Lok Sabha Question No. 1537 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-02-10
Subject: Literacy Rate among Minorities
Ministry: MINORITY AFFAIRS
Asked by: Kunwar Danish Ali

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS LOK SABHA UNSTARREDQUESTION NO.1537 ANSWERED ON 10.02.2022

## LITERACY RATE AMONG MINORITIES

## †1537. SHRI KUNWAR DANISH ALI:

Will the Minister of MINORITY AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) whether literacy rate among minorities especially Muslims is lowest in the country;

(b) if so, the reasons therefor;

(c) the funds provided by the Union Government to the State Governments under schemes for the welfare of minorities during the last five years, State-wise;

(d) the details of the funds spent by the State Governments under the said head; and

(e) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to improve literacy rate among minorities?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF MINORITY AFFAIRS (SHRI MUKHTAR ABBAS NAQVI)

(a)& (b): As per Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Act, 1992, six  communities namely Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis have been notified  as  minority  communities.  As  per  Census  2011,  the  literacy  rate  of  the  Minority Communities  namely  Christians,  Jains,  Sikhs  and  Buddhists  is  higher  than  the  National Average of  72.98% except Muslims which is   68.54 %.

(c)  to  (e):  Ministry  of  Minority  Affairs  implements    various  Schemes/programmes  for  the socio-economic empowerment of the notified minority communities. The various schemes/programmes  being implemented by this Ministry are as under:-.

## (A): Educational Empowerment Schemes:

(1) Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme- Scholarship is provided to minority students from Class I to X, out of which 30% scholarship are earmarked for girls.

Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme- Scholarship is provided to minority students from Class XI to PhD., out of which 30% scholarship are earmarked for girls.

Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship Scheme- Scholarship is provided to minority students for  Professional and  Technical courses, at  Under  Graduate and Post  Graduate  level, out of which 30% scholarship are earmarked for girls.

All the three Scholarship schemes are on boarded on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) and the scholarship amount is disbursed through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.

(2) Maulana Azad National Fellowship Scheme - Under the scheme fellowship in the form of financial  assistance  is  provided  to  minority  candidates  who  clear  the  UGC-NET  or  Joint CSIR UGCNET examination.

(3)  Naya  Savera  -  Free  Coaching  and  Allied  Scheme  -  The  Scheme  aims  to  provide  free coaching to students/candidates belonging to minority communities for qualifying in entrance examinations of technical/ medical professional courses and various Competitive examinations.

(4) Padho Pardesh - Under the scheme interest subsidy is provided to students of minority communities on educational loans, for overseas higher studies.

(5) Nai Udaan - Support is provided to minority candidates clearing Preliminary examination conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), State Public Service Commission (PSC), Staff Selection Commission (SSC) etc.

## (B): Employment Oriented Schemes:

(6) Seekho Aur Kamao - Skill development scheme for youth of 14 - 35 years age group and aiming at providing employment and employment opportunities, improving the employability of existing workers, school dropouts etc.

(7) USTTAD (Upgrading the Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/Crafts for Development). An effective platform to provide self-employment, market and opportunity to traditional  artisans and craft persons from the minority communities. HunarHaats are being organised across the Country to provide employment  opportunities and markets to artisans/craftsmen.

(8)  Nai  Manzil  -  A  scheme  for  formal  school  education  &  skilling  of  school  dropouts  or educated in community educational institutions like Madarsas.

(9) Nai Roshni - Leadership development of women belonging to minority communities and non-minority communities (not exceeding 25% of each batch).

## (C): Special Schemes:

(10) Jiyo Parsi - Scheme for containing population decline of Parsis in India.

(11) Hamari Dharohar- A scheme to preserve rich heritage of minority communities of India under the overall concept of Indian culture.

## (D): Infrastructure Development Programme:

(12) The Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), identified  as  Core  of  the  Core  Scheme  by  NITI  Aayog,  is  implemented  in collaboration  with  the  States/UTs  etc.,  with  the  objective  of  improving  socio-economic condition  and  basic  amenities  in  identified  Minority  Concentrated  Areas  (MCAs)  mainly through gap filling in various existing CSS and through innovative projects recommended by the State Govts/UTs as per the need of the identified areas. In 2018, the areas covered under PMJVK was increased from 90 Districts originally to 308 Districts in  33 States/ UTs. The MCAs included 870 Minority Concentration Blocks (MCBs) and 321 Minority Concentration Towns (MCTs), 109 Minority Concentration District Headquarters (MCD Hqrs). PMJVK has recently been restructured and approved by the Cabinet on 19.01.2022 for continuation over the 15 th Finance Commission Cycle. The Scheme is now being implemented in all Districts thereby covering every block and town of the Country.

Under  the  scheme,  proposals  are  sought  from  the  States/UTs/Central  Government Organisations  where  the  concentration  of  minority  population  is  more  than  25%    in  the catchment area (5 km radius) as per Census 2011 and subsequent Census as and when it takes place, after due certification of State Level Committee/Central Government Organisation. In States/UTs where a notified minority community is in majority, a lower cut off of 15% of the minority  population  other  than  that  of  the  minority  community  in  majority,  is  adopted  for the catchment area  (5  km  radius)  where  the  project is  proposed.  Priority  sectors  under  the Scheme are education, health, skill development and women centric projects.

(13)  Maulana   Azad    Education    Foundation    (MAEF)    implements   education   and    skill related    schemes    as    follows:-    (a)    Begum    Hazrat  Mahal    National    Scholarship    for Meritorious  Girls  belonging  to  the  economically  weaker  sections  of  Minorities  (b) Gharib Nawaz  Employment  Scheme  started  in  2017-18  for  providing  short  term  job oriented  skill  development  training    to  youth  (c)  Grant-in-aid    to  NGOs  for  infrastructure development of educational institutions.

(14)  Equity  to  National  Minorities  Development  and  Finance  Corporation  (NMDFC)  for providing  concessional  loans  to  minorities  for  self-employment  and  income  generating ventures.

The details of the schemes mentioned at S. No.(1) to (12) are available on the website of this Ministry  (www.minorityaffairs.gov.in) and those at serial No.(13) and (14) are available on the website of MAEF (www.maef.nic.in) and NMDFC (www.nmdfc.org) respectively.

There is no State-wise fund allocation under above mentioned schemes.  However, an amount  of  Rs.  20,997.72Crores  (Revised  Estimate)  has  been  allocated  during  the  last  five financial years for the various welfare schemes of the Ministry of Minority Affairs  i.e. 2016-

17 to 2020-21  out of which an amount of Rs. 19,156.65 Crore has been utilised for the above mentioned schemes etc.

In order to improve literacy rate, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Adult Education namely Saakshar Bharat was implemented by Ministry of Education, Department of School Education & Literacy, in the rural areas of 404 districts in 26 States and one UT, that had adult  female  literacy  rate  of  50  %  and  below  as  per  Census  2001,  including  left  wing extremism affected districts, irrespective of their literacy rate, with special focus on women and other disadvantaged groups.

Under the scheme of Saakshar Bharat, the principal target was to impart Functional Literacy to 70 million non-literates including 12 million minorities.  Around 100.08 million learners  (including  9.81  million  minorities)  appeared  in  thebi-annual  assessment  tests conducted by National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) from August 2010 to March 2018, out  of  which  76.39  million  learners  (including  7.50  million  minorities)  had  successfully passed the assessment.

Further,  a  new  Centrally  Sponsored  Scheme  of  Adult  Education  'Padhna  Likhna Abhiyaan' is implemented in rural and urban areas of 33 states/UTs during the financial year 2020-21,  with  a  target  of  making  48.16  lakh  adult  non-literates,  including  minorities,  as literates.  The scheme has further been extended upto 31.03.2022.

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