Centre likely to grant Jains minority status

The union cabinet is likely to take up soon the issue of granting minority status to the Jain community that constitutes two per cent of India’s population.

Though, Jains are already minorities in 15 states, union minister for minority affairs K Rahman Khan has drafted a note to declare them a national minority.

The minister on Tuesday said the proposal has got approval from the attorney general as well as the ministry of finance. He hoped to get it cleared now soon.

The Jain community in a memorandum had asked the central government to list them as minorities to avail the facility of scholarships, loans and other funds under the Prime Minister’s 15-point programme for minorities.

Once notified, Jains will become the sixth religious minority in India after Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis.

The law ministry had already given its green signal to this proposal. A review petition is pending before the Supreme Court challenging a three-judge verdict on the issue.

Union law minister Kapil Sibal, however, says there was no bar on notifying Jains as a minority community under the National Commission for Minorities Act.

Jains have been notified as a minority in 13 states, including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. Amongst religious communities Jains, though being a miniscule minority, have highest literacy rate at 94.1%, followed by Christians 80.3% and Sikhs at 69.4%.