(a) whether there is a need to bring social audit into all programmes and schemes that concern minorities;
(b) if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government in this regard;
(c) whether the Government has developed a National Data Bank as suggested by the Sachar Committee;
(d) if so, the details thereof; and
(e) if not, the reasons therefor?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS
(SHRI MUKHTAR ABBAS NAQVI)
(a)&(b) : Yes, Madam. The details of social audit of various programmes and schemes of Ministry of Minority Affairs is listed below:
1. The Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme: This programme provides for a structured monitoring mechanism at the Centre, State and District Levels. At the Central level, the progress of implementation of PM’s New 15 Point Programme is monitored on quarterly basis with the Nodal Officers of concerned Ministries/Deptts. at the level of Secretary (MA). Thereafter, the progress is monitored once in six months by a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) and the report is submitted to the Union Cabinet. The monitoring mechanism to oversee the progress of implementation of the follow up action on the Sachar Committee Report is also same.
At the State and District levels, the monitoring of PM’s New 15 PP is done by the State Level and District Level Committees in which MPs and MLAs, representatives from Panchayati Raj Institutions/Autonomous District Councils and representatives from reputed Non-Governmental Institutions dealing with Minorities are members.
The Department dealing with minority issues of the State/UT monitors the progress of implementation of all minorities related schemes/initiatives in State/UT.
Apart from above mechanisms, the implementing Ministries/Deptts. have been advised to conduct an Evaluation Study of their respective scheme(s) covered under above programmes through an independent agency. Some of these studies have already been conducted and the schemes have been found to be effectively implemented.
2. Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP): The guidelines of restructured MsDP prescribe monitoring with the involvement of community (Social Audit). It envisages that an appropriate mechanism of Social Audit would be adopted by the Ministry of Minority Affairs. The Ministry is now associating itself with the Joint Task Force on Social Audit set by CAG of India and the Ministry of Rural Development to opertionalise the Social Audit of MsDP.
3. Scholarship Schemes: There is no need for Social Audit in the Scholarship schemes because sufficient checks and balances have been evolved in the process of submission and scrutiny of applications for Scholarship schemes. Apart from this, to improve transparency in scholarship schemes, a National Scholarship Portal has been launched for various Ministries of Government of India including Ministry of Minority Affairs for extending scholarship. All the three scholarship schemes of this Division are on this portal. The scholarships would be transferred in the bank accounts of students in Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
(c) to (e): The Government took several decisions in respect of the follow-up action on the recommendations of Sachar Committee. As per one of these decisions, a National Data Bank (NDB) having necessary data for the various Socio-Religious Communities (SRCs) is to be maintained. The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has created NDB. The webpage of NDB contains 150 Tables on various SRCs along with a few National Sample Survey reports and data on the socio-religious categories.
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