New Delhi: The number of beneficiaries under most schemes launched by the Ministry of Minority Affairs has declined since 2019-20, Union minister Smriti Irani said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.
Irani was responding to an unstarred question by All India United Democratic Front MP from Assam, M. Badruddin Ajmal. He had asked for the quantum of funds allocated, utilised, and the number of beneficiaries under the central schemes implemented for the educational and socio-economic empowerment of minorities.
There are six centrally notified minority communities, namely, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Muslims, Parsis and Jains.
The details under the category “physical and financial achievement for various schemes” showed that the number of beneficiaries and allocations has declined over the last three years.
In 2020-21, the decline in the number of beneficiaries and allocations could be attributed to COVID-19. However, data for 2019-20 and 2021-22 showed that in many cases the allocations and beneficiaries remained low even after two years.
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