Commissions In India

National Commission For Minorities

National Commission for Minorities (NCM) was setup by the Government of India under the provisions of National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 through which the major religious communities coming under the minority sect including Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) were included as the notified minority communities whose uplift and overall progress was its main motive.

About National Commission for Minorities

An important factor which became a key motive for the formation of the National Commission for Minorities was the UN declaration of December 18, 1992 which was the driving force behind its setup. NCM too had the similar philosophy to protect the national, ethnic, cultural besides religious and linguistic identity of all five minorities whose denoting was an important aspect to initiate the development steps. Identity promotion was other important prerequisite for that this Commission was setup.

Mandate

NCM was setup to function on the following areas to enhance secular character of the country. This Commission had been given the duty to do thorough evaluation of all types of progresses or initiatives taken for the betterment of a condition of the minority communities in entire country. Thorough monitoring of such roles and safeguarding the rights of minorities through law enforcement or by suggesting the guidelines are all major steps. A few more steps which NCM is bound to take for the minorities are mentioned here:-

• Evaluate and make recommendations to peruse the government for their implementations effectively for best possible safety of minorities
• Protection of all types of minority rights especially keeping in view interests for which state and central governments are often suggested to take and start a concrete action plan  
• NCM takes into account the serious steps and looks at all the complaints which indicate of any sort of rights deprivation of minorities and to find the measures for their proper safeguarding for which this Commission has to take the issue to the authorities concerned

Working of National Commission for Minorities

NCM has been given some of the most important powers which it utilizes to make the best outcome by discharging its roles on various stages. The Commission can summon or enforce the attendance of individuals anywhere in any department in the whole country to examine their roles strictly. It may ask for search or any kind of production of documents for evaluation. Some other responsibilities include:-

• Evidence the receiving on affidavit for specific matters
• Asking for requisitioning of public record or copy from courts or office for the evaluation purpose
• Commission issuance for the purpose of witness and documents examination

One of the major roles which NCM has been given recently is a crucial one in nature and application due to it being special task for current Commission to do. It is the task of monitoring of slow progress in the Prime Minister’s 15-point program for the minorities implementation which has still not been practically implemented in all even after more than a half decades of the announcement of such program meant for the minority communities. The NCM has been entrusted to take it into account and to monitor the implementation process to the best extent.

Composition of the Current Commission

With the constitution of the 6th NCM in 2010 the sincerity of the government for the minority communities has been enriched as a Commission team consisting of the intellectual representation of the communities concerned. The current Commission consisted of the following members to work as a team for the promotion as well as development of the minority community on all stages.

• Chairman –Wajahat Habibullah
• Vice Chairperson –Dr. H.T. Sangliana
• Members –Harvendra Singh Hanspal, Spalzes Angmo, Syeda Bilgrami Imam, Vinod Sharma

NCM employs several additional officers to function and dispose its role from top to bottom as a Commission to work for the safety, security and overall development of the five major minority communities.