Central government will reconsider giving minority status to Hindus in some states

Tags: National News

The Centre informed the Supreme Court that the power to notify minorities is vested with the Union government and any decision in this regard will be taken after discussion with states and other stakeholders.

• The petition, filed in the Supreme Court, had sought a direction to frame guidelines for identification of minorities at the state level.

• The petition said that Hindus are a minority in 10 states.

• Population of Hindus in 9 states 

1. 1% in Ladakh

2. 2.75% in Mizoram 

3. 2.77% in Lakshadweep

4. 4% in Jammu & Kashmir

5. 8.74% in Nagaland

6. 11.52% in Meghalaya

7. 29% in Arunachal Pradesh 

8. 38.49% in Punjab

9. 41.29% in Manipur.

• Who are the Minorities?

• Minorities are not explicitly mentioned anywhere in the Constitution.

• Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jain and Zoroastrians (Parsis) have been notified as minority communities under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.

• According to the 2011 census, the percentage of minorities in the country is about 19.3% of the total population of the country.

• The population of Muslims are 14.2%, Christians 2.3%, Sikhs 1.7%, Buddhists 0.7%, Jain 0.4% and Parsis 0.006%.

• Article 29 of the constitution deals with the “protection of interest of minorities”.

• The constitution recognizes religious minorities in India and linguistic minorities in India through Article 29 and Article 30.