Constitutionally protected rights and social welfare schemes for minority communities help to uplift them and thrive in India, as reflected in a working paper prepared by a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), which showed there is a conducive environment to foster diversity in society.
According to the paper titled 'Share of Religious Minorities - A Cross-Country Analysis,' an increase in the population of minorities could not have happened without providing a nurturing environment and societal support through a bottom-up approach.
The paper was authored by EAC-PM member Shamika Ravi, Apurv Kumar Mishra, a consultant with EAC-PM, and Abraham Jose, a young professional with the EAC-PM. It used data published by the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) in 2019 to show that the share of the populations of Muslims and Christians in India rose from 1950 to 2015.
What the government is doing
The Ministry of Minority Affairs implements various schemes for the socioeconomic and educational empowerment of the six centrally notified minority communities.
The government has so far nominated six communities under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Initially, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) were notified, and in January 2014, the government notified Jains as the sixth minority community.
The ministry is actively implementing the Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for welfare of minority communities. According to a statement by the government, these schemes broadly cover aspects ranging from job and education opportunities to controlling communal disharmony.
In the interim budget 2024, the Union government allocated Rs 3,183.24 crore to the ministry compared with Rs 3,097 crore in FY24.
Constitutional protection
“By way of illustration, India is one of the few countries which has a legal definition of minorities and provides constitutionally protected rights for them,” the authors wrote in the paper.
Article 25 of the Constitution of India guarantees the freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess, practise and propagate religion. The grants protection to minorities and mandates that no minority community should be discriminated against.
Article 29 widens the scope of the term minority by including distinct language, script or culture into its scope.
The paper suggested that India has continued its civilisational tradition of harbouring persecuted populations from several countries over the last six decades, given its plural, liberal and democratic nature.
“It is not surprising, therefore, that minority populations from across the neighbourhood come to India during times of duress,” the paper said.
It noted that India has provided a nourishing environment for persecuted communities from abroad such as Tibetan Buddhists from China and Matuas from Bangladesh.
India's religious demography
The paper showed that the share of the Muslim population in India increased by 43.15 percent and that of the Christian population rose by 5.38 percent during the 65-year period starting in 1950.
“The share of Muslim population in 1950 was 9.84 percent and increased to 14.09 percent in 2015 - a 43.15 percent increase in their share. The share of Christian population rose from 2.24 percent to 2.36 percent – an increase of 5.38 percent between 1950 and 2015,” the paper said.
The study paper noted that the share of the Sikh population increased from 1.24 percent in 1950 to 1.85 percent in 2015, an increase of 6.58 percent.
“Even the share of the Buddhist population witnessed a noticeable increase from 0.05 percent in 1950 to 0.81 percent,” the paper said.
However, the share of Jains in India’s population narrowed from 0.45 percent in 1950 to 0.36 percent in 2015.
According to the paper, the share of the majority religious population (Hindus) in India declined by 7.81 percent during 1950-2015. The drop was next only to Myanmar, where the share of the Theravada Buddhist population declined by 10 percent. Data of 167 countries was analysed in the study.
Analysing the demographic changes among members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives - along with Myanmar, the paper revealed that in all Muslim-majority countries, the share of the majority religious denomination increased, except in the Maldives, where the share of the majority group (Shafi’i Sunnis) declined by 1.47 percent.
The share of the Buddhist population in Myanmar and the Hindu population in Nepal fell, the paper revealed.
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