New Delhi: The National Commission for Minorities received the most number of complaints from the Muslim community in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, for the sixth time in a row, government data showed.
These two states also received the most number of calls from all the minority communities put together, the ministry of minority affairs said in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. Rise in complaints by minorities
The minister of minority affairs Smriti Irani provided the data in response to a question from Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi MP D. Ravikumar.
The MP had asked for the total number of complaints received by the Commission during the last five years on the basis of state and religion.
He had also asked if the Commission had submitted action-taken reports up to only 2011, and the reasons for the delay in submitting them for the past ten years.
In response to this question, Irani said: “The National Commission for Minorities has submitted annual reports up to 2021-22 to the Ministry of Minority Affairs.” She added that “as per Sections 12 and 13 of the NCM Act, 1992, the Commission shall prepare, in such form and at such time, for each financial year, as may be prescribed, its annual report, giving a full account of its activities during the previous financial year and forward a copy thereof to the central government.”
In response to another query, she said that as per the Act, there is no provision for the constitution of district-level committees for the welfare of minorities.
Rise in complaints by minorities to NCM over the last two years
According to the data, the Commission received a total number of 1,498 complaints in 2017-18, 1,871 in 2018-19, 1,670 in 2019-20, 1,463 in 2020-21, 2,076 in 2021-22, and 1,984 in the first 10 months of the current financial year 2022-23.
The data showed an increase in the number of complaints by the minority communities over the last two financial years.
Overall, the data showed that in the last three years, most of the complaints have come from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. And in the last two years, the number of complaints had increased from Maharashtra as well.
In 2020-21, as many as 732 complaints – which were almost half of all the complaints received nationwide – were filed from Uttar Pradesh. At least 106 complaints were filed from Delhi, and 60 from Maharashtra.
In 2021-22, as many as 745 complaints were filed from UP, 227 from Delhi, and 140 from Maharashtra. And in the first 10 months of the current financial year, 783 complaints were filed from UP, 204 from Delhi, and 119 from Maharashtra.
Most complaints filed by Muslims came from UP, Delhi, and Maharashtra
The data showed that most of the complaints were filed by Muslims. Rise in complaints by minorities
In 2020-21, people from the Muslim community had filed 1,105 complaints, which increased to 1,420 in 2021-22. At least 1,279 complaints have already been filed by them, as on January 31, indicating a rise in the number of incidents of harassment and discrimination.
The data showed that most of these complaints were filed from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Maharashtra.
Christians filed 103 complaints in 2020-21, and 137 in 2021-22. As of January 31, they filed 107 complaints, the data showed.
In 2020-21, most of these complaints came from Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Kerala. However, in the following year, Delhi and Maharashtra joined them on this list.
In the current financial year, of the 107 complaints filed by Christians, as many as 21 have come from Uttar Pradesh, followed by 10 from Tamil Nadu.
Sikhs filed 99 complaints in 2020-21, which was up by over 120% in 2021-22 to 222 complaints. They have already filed 270 complaints with the Commission this year.
Two years ago, most of these complaints from the Sikh community came from Delhi and UP (21 each), followed by Punjab (13), and Uttarakhand (12). However, in the last fiscal, Delhi and Punjab recorded the most number of complaints (46 each), followed by UP (26) and Haryana (19).
This year, most of the complaints from the community have come from Punjab (73), followed by UP (45), Delhi (37), and Jammu and Kashmir (17).
Separately, the data also showed that the complaints from Jains, Buddhists, and Parsis, which stood at 78 in 2020-21 rose by 100% to reach a total of 156 in 2021-22. In the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, these complaints have already reached 173, indicating a further increase in the dissatisfaction among these communities.
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