Since 2014-15 to till date, a total number of over 4 Crore scholarships have been distributed to the students belonging to economically weaker sections of minority communities

New Delhi: Ministry of Minority Affairs implements various welfare schemes for the socio- economic and educational empowerment of six centrally notified minority communities namely Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Parsis and Sikhs. The details of the schemes are available atwww.minorityaffairs.gov.in.

During the period from 2015-16 to 2019-20, total fund allocated for Ministry of Minority Affairs was Rs. 21160.84 crore and actual expenditure was Rs. 19,201.45 crore which is approx 90.75% of total fund allocated.

Since 2014-15 to till date, a total number of 4,00,06,080 scholarships have been distributed to the students belonging to economically weaker sections of minority communities, by incurring a total expenditure of Rs.11,690.81 crore. An amount of Rs.9223.68 crore has been spent for providing scholarships to 3,06,19,546 beneficiaries under various scholarship schemes of the Ministry during the period from 2015-16 to 2019-20, out of which about 54% scholarships have been awarded to minority girlstudents.

This information was given by Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Minister of Minority Affairs, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.