The ‘Nai Manzil’ scheme announced in the budget is something that the Minority Affairs Ministry has been talking about ever since the Modi Government assumed office last year.
In reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on July 16, 2014, the Ministry had listed ‘Nai Manzil’ as one of the steps “being taken’’ by the Government for the welfare of minorities. It was billed as a “bridge course to bridge the academic and skill development gaps of the deeni Madrasa passouts with their mainstream counterparts’’.
Seven-and-a-half months later, Mr. Jaitley flagged ‘Nai Manzil’ as a scheme that “will be launched this year’’ to enable minority youth who do not have a formal school-leaving certificate to obtain one and find better employment.
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The other minority community-related programme that he flagged in the Budget speech on Saturday pertained to show-casing the civilisation and culture of Parsis. The Government will support an exhibition ‘The Everlasting Flame’, he said. The allocation for the Ministry “is being protected’’ with an estimate of Rs. 3,738 crore. Last year’s budget had allocated Rs. 3,734 crore to the Ministry which was cut down to Rs. 3,165 crore in the revised estimates.
A bulk of this is for the Multi Sectoral Development Programme for Minorities and the other main claimants to the allocation are the pre-matric and post-matric scholarships for minorities.
However, the single para reference to minorities left them feeling “hopeless’’. Zafar Mahmood of Zakat Foundation said from two paragraphs in the Modi Government’s first Budget, the reference to minorities was down to one in the second. “It is clear where their priorities lie,” he said.
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