The Minister of Minority Affairs Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today stated in the Lok Sabha in a written reply that Minority has been defined under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Act, 1992. As per Section 2 (c) of the NCM Act, “minority”, for the purposes of this Act, means a community notified as such by the Central Government. So far, six communities viz. Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains, have been notified as minority communities by the Central Govt.
To questions about the measures being taken for issues related to minority, their safety, education and for developing better understanding, the details of facilities made available to the minorities in Uttar Pradesh so far under „Naya Savera‟ and „Nayi Udaan‟ scheme, the Minister stated in his reply as follows:
Law and order being a State subject, measures for safety of minorities is the domain of the State Governments. Further, any case related to minority brought to the notice of National Commission for Minorities (NCM), under the aegis of this Ministry, are taken up with concerned authorities in respective governments by NCM under Section 9 of the NCM Act, 1992.
Ministry of Minority Affairs is implementing various schemes for the socio-economic and educational empowerment of six centrally notified minorities as per brief details given below:-
1. Educational Empowerment of Minorities (i) Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme – For Class I to X. (ii) Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme – For Class XI to Ph.D.
(iii) Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship Scheme – For Professional and Technical Courses. (iv) Maulana Azad National Fellowship – For M.Phil. and Ph.D (v) Free Coaching and Allied Scheme (Naya Savera) – For Competitive Examination of Professional Courses and Government Jobs. (vi) Begum Hazrat Mahal National Scholarship for Meritorious Girls belonging to the six centrally notified Minorities (Maulana Azad Education Foundation) (vii) “Padho Pardesh”– Scheme of Interest Subsidy on Educational Loans for Overseas Studies. (viii) Nai Udaan – Support for students clearing Prelims conducted by UPSC, SSC, State Public Service Commission, etc.
2. Economic Empowerment of Minorities
(i) Employment-oriented Skill Development Initiatives –Seekho Aur Kamao.- It is a placement linked skill development programme. (ii) Nai Manzil – A scheme for formal school education & skilling of school dropouts (iii) Gharib Nawaz Employment Training for providing short-term job oriented skill development courses to youths belonging to minority communities (MAEF) (iv) National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) – NMDFC provides concessional loans to minorities for self-employment and income generating ventures.
3. Improving living conditions of Minorities
(i) Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK):- It is an area development scheme. The Ministry has identified 1300 backward Minority Concentration Areas (MCAs) for the implementation of this scheme. It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for creating socioeconomic infrastructure as well as basic amenities for uplifting the quality of life of minorities in the MCAs. The amenities are meant for all segments of the society including minorities. The thrust of the Scheme is to allocate at least 80% of the resources for education, health and skill development, out of which 33-40% are to be specifically allocated for women centric projects.
The details of the on-going schemes/programmes are also available on the website of this Ministry:www.minorityaffairs.gov.in; www.maef.nic.in and www.nmdfc.org.
(d) The objective of the Naya Savera Scheme is to assist students/candidates belonging to the notified the minority communities by way of special coaching for qualifying in competitive examination for recruitment to Group „A‟, „B‟ & „C‟ services and other equivalent post under the Central and State Governments including public sector undertaking, banks, railways etc. or for admission in technical/professional courses. Under the scheme, free coaching has been provided to 15,498 students upto 2019-20 (as on 29.02.2020) in Uttar Pradesh.
The objective of the Nai Udaan Scheme is to provide financial support to the minority candidates who clear the preliminary examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, Staff Selection Commission and State Public Service Commission. Under the scheme, financial support has been provided to 392 students upto 2019-20 (as on 29.02.2020) in Uttar Pradesh.
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