(a) whether the Government has taken any steps to set up an Equal
Opportunity Commission (EOC);
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the action taken by the Government for the setting up of the National Data Bank;
(d) whether the National Skill Development Board and National Skill Development
Corporation have taken any steps in different States for the development of
minorities;
(e) if so, the details thereof; and
(f) the community-wise details of Priority Sector Lending?
MINISTER OF MINORITY AFFAIRS (SHRI K. RAHMAN KHAN)
(a) & (b) Yes, Madam. A High Level Committee under the chairpersonship of Justice
(Retd.) Rajindar Sachar had, inter alia, made recommendation for setting up of an Equal
Opportunity Commission (EOC) to address the grievances of deprived groups. Government
had set up an Expert Group to examine and determine, inter alia, the structure and
functions of an EOC. Based on the Expert Group Report, recommendations of Group of
Ministers constituted for this purpose and comments/ inputs received from various
stakeholders, a draft Equal Opportunity Commission Bill for setting up of EOC is under
consideration of the Government.
(c) As a follow-up action on the Sachar Committee recommendations, the mandate to set
up National Data Bank was given to the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation.
A National Data Bank web page has been created on the website of Ministry of Statistics &
Programme Implementation, which at present contains 97 tables on population, education,
health and labour & Employment.
(d) & (e) Prime Minister’s National Council on Skill Development, National Skill
Development Coordination Board and the Office of Adviser to PM on Skill Development have
been subsumed into the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA). The NSDA is an
autonomous body located in the Ministry of Finance. One of the major functions assigned
to the NSDA is to ensure that the skilling needs of the disadvantaged and the marginalized
groups like Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs),
minorities, women and differently-abled persons are taken care of. So far as the erstwhile
National Skill Development Coordination Board is concerned, the basic function was to
coordinate the skill development activities in the country. The National Skill Development
Corporation (NSDC) has been set up as a not for profit company, under the M/o Finance,
primarily to catalyse private sector initiatives in skill development. Individual
Ministries are implementing schemes targeted at different social groups including the
minorities.
(f) Community-wise details of Priority Sector Lending for the year 2012-13 & 2013-14
(upto September, 2013) is given below:
(Rs in Crore) Year Amount outstanding of minority communities by Public Sector Banks Muslims Christians Sikhs Buddhists Zoroastrians Total 2012-13 83780.25 45469.65 41433.86 12260.86 2289.91 185234.35 (as on 31.03.2013) 2013-14 93600.50 42968.43 54729.80 4278.67 3528.07 199105.47 (as on 30.09.2013)