Minorities day is celebrated in India on December 18 every year. The day aims at promoting the rights of the minority community across the country. It looks forward to protect the rights of minority communities, as a contribution to nation-building, to ensure the security of minorities in their particular language, caste, religion, culture, tradition, etc.
Human rights are rights of every human on this planet, while the minority rights day promote the idea of upholding the rights of all human beings despite the number. Minorities do matter in every country, also require special measures to ensure that they benefit from the same rights as the rest of the population. Thus, this day notes to remember them and respect their rights.
Dating back to the pages of history, the Minorities Rights Day was first observed in India on December 18, 2013. It was on December 18, 1992 that the United Nations declared the Statement on the Individual's Rights belonging to Religious or Linguistic National or Ethnic Minorities. However, in 2006, a Ministry of Minority Affairs was set up in our country. This ministry was formed out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
Also, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) came being under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Initially, five religious communities were notified as minority communities namely Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis), according to India Today.
According to the 2011 Census data, minorities constitute 19.30 per cent (23.37 crore) of India's population. These include Muslims (14.2 per cent ), Christians (2.3 per cent ), Sikhs (1.3 per cent ), Buddhists (0.7 per cent ), Jains (0.4 per cent ) and Parsis. Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Lakshadweep are the only states where any notified minority is in majority.
