People from the minority communities account for five per cent of the workforce in various government departments and the Delhi Police.
The figures were shared by the Delhi Minorities Commission in its annual report, which was submitted to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday.
Under the head ‘Representation of Minorities in Government Services’, the report said only 2,993 of the 77,397 Delhi Police personnel belong to the minority communities, which comes to around 3.8 per cent.
Similarly, out of the 6,031 employees of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) only 295 are minorities, while only 32 out of the 741 employees working with the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Department are from such communities.
Confusion over figures
However, there is confusion around figures related to the Delhi Metro in this regard. The DMRC termed as “incorrect” the report’s claim that out of its “80,683 employees, only 282 belong to minority communities”.
“The figure is not correct. We have around 8,000 employees and even if we add the contractual staff the number would not be that large. We will take up the matter with the commission on Thursday,” a DMRC official said.
Speaking to the media, Mr. Sisodia said that he will look into the recommendations made by the commission and check the reasons for such low representation of minorities in the workforce.
‘Action needed’
“There should be a sense of security among minorities. But the report paints a dismal picture. We need to find out whether it is deliberate or on grounds of merit. Either way, we need to take action and it has to be fixed. The recommendations will be studied and steps taken,” Mr. Sisodia said.
The Delhi Minority Commission was set up as a statutory body by an enactment called the Delhi Minority Commission Act 1999 and its chairman is Qamar Ahmad, who handed over the report to Mr. Sisodia.
The functions of the panel are related to the welfare of the six notified communities based on religion: Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jain, Buddhist, and Parsi.