The NDA Government is actively considering constitution of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), a mission left incomplete by the previous Congress-led Government. It was one of the key recommendations of the Justice Sachar Committee.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs, which was constituted to look after the rights of the religious minorities, is working towards a new draft for forming the EOC. Officials in the ministry say that the formation of EOC was top-most on their list of priority projects. The Union Cabinet of the erstwhile UPA Government had in February this year cleared the setting up of the Commission.
The EOC, which was designed to be a statutory body to check discrimination of minority communities, was planned during UPA I. It was aimed to ensure equal access to opportunity, entitlements and rights to deprived groups belonging to minority communities.
“The Government is trying to encourage the dignity of labour in the Indian society. As a majority community among the Minorities in India, the Muslims lag behind in many areas, and the focus of the Ministry is mainly to empower them with education and skills,” said Najma Heptulla, minister for minority affairs, soon after her interaction with the British High Commissioner James Bevan.
“The EOC is very critical to the upliftment of the Muslim community, which is so far feeling ignored. This will provide them a level playing field and will enhance their employability and their status in the society,” she said.
According to an official, who was a part of the interaction, Bevan also invited her to visit the United Kingdom to study the EOC model in UK.
It has been close to eight years since the EOC was first recommended. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had constituted a High level Committee on Social, Economic and Educational status of the Muslim Community, popularly known as the Sachar Committee, so as to suggest ways to ameliorate the condition of the Muslim Community as a whole. The committee had recommended the formation of EOC in its report to help the lift the community.
EOC was also designed to have provisions to deal with grievances like denial of accommodation or buying rights to minorities in housing societies.