In a meeting with the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on pre-budget consultation, a delegation from the Centre for Budget and Government Accountability (CBGA) asked the government to include devepopmental concerns of minority groups as a priority.

The New Delhi-based think-tank asked the government to pay special attention to the women and children of minority groups in charter presented to Mukherjee on Saturday

Based on 2001 census figures, female literacy rate has been found to be lower in the Muslim community (around 50.09 percent) than other religious groups.

The delegation highlighted the low spending by the ministry of minority affairs (MMA) and the prime minister's 15-point programme for minorities.

 “The targets for provisioning of major services like housing, supply of drinking water, construction of health sub-centres, anganwadi centres (AWC), school buildings and additional class rooms have hardly completed 28 percent of targeted work during the past three and half years of implementation under the multi-sectoral development programme (MSDP),” a report by the CBGA said.

The MSDP was initiated in 2007-08 by the MMA for the overall development of the minorities of the country. Based on 2004-05 data, the Sachar committee had pointed out that as much as 312 percent of the country's Muslim population was under the poverty line. The panel had reported dropout rate among children at 25 percent and infant mortality rate at 59 percent in the community.

CBGA also demanded increased budgetary provisions for the Muslims beyond the 90 minority concentration districts. “There is a still huge gap in budgetary allocation and utilisation for the minorities,” the CBGA said. 

According to the CBGA, “Total plan allocation for MMA in the eleventh plan was Rs. 7,000 crore and the utlisation of funds accounts for 34 percent of total proposed outlay.” The think tank demanded transparency in the implementation of the different schemes for the minority affairs. 

However, the state minister of minority affairs, Vincent H. Pala shrugged off such criticism.

“It is not the entire responsibility of the centre but also depends on the state governments because the proposals have to come from them in form of detailed project reports,” Pala told Governance Now.

The civil society organisation also raised the issue of panchayats being kept out of the implementation process of MSDP. “In Uttar Pradesh, half the posts of district minority welfare officers are still lying vacant, which has led to poor planning and delay in implementation of the schemes,” Jawed A Khan, research officer of the CBGA told Governance Now.

“The PM’s 15 point programme for the welfare of minorities, initiated in 2006, should be converted into a minority sub-plan, which would improve transparency and accountability in the process of planning and budgeting for minorities,” said one of the charter of demands of CBGA.

It also asked the government to pay special attention to the local crafts, and budgetary provisions for creation of artisan clusters in minority concentration districts in India.

The government has identified 90 minority concentration districts in India falling in socio-economic and basic amenities pointers as compared with the national average.

According to the 2001 census figure, minority groups constitute around 19 percent of the total population – Muslim (13.4 percent), Christians (2.3 percent), Sikhs (1.9 percent), Buddhists (0.8 percent), Jains (0.4 percent), and others (0.6 percent).