'Poor allocation': How Union budget has discriminated against minority community

By Mujahid Nafees*
On February 1, 2025, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2025-26 in Parliament. This year's budget stands at ₹5,065,345 crore, an increase of approximately 7.39% from last year's revised estimates. However, the budget for the Ministry of Minority Affairs is only ₹3,350.00 crore, which is approximately 0.0661% of the total budget. Last year, in 2024-25, it was ₹3,183.24 crore.
The central government has reduced the budget for important schemes, which are as follows:
There's a reduction of ₹130.46 crore in the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme, ₹731.39 crore in the Post-Matric Scheme, ₹26.46 crore in the Merit-cum-Means Scheme, ₹2.24 crore in the Maulana Azad Fellowship Scheme, ₹7.14 crore in Interest Subsidy, and zero provision for the UPSC preparation scheme. In total, the education and empowerment sector has seen a reduction of ₹897.49 crore.
A ₹17 crore increase is proposed for the PM Virasat Ka Samvardhan Scheme, while there's a ₹1.99 crore decrease in the educational scheme for minorities and Madrasas. However, an increase of ₹1,003.97 crore has been proposed for PMJVK. This government emphasizes skill development the most, yet only ₹3 crore has been allocated to this head.
Several schemes, including the Qaumi Waqf Board Tarrakiyati Scheme, Skill Development Initiative Scheme, Nayi Manzil Scheme, Leadership Development Scheme for Minority Women, Ustad Scheme, Hamari Dharohar Scheme, and Maulana Azad Foundation, have been discontinued.
This shows that the government is discriminating against the minority community and does not want them to progress on the path of development. The Minority Coordination Committee (MCC) considers this budget to be discriminatory and demands that at least ₹1 lakh crore be allocated in the central budget, proportional to the population, as a special provision to uplift the backward community.
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*Convener, Minority Coordination Committee

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