Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addresses a post-Budget press conference in New Delhi on July 23, 2024.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Ministry of Minority Affairs has seen a mere 2.7% increase, from funds allocated in the previous year’s Budget Estimate (BE), for the financial year 2024-25 in the Union Budget presented on Tuesday. This allocation is around 22% of the Revised Estimate (RE), but monetary allocation in schemes like coaching and education loans have been slashed.
This year’s BE show that the Ministry is getting 0.07% of the government’s total outlay, which amounts to a mere 0.01% more than last year’s share of the total outlay.
Live updates from the Union Budget 2024-25 on July 23, 2024
The BE for the coaching and allied schemes for minorities has been slashed from ₹30 crore in 2023-24 to ₹10 crore in 2024-25. The RE for this scheme in 2023-24 was ₹14 crore. The BE for the interest subsidy on educational loans for overseas education for minorities has also been reduced from ₹21 crore to ₹15.30 crore. The RE for this scheme was ₹7 crore.
The BE for education scheme for Madrasas and Minorities has gone down from ₹10 cr in 2023-24 to ₹2 cr in 2024-25. The RE for this scheme in the previous financial year was ₹5 crore.
The BE for Pre-Matric Scholarship for Minorities, which was ₹433 crore in 2023-24 and was revised to ₹400 crore, stays at ₹326.16 for the ongoing financial year. However, the BE for the Post-Matric Scholarship for Minorities has seen an increase from ₹1,065 crore to ₹1,145.38 crore. The RE for this scheme last year was ₹1,000 crore.
The BE for development of minorities in Northeast areas this year is ₹318.70 crore as against ₹309.70 crore in the last financial year which was later revised to ₹261.44 crore.
The BE for grants-in-aid to State governments has been increased to ₹527.12 crore from ₹247.21 crore in 2023-34. The RE for the same was ₹237.54 crore. The BE for the grants-in-aid to Union Territory governments was increased to ₹20.06 crore from ₹0.33 crore last year, which was revised to ₹0.17 crore.
However, the BE for Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakaram has seen a massive increase from ₹600 crore in 2023-24 to ₹910 crore.
Previously, the government has already scrapped minority schemes including Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF), schemes that were supporting students from the minority community to appear in competitive exams like UPSC, SSC etc.
