The Jain community in Gujarat will get minority status by the end of July, social justice and empowerment minister Ramanlal Vora said.
The Union ministry of minority affairs during the Congress-led UPA government, had accorded the status to the Jains through a notification in January 2014. Gujarat is, however, yet to do the same. “The earlier Central government had given the minority status to Jains. Now, the state government has initiated the process to notify Jain community as minority in Gujarat. We are taking this matter very positively and recently held a meeting in this regard,” the minister said. “I believe that a positive decision in this regard will be taken by July-end,” he added.
The status allotted by the government will be beneficial to the community as they will be able to profit off different government schemes and programmes. They would also get a share in Central funds earmarked for welfare programmes and scholarships for the minorities and can also manage and administer their own educational institutions.
With 5000,000 population across the country, the community is now the sixth group after Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis.
