International Minority Rights Day is being celebrated on 18 December 2019 across the world. This day is marked by the United Nations since 18 December 1992 every year is celebrated 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.

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Meaning of Minority: A special UN commissioner, Francisco Copporty, gave a global definition, according to which - "Communities living in a nation-state are small in number and social, political and economic factors are weak and whose species, religion, language, etc. are separated from the majority, but the creation, development, unity, culture, tradition and the nation. If we make a significant contribution in maintaining the national language, then such communities should be considered a minority in that nation-state. ”

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Minority Rights Day in the Indian context: Religion and language have been considered as the basis of being a minority in the Constitution of India, while it is also being said that an estimated 19% of the total population of India belongs to the minority communities. This includes Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Parsis. Jains and Jews are minorities, but they do not have corresponding constitutional rights.

National Minorities Commission: -

1 The Government of India constituted the Minorities Commission in 1978 to provide protection to minority rights. It was later passed in 1992 as a law under the National Minorities Commission Act-1992.

2 In January 2006, the National Minorities Commission was made under the Ministry of Minority Affairs by the UPA Government. It has all the constitutional rights which civil courts have. The constitution of this commission is also important for India because there is no such commission in any nation of Europe. Today, many other states of India also have State Minorities Commissions.

3 At the present time (18 December 2019), the Chairman of the National Minorities Commission may be Wajahat Habibullah.

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