The Union Government set up the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Six religious communities, viz; Muslims, Christians, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) have been notified in Gazette of India as minority communities by the Union Government all over India. Original notification of 1993 was for five religious communities; Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians and Muslims, later in 2014, Jains community was also added. As per Census 2001, these six communities consists of 18.8% of the country's population.

UN Declaration

The NCM adheres to the United Nations Declaration of 18 December 1992 which states that "States shall protect the existence of the National or Ethnic, Cultural, Religious and Linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity.”

List of Chairpersons

Functions and Powers

The Commission has the following functions: The Commission has the following powers:

Composition of Commission

The act states that the Commission shall consist of:

Demographic Information (As per the Census 2011)

As per the Census 2011, the percentage of minorities in the country is about 19.3% of the total population of the country. The population of ==Rights & Safeguards of Minorities == Although the Indian Constitution does not define the word Minority, it has provided constitutional safeguards and fundamental rights to minorities:

Under Fundamental Rights Part III of Indian Constitution

Indian state is committed to administer these rights which can be enforced by judiciary

Under Part XVII Official Language of Indian Constitution

Sachar Committee Report

On 9 March 2005 the then Prime Minister issued a Notification for the constitution of a High Level Committee to prepare a report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community of India. Recommendations contained in the Report of the High Level Committee on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India headed by Justice Rajindar Sachar (Retd.): The Committee suggested that policies should “sharply focus on inclusive development and ‘mainstreaming’ of the Community while respecting diversity.”