Schemes for Minority

Government has taken following initiatives for the welfare and upliftment of the
minority communities:-
 USTAAD:- The Scheme aims at upgrading Skills and Training in preservation of
traditional Ancestral Arts/Crafts of minorities.
 Hamari Darohar:- The Scheme aims to preserve rich heritage of minority communities
in context of Indian culture.
 Khwaza Garib Nawaz Senior Secondary School will be established at Ajmer by
Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) to give a fillip to minority education.
 Nai Manzil: A bridge course to bridge the academic and skill development gaps ofthe
deeni Madrasa passouts with their mainstream counterparts.
 Strengthening of State Wakf Boards: The scheme envisages to provide assistance for
meeting the training and administrative cost of State Wakf Boards, removal of encroachment from Waqf Properties and also strengthening of Zonal/Regional offices
of Waqf Boards.
The government has taken the following steps to ensure that these benefits reach the
intended beneficiaries.
 The Scholarship Schemes have been restructured to allow for greater transparency
and accountability during processing and sanction.
 To help evaluation of flow of benefits, segregated data for the different minority
communities is being sought from all Ministries. The states/UTs have also been
requested to provide better and timely feedback.
 The scholarship schemes are reviewed regularly through interaction with the State
Governments at regular intervals and field visits by the Ministry officials.
 The Online Scholarship Management System (OSMS) earlier introduced for the Meritcum-Means scholarship scheme has now been extended to Post Matric scholarship
scheme.
Nai Roshni
The scheme is envisaged to reach out to women through nongovernmental
organizations who will be provided with financial support for conducting leadership
development trainings so that women are empowered and emboldened to move out
of the confines of home and community and assume leadership roles and assert their
rights collectively or individually.
Scholarship Schemes
Students belonging to notified minority communities viz. Muslim / Christian / Sikh /
Buddhist / Jain / Parsi (Zoroastrian) studying in India only and fulfilling the Scheme
guidelines are eligible to apply for these scholarships.
Free Coaching & Allied Scheme (for Competitive Examinations of
Professional Courses and Government jobs)
 The scheme aims to empower the minority communities by assisting the economically
weaker sections of students among them through coaching institutions for enhancing
their skills and capabilities to make them employable in industries, services and
business sectors in addition to the government sector. It has built-in resilience to adapt
to the market dynamics on a continuous basis so that the target groups are not
deprived of the professional acumen demanded by the changing/emerging market
needs and opportunities for employment at domestic as well as international levels.

 Separate schemes for providing coaching to students belonging to scheduled caste,
minority communities and backward classes were being implemented from 6th Five
Year Plan. These separate schemes were amalgamated with effect from September
2001 into a combined Scheme of Coaching and Allied Assistance for Weaker Sections
including Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes and Minorities. After creation of
the Ministry of Minority Affairs, a new scheme called “Free Coaching & Allied Scheme
for candidates belonging to minority communities has been formulated keeping in
view the emerging trends of employment in the era of economic reforms,
liberalization and globalization.
Objectives
The objectives of the scheme are to assist students belonging to minority communities
by way of special coaching for the following:-
1. Qualifying examinations for admission in technical/professional courses such as
engineering, law, medical, management, information technology etc and
language/aptitude examinations for seeking admission in foreign universities.
2. Competitive examinations for recruitment to Group ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C and ‘D’ services and
other equivalent posts under the Central and State governments including
police/security forces, public sector undertakings, Railways, banks, insurance
companies as well as autonomous bodies; and
3. Coaching for jobs in the private sector such as in airlines, shipping, information
technology (IT), business process outsourcing (BPO) and other IT enabled services,
hospitality, tours and travels, maritime, food processing, retail, sales & marketing, biotechnology and other job oriented courses as per the emerging trend of employment.
4. Remedial coaching at undergraduate and post graduate level to improve the academic
knowledge and enable the student to catch up with the rest of the class and complete
the course successfully.
Seekho aur Kamao (Learn & Earn)
Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India on 23 September 2013
launched a central sector scheme for Skill Development of Minorities
Main Objectives
 To bring down unemployment rate of minorities during 12th Plan period (2012-17).
 To conserve and update traditional skills of minorities and establish their linkages with
the market.
 To improve employability of existing workers, school dropouts etc and ensure their
placement.
 To generate means of better livelihood for marginalised minorities and bring them in
the mainstream.

To enable minorities to avail opportunities in the growing market.
 To develop potential human resource for the country.
Jiyo Parsi
Jiyo Parsi, the Central Sector Scheme for containing population decline of Parsis in
India was launched on 23 September 2013 by the Ministry of Minority Affairs,
Government of India.
Objectives
The main objective of the Jiyo parsi scheme is to reverse the declining trend of Parsi
population by adopting scientific protocol and structured interventions, stabilize the
Parsi population and increase the population of Parsis in India.
Main features
 100 percent funded by Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India.
 Medical interventions under Standard Medical protocols in empanelled
hospitals/clinics.

Confidentiality of the patients to be given utmost importance.
Target groups

 The scheme is meant for only Parsis community.
 Parsi married couples of child bearing age who seek assistance.
 Adults/young men/women/adolescent boys/girls for detection of diseases resulting
with consent of parents/legal guardians.
Padho Pardesh (for overseas studies at Masters, M.Phil. and Ph.D. Level)
Government of India, Ministry of Minority Affairs has now introduced a new scheme
for providing ‘interest subsidy’ for minority students for overseas studies. This scheme
came into force from 2013-14. The loan for overseas studies for specific courses
should have been sanctioned by the bank under IBA model scheme. The annual
income of the parents should be less than 6 lakhs.
If the student is eligible, the Government of India provides full interest subsidy during
the moratorium period. (course period plus one year or six months after getting
employment, whichever is earlier).
Nalanda Scheme
Union Ministry of Minority Affairs has launched the Nalanda Project for Minorities
Higher Educational Institutions on 4 March 2014.
Nalanda Project is an innovative Faculty Development Program of Union Ministry of
Minority Affairs. The Nalanda Project is being taken up at Aligarh Muslim University, a premier Minority University of world fame. The Aligarh Muslim University is also a
Nodal Staff College of University Grant Commission.
Minority Cyber Gram
The MCG programme seeks to introduce digital literacy skills in identified minority
clusters in India through designated Digital Fellows towards knowledge empowerment
and entitlement gains of minority focused groups and beneficiaries.
Background
With basic literacy level low among the backward sections of the minorities, the social
and economic profile is further aggravated due to lack of basic digital skills and
knowledge to derive advantages from digital tools, devices, platforms and knowledge
networks. In order to mainstream minority groups and communities with national
development goals and objectives, it is extremely important and relevant to deploy
and introduce digital literacy skills to get benefits in knowledge based networks and in
public schemes and other services through information empowerment.
Objectives
 To impart digital literacy and skills among identified minority groups and beneficiaries
through designated Digital Fellows (DFs) in identified minority clusters for information
and knowledge empowerment and entitlement gains.
 To provide opportunities in information and knowledge networks for local
communities.
Maulana Azad Sehat scheme
 Under the scheme, Sehat Card will be issued to every student of the Institution
financially aided by Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF).
 Preventive Health Check-up Camps will be organized by the Institute twice in a year,
through government or private hospitals or nursing homes.
 All findings of the preventive health checkups will be entered in the Sehat Card of the
student by the doctors.
 In exceptional and deserving cases for serious ailments the poor students belonging
to notified minorities will be provided financial assistance for the treatment in
government or recognized hospitals. Serious ailments of kidney, heart, liver cancer
and brain or any life threatening diseases including knee and spinal surgery will be
covered.
 A dispensary or health care centre is to be set up in the educational institutions
(school) to provide daily medical facilities to the students studying in the educational
institutions funded or aided by MAEF.