India has witnessed a five percent increase in its minority population since independence, which shows the level of protection the country provides to such communities, National Commission for Minorities Iqbal Singh Lalpura said on Wednesday. He was speaking at the annual conference of the State Minorities Commission at the Ambedkar International Center here.
Addressing the gathering, Minister of State for Minority Affairs John Barla said, “To fulfill the mandate of our Constitution for the welfare of minorities, we have institutions like the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the National Commission for Minorities working day and night. “We have a key role to play in fulfilling the government’s vision of ‘Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Prayas.’ As a minority, our role is to make efforts for the development of the nation, that is ‘Prayas’,” he said.
Barla inaugurated the conference in the presence of Lalpura, NCM vice-chairman KK Deboo and members Dhanyakumar Jinappa Gunde, Rinchen Lahmo and Syed Shahezadi.
The conference was also attended by the chairman and members of the Commission for State Minorities, NCM advisers and a number of other prominent figures working for minorities. The conference is being held after six years with the last meeting in 2017.
The conference provided a platform for the State Minorities Commissions to share their experiences in addressing the problems faced by the States’ minorities and discuss remedial measures to ensure the welfare and socio-economic development of the minorities.
Lalpura said that from independence to the present, India has witnessed about a five percent decline in the majority population and a five percent increase in the minority population.
This shows the level of protection India has given to minority communities, he said. “No profession has been left untouched when it comes to minority contributions. Minorities have contributed immensely to every field and profession, including the judiciary, sports, health and others,” he said.
This year the conference included two panel discussions on topics including Role of Minorities in India’s Development and Role of Administration in Addressing Minority Related Issues.
Discussing the role of the administration in addressing minority issues in India, the panelists spoke about issues such as alleged fraudulent conversions, hate speech against minorities, incidents of violence, problem of obtaining minority certificates, lack of awareness about schemes and no formation of minority commission in many states.
They recommended several steps to address these issues – greater sensitivity of the police force in dealing with cases involving minorities, promotion of inclusiveness of diversity, establishment of a uniform system across the country for issuing minority certificates, wide publicity of government awareness programs and promotion of dialogue among all minority communities to support harmony in the community.
Chairman, Vice Chairman and Members of State Minority Commissions of Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Delhi attended and representatives of State Minority Commissions were felicitated by Chairman and members of NCM for their upliftment efforts. minorities.
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