Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi-led
NDA Government is committed to the inclusive growth of minorities following the
principle of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”, and has continuously increased the
Plan Budget of the Ministry of Minority Affairs. In 2016-17, Rs. 3800 Crore
have been earmarked which is a significant increase of more than Rs. 168 Crore
over the 2015-16 expenditure level. In the last year 2015-16, the Modi
Government has spent 20% higher than was spent in 2013-14 in the last year of
the earlier Government, which is a substantial hike.
Ministry of Minority Affairs has
made intensive efforts to promote education and employment among minority
communities and taken important initiatives in last two years. A new scheme “Nai
Manzil” has been launched in 2015 as an integrated education and livelihood
initiative. This scheme has been approved with Rs. 650 Crore and it will
benefit about 1 lakh minority youth. This is for the first time in the history
of minority welfare programmes when World Bank has agreed to support such
programme with 50% funding. Rs. 155 Crore has been earmarked for 2016-17 for
implementation of programme. This scheme is also significant as it combines the
formal education as well as skill development for school dropouts which will
significantly enhance their career growth.
In conformity with priority of
the Government for “Skill India” and “Make in India”, the skill development
initiative for minorities “Seekho aur Kamao", has been strengthened
and expanded and the outlay in 2015-16 has been increased by almost 11 times
(over the level of 2013-14 of Rs. 17 Crore) by the Modi Government and Rs.
191.96 Crore has been sanctioned for training of about 1.23 lakh minority
youths. Altogether in 2014-15 and 2015-16, 1.43 lakh minority youth have been
trained. In 2016-17, the budget has been further increased to Rs. 210 Crore for
training of 1.25 lakh minority youth.
Ministry implements an exclusive
scheme “Nai Roshni” for Leadership Development of Minority Women with an
aim to empower and instill confidence in women by providing knowledge for
interacting with Government systems, banks and intermediaries at all levels. In
last two years of the NDA Government (2014-15 and 2015-16), Minority Affairs Ministry
has trained more than 1.30 lakh women with Rs.28.98 Crore in 24 States. Recently,
the implementation of the scheme has been independently evaluated by the NITI
Aayog and they observed that the programme has been appreciated by most of the
segments of the population of the society and it has assisted in creating
confidence among minority women and developing leadership spirit in them.
The Government is aware of the
problem being faced by the traditional craftsmen/ artisans. Due to poverty and
non-updation in the skills to match global trends, many craftsmen/artisans are
leaving their skills in search of other occupations. The Government cannot afford
this huge loss of heritage of the country. Therefore, Ministry of Minority
Affairs launched another new scheme “USTTAD (Upgrading the Skills and
Training in Traditional Arts/ Crafts for Development)”.
The scheme aims at setting
standards of traditional skills, design development, capacity building and
updating the traditional skills of master craftsmen and artisans, documentation
and preservation. It also aims to engage the trained master craftsmen/artisans
in training of minority youths in various specific traditional arts/crafts. Ministry
has engaged National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), National Institute
of Design (NID) and Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) to work in various
craft clusters for design intervention; product range development; packaging;
exhibitions, tying up with e-marketing portals to enhance sales; and brand
building. Ministry has also signed MoUs with e-commerce portal to establish
linkages with National and International market.
Ministry established Maulana
Azad National Academy for Skills (MANAS), a special purpose vehicle, in
2014-15 to address skill development needs of minority communities and its
linkage with concessional credit to provide sustainable livelihood through
self-employment and entrepreneurship. MANAS has made special efforts on skill
training of students of Madarsas and other traditional educational
institutions. So far, MANAS has collaborated with 39 traditional educational
institutions of various minority communities including 31 Madarsas. The efforts
for Madarsas have particularly been made to provide door step skill development
facility for Muslim girls in minority concentration areas. If no such Madarsa
for Muslim girls are available, MANAS arranges the training facility in the
neighbourhood. Since inception, MANAS has covered about 65,000 minority youths
for skill training.
For disbursal of scholarship in
the students’ bank accounts, Ministry has completely shifted to Direct Benefit
Transfer (DBT) on National Scholarship Portal (NSP) in 2015-16. The step
has minimized the tiers involved in fund flow and thus reduced the delays in
payment. Moreover, DBT mode and linking bank accounts with "Aadhaar" has
helped the Ministry in accurate targeting of beneficiaries and curbing
pilferage and duplications.
Under Free Coaching Scheme, the
financial assistance is provided to prepare the minority students for
competitive examinations for medical, engineering, Government jobs, etc. In the
last two years of the Modi Government, the fund flow has been doubled from Rs.
23.00 Crore to Rs. 45.00 Crore and coverage of minority candidates has also
increased from 9997 to 16,427 candidates.
Ministry, in its endeavour to
preserve rich cultural heritage of minorities under “Hamari Dharohar”
scheme, curated “The Everlasting Flame International Programme”, a programme which
was one of its kind, involving 3 travelling exhibitions on Parsi Culture
namely ‘The Everlasting Flame’, ‘Painted Encounters, Parsi Traders and the Community
& No Parsi is an Island’, and ‘Threads of Continuity’ during March-May,
2016 at the National Museum (NM), National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) and
Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) respectively. For the first
time, the articles for Exhibitions have been brought from British Museum,
London; Hermitage, Russia; Iran, Uzbekistan etc. to showcase Parsi culture.
Ministry is also taking steps for
protection and management of Waqf properties. Therefore, Ministry has taken
initiative for GIS mapping of Waqf properties with the help of IIT Kanpur,
Roorkee, Mumbai and National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC). It will enable Waqf
Boards to detect and prevent encroachments on precious land resource.
National Minorities Development
and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) provides concessional loans for self-employment
to minorities. Since 2012-13, Equity Infusion to NMDFC was disturbed because the
then Government had not increased the Authorized Share Capital. During the
period of earlier Government in 2013-14, no Central Government Equity could be
contributed. For the first time in history of NMDFC, the Modi Government on
10.02.2015, has doubled the Authorized Share Capital of NMDFC in one go i.e.
from Rs. 1500 crore to Rs. 3000 crore. Since then, Ministry has already
contributed Rs.290 Crore as equity to the NMDFC. This has enabled NMDFC to
leverage more loans to minorities.
Transparency in Governance being
high on the agenda of the Modi Government, Ministry has launched online portals
of Seekho aur Kamao, MANAS, Nai Roshni (a women empowerment programme), and Nai
Udaan (a scheme to support candidates who clear Preliminary examination of
UPSC, etc. for preparation of Mains). Vital information have been kept in
public domain on these portals.
Ministry of Minority Affairs will
leave no stone unturned for realizing the objectives of each programme and outcomes
on the ground. Ministry is also focusing on the simplified mechanism to achieve
the goals. The people friendly procedures are being adopted to ensure Good
Governance and effective and timely delivery of services and benefits to the
minority groups targeted by our welfare schemes.
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