Even as statistics show that employability rate and expenditure patterns among the Muslims and Christians have shown a decline, Minorities Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan said that the Government is leaving no stone unturned to help the minority communities.
Speaking at the Conference of NGO’s organised by the National Minority Development and Finance Co-Operation of the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, Khan said that during the first year of 12th planning period, projects worth Rs 1,109.74 crore have been approved and Rs 646.42 crore have been released for the Minority Development Programmes.
“We are aware that the participation of Muslims is relatively low in the education space but has improved in recent years. The situation in the urban areas is, however, poor especially for Muslim males but we are working towards helping them,” said Khan. “Similarly, as far as the jobs are concerned, most minorities are predominantly self-employed and their participation as regular worker, especially in the tertiary sector, that has grown in recent years in urban areas is low as compared to other socio-religious communities,” he said.
The total number of projects taken up under the Minority Development Programme during 2012-13 include 14,244 Indira Awas Yojna Houses, 2,101 additional class rooms, 36 schools,151 hostels, 1,885 Anganwadi’s, 14,917 drinking water facilities, 307 health centres, 793 toilets, 41 ITI’s and 13 polytechnics, the Minister added.
Under PM’s 15-points programme, 11 ministries have introduced 24 programmes for minorities. Scholarship and Multi Sectoral Development Programme are important among them. Efforts have been made for educational empowerment of minorities through Pre-metric, Post-metric, Merit-cum-means based scholarships and Maulana Azad National Fellowships. In 2012-13 Rs 1,360 crore has been released under scholarship schemes to support education of 72 lakh minority students, he said.
As per the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) Report on employment and unemployment situation among the major religious groups in India (2009-10), unemployment rate for the Muslims have declined in 2009-10 as compared to 2004-05 in both rural and urban areas. Among minorities, the unemployment rate in rural areas was lowest for the Muslims. In urban areas, unemployment rate was lowest for the Christians followed by the Muslims.