zThe Ministry  of Minority Affairs has made consistent efforts in the last two years to fulfill the agenda set in the manifesto for minorities and achieved them by formulating new schemes/programmes and reorienting the ongoing schemes.  Dr. Najma Heptulla,  the Union  Minister of Minority Affairs said this while interacting with media on two years achievements of the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

The whole focus of the Ministry revolved around the vision and mission “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas”. Going by the National priority, Ministry has taken many new initiatives to strengthen the efforts towards education of minorities and economic empowerment through Skill Development.

The Minister said in fact in the last financial year i.e. 2015-16, the expenditure was more than 20% higher than in 2013-14, which is a significant rise in just 2 years. Moreover, in 2015-16, for the first time in the history of the Ministry, there was no cut imposed in the earmarked Plan budget at Revised Estimate (RE) Stage and it was maintained at the original level of Budget Estimate (BE) i.e. Rs.3712.78 Crore. Ministry spent about 98% of the entire Plan budget in 2015-16. Further, Government has increased the Plan Budget of the Ministry to Rs.3800 Crore for 2016-17, an increase of more than Rs. 168 Crore over the 2015-16 expenditure level, which is again a significant rise.

The Minister said that this is to address development gaps at micro level. In addition to this Ministry’s budget 15% of budget of the implementing Ministries of PM’s 15 point programme is also earmarked for the minorities.

Referring to Educational empowerment, the Minister informed that five minority students with support of the scheme have made it to the Indian Civil Services in the recently declared results. Three of them are Muslim, one Sikh and one Buddhist. She said Rs.2011.82 crore were released for various Scholarship schemes during 2014-15 against Rs.1739.55 crore during 2013-14. i.e. 15.7% more funds were released by the present Government in the first year of its tenure itself for the educational empowerment of the minorities. During 2014-15 about 46% girls benefitted under all scholarship schemes.

On economic empowerment she said that educational cum livelihood scheme ‘Nai Manzil’’ for has been received very well. The World Bank recognizing the concept of the scheme not only gave loan to the tune of US $ 50 million but also recommended it for other countries with similar requirements. This new initiative of the present Government formulated and launched on 8^th August, 2015 aims to benefit the minority youths who do not have a formal school leaving certificate, i.e., those in the category of school-dropouts or educated in the community education institutions like the Madarsas, in order to provide them formal education and skills, and enable them to seek better employment in the organized sector and thus to equip them for better lives.

Scheme has been approved with the cost of Rs. 650 Crore for five years. 50% funding will come from the World Bank. This is for the first time in the history of minority welfare programmes when World Bank has agreed to support such a programme.

Another new ambitious initiative of the present Government, “USTTAD (Upgrading the Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/ Crafts for Development)” was formally launched on 14^th May, 2015 at Varanasi. 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.

For the first time, the Ministry has engaged the institutions of national repute namely, The National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), National Institute of Design (NID) and the Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP)   for value addition.  On 30 April, 2016, Ministry launched proto types of four crafts being practiced by the minorities, developed with the help of NIFT and NID, at Varanasi. Ministry also launched a website of USTTAD.For the first time Ministry has also  signed an MoU with the E-commerce portal shopclues.com for facilitating the market linkages of crafts and training of minority craftsmen in E-commerce.

      About Seekho aur Kamao (Learn & Earn), the Minister said ,  in conformity with the priority of the present Government for “Skilled India” and “Make in India”, the skill development initiative for minorities “Seekho aur Kamao (Learn & Earn)”, has been strengthened and expanded and the outlay has been increased by almost Eleven times (over the level of 2013-14) by the present Government and Rs.192.45 crore were allocated in 2015-16 for training of 1,13,000 minority youth. Out of this, about Rs. 191.96 Crore (more than 99%) has been sanctioned for training of about 1.23 lakh trainees in various States.

The number of minority youths trained since the inception of the scheme and the funds earmarked by the present Government, as enlisted clearly indicate the shift in focus:

Elaborating on Multi-sectoral Development Programme – Jan Vikaas Karyakram,the Minister said this area development programme, for the construction of basic amenities and infrastructure   is implemented in identified 710 Minority Concentration Blocks (MCBs) and 66 Minority Concentration Towns (MCTs).Further, clusters of contiguous minority concentration villages are also covered. In the first two years of this Government 18.4% more funds were sanctioned for this project than the last two years of the earlier Government. In fact in 2015-16, Government gave a major thrust to this project when it sanctioned a whopping 46% more funds than in 2014-15. 

During 2014-15 and 2015-16, construction of 51 ITIs, 2 Polytechnics, 5314 Additional Class Rooms (ACRs), 559 school buildings, 10 Degree colleges, 215 Hostels and 1456 Aanganwadi Centers has been approved.

On Women Empowerment , the Minister said  that 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, tools and techniques for interacting with the Government systems, banks and intermediaries at all levels.

On Concessional Loans to Minorities, the Minister said for the first time in the history of NMDFC, the present Government on 10.02.2015, doubled the Authorized Share Capital of NMDFC i.e. from Rs. 1500 crore to Rs. 3000 crore in 2015 and has also revised the share holding pattern to 73:26:1 from 65:26:9 for the Central Government, State Governments/UT Administrations and Institutions/Individuals respectively.

The Minister also spoke in detail on Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF), Waqf Management and Haj Pilgrimage.

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