Minorities Rights Day is observed on:

Minorities Rights Day is observed every year on 18 December in India to promote and protect the rights of minority communities.

Why 18 December:

• On 18 December 1992, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the "Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities".
• The Declaration says that states shall protect the existence and the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their territories.
• In India, the day is observed by the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) and state minority commissions.

Minorities in India:

• The Constitution does not define the word "minority", but it refers to religious and linguistic minorities.
• Under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, the Central Government has notified six communities as national minorities:
• Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis (Zoroastrians) were notified in 1993.
• Jains were added in 2014.

Constitutional protections:

• 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: facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage.
• Article 350B: provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities, appointed by the President.

About the National Commission for Minorities:

• It was first set up in 1978 by a government resolution and became a statutory body under the NCM Act, 1992.
• It has a Chairperson, a Vice-Chairperson and five members, who must belong to minority communities.
• The Ministry of Minority Affairs was created in January 2006.

Other related days:

• Human Rights Day: 10 December.
• International Mother Language Day: 21 February.
• International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples: 9 August.
• International Migrants Day: also 18 December.

Why not the other options?

• ✗10 December is Human Rights Day.
• ✗21 February is International Mother Language Day.
• ✗9 August is the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.