Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains have been notified by the Central Government as:

Under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, the Central Government has notified six religious communities as minorities at the national level: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains.

History of the notifications:

• In 1993, five communities (Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis) were notified as minorities under Section 2(c) of the Act.
• In 2014, Jains were added as the sixth notified minority community.

Constitutional provisions:

• The Constitution uses the word "minority" but does not define it.
• Article 29 protects the right of any section of citizens to conserve its distinct language, script or culture.
• Article 30 gives all religious and linguistic minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
• Article 350A directs states to provide instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage for children of linguistic minority groups.
• Article 350B provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities.

National Commission for Minorities:

• It is a statutory body set up under the 1992 Act.
• It consists of a Chairperson, a Vice-Chairperson and five members, all from minority communities.
• It monitors the working of safeguards for minorities and looks into complaints.

State-level minorities:

In the T.M.A. Pai Foundation case (2002), the Supreme Court held that minority status, both religious and linguistic, must be decided at the state level.

Thus, a community that is a majority in one state may be a minority in another.

Schemes for minorities:

• The Ministry of Minority Affairs was created in 2006.
• Schemes include scholarships, skill development programmes such as PM VIKAS, and the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram.

Census figures (2011):

Muslims form about 14.2 percent of the population, Christians about 2.3 percent, Sikhs about 1.7 percent, Buddhists about 0.7 percent and Jains about 0.4 percent.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Scheduled Tribes are notified on the basis of tribal characteristics under Article 342.
• ✗Backward Classes are identified on the basis of social and educational backwardness.
• ✗Denotified communities were tribes once listed under the colonial Criminal Tribes Acts.