The Modi government once championed the slogan ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ with great emphasis, promising to fulfill the needs of the minority communities and bring them on par with the national mainstream through its budgets. However, this slogan seems to become increasingly hollow.
The Union budget presented earlier this month stands as evidence of this.
The current budget shows that this government, driven by Hindutva ideology, is uninterested in ensuring the education and development of minority youth in the country, especially for the approximately 200 million Muslims. Moreover, the ideology upheld by this government has long depicted Muslims, Christians and communists as internal enemies of the nation.
Attack on educational schemes for minorities
The first educational scheme to face the cut in budget 2025-26 is the pre-matric scholarship for minorities – a crucial program that allows children from minority communities to go to school.
In 2023-24, the budget for this scheme was set at Rs 433 crore. In 2024-25, it was reduced to Rs 326.16 crore, and now, for 2025-26, the allocation has significantly dropped to just Rs 195.70 crore. In terms of actual spending, only Rs 95.83 crore was utilised in 2023-24 and in 2024-25, only Rs 90 crore was released despite Rs 326.16 crore being allocated.
The expenditure figures for this year may be even more concerning, given the drop in allocation. Honestly, it seems the government is determined to make it more difficult for children from minority communities to access education.
The same pattern is also unfolding with the post-matric scholarship for minorities, the budget for which in 2025-26 has been slashed to Rs 413.99 crore, nearly 65% less than the previous year.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
