of 16,301 Jains also contains the holy pilgrimage centre of Sammed Shikharji. Jains can be found throughout India and in many other countries throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refugees in India</span> Overview of legally registered refugees residing in India

Since its independence in 1947, India has accepted various groups of refugees from neighbouring countries, including partition refugees from former British Indian territories that now constitute Pakistan and Bangladesh, Tibetan refugees that arrived in 1959, Chakma refugees from present day Bangladesh in early 1960s, other Bangladeshi refugees in 1965 and 1971, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from the 1980s and most recently Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. In 1992, India was seen to be hosting 400,000 refugees from eight countries. According to records with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, as on January 1,2021, there were 58,843 Sri Lankan refugees staying in 108 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu and 54 in Odisha and 72,312 Tibetan refugees have been living in India.

Jainism is considered to be a legally distinct religion in India. A section of scholars earlier considered it as a Hindu sect or a Buddhist heresy, but it is one of the three ancient Indian religions. On 27 January 2014, the Government of India explicitly awarded the status of a "minority religion" to the Jain community in India, as per Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Act (NCM), 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in India</span>

Religion in India is characterised by a diversity of religious beliefs and practices. Throughout India's history, religion has been an important part of the country's culture and the Indian subcontinent is the birthplace of four of the world's major religions, namely, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, which are collectively known as native Indian religions or Dharmic religions and represent approx. 83% of the total population of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ministry of Minority Affairs</span> Ministry of the Government of India

The Ministry of Minority Affairs is the ministry in the Government of India which was carved out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and created on 29 January 2006. It is the apex body for the central government's regulatory and developmental programmes for the minority religious communities and minority linguistic communities in India, which include Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains notified as minority religious communities in The Gazette of India under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Commission for Backward Classes</span> Indian Government Social Justice Agency

The National Commission for Backward Classes is an Indian constitutional body under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India established through Constitution Act, 2018 this amendment act in the constitution to make it a constitutional body under Article 338B of the Indian Constitution. It was constituted pursuant to the provisions of the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Commission for Scheduled Castes</span> Indian constitutional body

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes is an Indian constitutional body under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India established with a view to provide safeguards against the exploitation of Scheduled Castes and Anglo Indian communities to promote and protect their social, educational, economic and cultural interests, special provisions were made in the Constitution. Article 338 of the Indian constitution deals with National Commission for Scheduled Castes. Article 338 A deals with National Commission for Scheduled tribes.

National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) was established to protect and safeguard the educational institutions which are established by the religious minorities in India. It is a statutory body established by National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act (NCMEI Act), 2004. This also ensures rights of religious minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice as provided in Article 30 of the Constitution of India. Linguistic minorities do not come under the ambit of the NCMEI Act, 2004

Religion in Maharashtra is characterised by the diversity of religious beliefs and practices.

Chennai is religiously cosmopolitan, with its denizens following various religions, chief among them being Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism. Chennai, along with Mumbai, Delhi, Kochi, and Kolkata, is one of the few Indian cities that are home to a diverse population of ethno-religious communities.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 by providing an accelerated pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who arrived in India by 2014. The eligible minorities were stated as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians. The law does not grant such eligibility to Muslims from these countries. Additionally, the act excludes 58,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, who have lived in India since the 1980s. The act was the first time that religion had been overtly used as a criterion for citizenship under Indian law, and it attracted global criticism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ministry of Minority Development and Aukaf (Maharashtra)</span> Maharashtra government ministry responsible for Minority Development and Aukaf

The Ministry of Minority Development and Aukaf is a Ministry of the Government of Maharashtra. which include Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains notified as minority communities in The Gazette of India under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. for the development of Maharashtra state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mufti Shamoon Qasmi</span> Indian politician

Mufti Shamoon Qasmi is an Indian politician who is a Cabinet minister of Uttarakhand and chairman of Uttarakhand Madarsa board education. He is also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

References

  1. ↑ "Ms. Syed Shahezadi takes charge as the Officiating Chairman, National Commission for Minorities". ncm.nic.in. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  2. ↑ "Minorities". Archived from the original on 25 October 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  3. ↑ "Extra ordinary Gazette Notification" (PDF). Egazzette. GOI. 23 October 1993. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  4. ↑ "Genesis of NCM" (PDF). National Commission for Minorities. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
  5. ↑ "National Commission for Minorities". ncm.nic.in. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  6. ↑ "National Commission for Minorities (Amendment) Act 1995". NCM. Government of India. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  7. ↑ "National Commission for Minorities". ncm.nic.in. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  8. ↑ https://www.minorityaffairs.gov.in/WriteReadData/RTF1984/1662531132.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  9. ↑ "Constitutional Provisions". National Commission for Minorities. GOI. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  10. ↑ https://www.minorityaffairs.gov.in/WriteReadData/RTF1984/7830578798.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.