The Hindu : Front Page : Two Commissions for minorities: Manmohan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 04, 2004

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Front Page

Two Commissions for minorities: Manmohan

By Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI, JULY 3 . The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, today proposed the setting up of a Commission to provide professional institutions run by the minorities with direct affiliation to Central universities.

He also proposed another Commission to enhance the welfare of the socially and economically backward sections among the religious and linguistic minorities, by including reservation in education and employment. Additional funds would be allocated to the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation for its effective functioning.

The two Commissions had been promised in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government to "systematically remove barriers that prevent the empowerment of the minority communities, as well as the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes." Steps will also be taken to promote the Urdu language.

Inaugurating a conference on "A Dialogue on Minority Welfare and Education," organised by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Dr. Singh said the Commission for Minority Educational Institutions would also promote modern and technical education among all the minority communities.

Calling upon the participants to come up with ideas that could enable the Government to increase the educational attainment of the minorities across the country so that they were empowered socially and economically, he said the need was to go beyond providing education to examine issues pertaining to employment. "I am distressed by the low representation of the minorities in many walks of life, both in the public and the private sectors,'' he said drawing attention to the gravity of the problem in creating an inclusive and tolerant society, where the benefits of economic development were shared by all.

Suggesting the possibility of integration of community efforts and governmental initiatives for the uplift of the minority groups, Dr. Singh said that community-based educational institutions could be effectively used as a means to promoting other important social objectives such as primary health care and family welfare. These institutions would also be used to promote delivery of better services by the State to segments of the population that were harder to reach, such as women and girls among the minorities.

Access to education was the most important equalising social force and it was important to understand that investment in education was not merely a welfare measure but a means of empowerment. "By empowering and creating capabilities, education increases the productive potential of a society and it is not at all surprising that every modern industrial and newly- industrialising economy has a literacy rate upwards of 80 per cent," he said.

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