Fund allocation for minority welfare increased 7% during last 3 years: Lok Sabha Data

New Delhi: Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday informed Lok Sabha that the fund allocation for the Ministry has increased over the years by 7% from Rs. 4,700 crore in 2018-19 to Rs.5,029 crore in 2020-21.

The Minister was replying to a question raised by TMC MP Pratima Mondal and AIUDF MP Badarudhin Ajmal. The MP's question was whether the percentage of increase in funds for minority welfare being very low as compared with other Ministries.

While answering to another question regarding the details of ratio of benefit obtained by the various communities, the minister replied that the Ministry maintains data of community-wise beneficiaries only for the scholarship schemes.

According to the reply, the ratio of beneficiaries in the scholarship schemes among the minority communities during the last three years is Muslims 75.58%, Christians 12.15%, Sikhs 8.19%, Buddhists 2.80%, Jains 1.27% and Parsis 0.01%.

The Minister also informed that it has sanctioned a total of 5,750 fellowships during last 7 years from 2014-15 to 2020-21 period under Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) Scheme while replying to another question raised by Anantpur MP Talari Rangaiah and Cuddalore MP T.R.V.S. Ramesh.

The Ministry added that it has sanctioned a total of 1,726 fellowships under the scheme during last two years. When asked regarding the total funds sanctioned during the last two years for the State of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for the purpose of scheme, the minister informed that funds are not sanctioned State/UT-wise under the scheme.

However, the Minority Affairs Minister added that the fellowships amounting to Rs. 14,70,28,978/- and Rs. 8,14,90,253/- respectively were disbursed to the beneficiaries from the States of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu during the last two years i.e. 2019-20 and 2020-21.

According to the data revealed by the Ministry on Thursday, students from Jammu and Kashmir benefited most by the scholarship scheme as many as 336 beneficiaries are from the state followed by Uttar Pradesh (230),Kerala(213) , West Bengal (158) and Delhi (126).

MANF Scheme is a scholarship envisaged and implemented under Ministry of Minority Affairs for the educational empowerment of students belonging to six notified minority communities i.e. Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, Sikh, Zoroastrian (Parsi) who pursue regular and full time M. Phil and Ph.D courses.