By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: The office of Ministry of Minority Affairs, a ministry of the Government of India established in 2006, has only eight minority employees-seven Muslims and one Christian-out of total 74 employees.
Out of seven Muslims, one is Joint Secretary, one Deputy Secretary, one ASO, one SRI, one MTS and one senior translator (Urdu).
The information was revealed by the Ministry in an RTI filed by TwoCircles.net, seeking information on the community wise breakup i.e Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikhs, Parsis and Hain along with their Rrank/position.
None from Buddhist, Sikhs, Parsis and Jain community occupy any position in the office of the ministry of minority affairs.
The RTI also asked to provide the community wise breakup of employees belonging to minority communities who were serving in the ministry of minority affairs during 2013-2014.
Surprisingly, the number of employees strength was same as that of 2016, with six Muslims and 2 Christians occupying different positions. Out of six Muslims, one occupied position of Director, one SRI, one MTS, one Sr. Translator (Urdu).
The revelation that only 10.8% employees in the Ministry hold positions reveals how even the Ministry meant to frame developmental policies for minority has a poor representation of employees from the communities it is meant to work for. The information was only provided after submitting first appeal.