Religion and identities of religious minorities are very often being discussed these days while some are complaining against the minority appeasement policy of Government. The minorities are being projected as vote banks.
The United Nations Minorities Declaration based on consensus in 1992 in its Article 1 says minorities based on national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identities should be protected by the State. There is no internationally agreed definition over groups that constitute as minority as in case of indigenous people also. But minority groups are prone to multiple discriminations based on their social identities based on caste, race, gender, disability and sexual orientation. The Government of India has enacted the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 and notified six religions as religious minority groups in India.
As per the 2011 Census, religious minority constitutes about 6 per cent of the total population of Odisha which includes 2.77 per cent Christians, 2.17 per cent Muslims and others are Sikh, Buddhists and Jains constituting a very insignificant number. Historically, it is a fact that people under lower social status of Hindu social order are being converted to other religions. Thus, a major section of minority population carries multiple social identities in a caste ridden society like ours. Though they have changed their faith but their social status and living condition has not changed much because of the influence of the dominant religion in every spheres of social life.
The Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims are such groups who have been facing multiple forms of discriminations in their everyday life as a religious minority and also because of their past social identities.
They are also a minority within the marginalised sections. The change in their religion status has deprived them of many of the Constitutional rights and provisions of law thatguarantee protection against caste based discrimination and untouchability and most important, their participation in different spheres like education and Government jobs.
After the Mandal Commission recommendations based on the criteria of social and educational backwardness, many of such minority groups are enlisted as OBC and SEBC but the issues of protection against social discrimination remain unaddressed and they are pushed into unequal competitions. There have been cases of complaints that even within their religion they face discrimination by fellow faith followers when it comes to marriage and other social relationship and holding posts in religious hierarchy and getting access to top decision making bodies and most importantly sharing of resources within provinces.
There is use of words such as upper caste Christians, Dalit Christians, ASRAF and AJLAF, Majbhi SIKH etc. which sound a hierarchical division within. The converts from higher caste Hindus still maintain distance in social relationship with people convert from lower social strata. There are a number of studies which have established that the conditions of these marginalized sections within religious minority are worst. It is being suggested that there must be provision of land, basic amenities, education, credit, employment and scope of participation in governance, including political participation and most importantly, protection against dominance and discrimination.
It is important to know about the status of a group before going for any kind of formulation of policy or for implementation of any schemes or programmes. There has been lack of disaggregated data about religious minority of the State in order to know their status for formulation of schemes and programmes. The institutional arrangement to address the very specific issues of minority at policy level is most significant and under this provision the State must have a minority commission, a separate minority department and a minority finance development corporation under the leadership of representatives from these communities. The State minority commission is to represent the concerns of minority communities, policy and legal issues between the Government and groups and also for ensuring socio-economic justice to these groups in realisation of their constitutional rights as citizens of this country while getting protected as minority under the provisions of the law.
The Minister for Minority Development Department would be held responsible to the State Assembly and the matter of minorities will get appropriately focused. The department can appoint officers in minority concentrated areas to look into the welfare and development issues along with facilitating the participation and protection mechanism for the groups. The present department of SCs, STs, OBCs and Minority Development Department of the State should be split into four independent departments with four ministers from representing four different groups because the specific issues of each group are different while these four groups constitute more than 90 per cent of the population of the State. Therefore their protection and development is very much vital to the inclusive development of the State. But unfortunately the specific institutional mechanism has not been developed yet.
Similarly, there are many States having State Minority Commission and State Minority Finance Development Commission but the Government of Odisha has not initiated such process which can be a first step towards minority protection and development. There are 18 States such as TN, Maharashtra, AP, Telangana, UP, WB, Rajasthan, Punjab and Manipur having the State Minority Commissions.
The independent Minority Finance Development Corporation must have adequate funds allocated by the State Government under budget and tap funds from ministry of minority and credit facilities with nationalized and cooperative banks to develop self-employment schemes for minority youths and entrepreneurs for generating employment, income and economic participation in mainstream social life. The schemes must be designed to suit into the complex situations where the youths of the minority groups are well protected from all kinds of peculiar situation, but not just credit rather with social and administrative support to do business and develop as equal entrepreneurs. The allocation of shops and commercial establishments, lands and infrastructural facilities by the Government must be available to minority communities and the State and local Government must have such provisions that ensure a reasonable representation of minority groups in business and industry.
The minority educational institutions are protected under the constitutional provisions but minority educational institutions in the State are not so well equipped to impart quality education for higher studies and employment opportunities. Therefore, there must be provision for minority groups in Government run educational institutions to ensure scope of access to quality education in field of medical, engineering, and other technical and higher studies. The State run universities, colleges, schools and technical institutions must offer such facilities to the minority groups and areas having minority concentration.
Studies found that minority habitations in Odisha have been suffering with lack of basic amenities such as homestead land, housing, sanitation, toilet, electricity, linking road, and common land for various use of the community. The various schemes of the Central Government especially the 15-point programme of Government of India has not reached to the minority hamlets. Unfortunately the various committees headed by Chief Secretary and Collectors are not meeting regularly to change the situation.
It is being much debated in recent times that the minority groups in Kandhamal and Bhadrak have been facing dominance and threat and are living in fear while celebrating their faith based festivals and functions. The Government must take into seriously the issue and ensure that minority groups can have a life of dignity without fear and discrimination as fellow citizens of this secular country.
(manasbbsr15@gmail.com)
