Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram: Facts

Socio-Economic Facilities to Minorities

Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) have been notified as minority communities under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
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 Muslims are 14.2%; Christians 2.3%; Sikhs 1.7%, Buddhists 0.7%, Jain 0.4% and Parsis 0.006%.
The problems of minorities are addressed by the Government through various schemes /programmes /initiatives which are implemented in the state and UTs. The schemes/ programmes implemented by this Ministry for the minority communities.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram(PMJVK) is a Scheme designed to address the development deficits of the identified Minority Concentration Areas. The areas of implementation, under PMJVK, have been identified on the basis of minority population and socio-economic and basic amenities data of Census 2011 and will be known as Minority Concentration Areas.
870 MCBs, 321 MCTs and 109 MCDs Hqs which are backward, have been identified.
PMJVK will continue to support the State/UTs in creating infrastructure to improve the quality of life of people and reduce the imbalances in the identified minority concentration areas to be at par with the rest of the country.
Under PMJVK, 80% of the resources would be utilized for projects related to education, health and skill development of which at least 33-40% will be earmarked for creation of assets/facilities for women/girls.

It is a restructured Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP) which was launched in 2008-09
For continuation of implementation of MsDP for the balance period of the 14th Finance Commission period from 2017-18 to 2019-20 the programme was revised and approved by the Government.
The restructured Programme will be implemented as “Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK)”
It is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
As compared to MSDP, the PMJVK would now cover five more States/UTs namely Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Nagaland, goa and Pondicherry.
All States/UTs earlier covered under MsDP have also been included under PMJVK.

It has been designed primarily to address the developmental gaps/deficits in identified backward minority concentration areas by topping up of existing Centrally Sponsored Schemes of various Central ministries/departments without any change in the norms, guidelines and the funding pattern.
The projects considered are additional class rooms, laboratories, school buildings, hostels, toilets, buildings for Polytechnics, ITIs, Community Health Centres, Primary Health Centres / Sub-centres, Anganwadi Centres, Rural Housing etc.
To ensure holistic development of the Minority Communities, 80% of the resources under this programme would be utilized for projects related to education, health and Skill of which at least 33-40% will be earmarked for creation of assets/facilities for women/girls.

Earlier only those Cluster of Villages which were having at-least 50% population of Minority Community were taken. Now the population criteria has been lowered to 25%.
The PMJVK will be implemented in Minority Concentration District Hqrs(MCD Hrs), Minority Concentration Block(MCBs), Minority Concentration Towns(MCTs) falling in 308 districts of 32 States/UTs.
The identified areas namely MCBs, MCTs, MCD Hqs for implementation of PMJVK will be known as Minority Concentration Areas (MCA).
The Budgetary allocation of Rs.1200 crores was received in 2017-18.

Backward Minority Concentration Blocks (MCBs): Blocks with minimum of 25% population of Minority Communities
In respect of 6 States/UT (Punjab, J&K, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and UT of Lakshadweep) where a minority community is in majority, a lower cut-off of 15% of minority population, other than that of the minority community in majority in that State/UT, has been applied.
Backward Minority Concentration Towns: Towns with minimum of 25% minority population and total population above 25,000 but below 2,00,000 were identified.
Backward Minority Concentration Districts Headquarters (MCD Hqrs): Minority Concentration Districts have been identified following the same methodology as in Backward Minority Concentration Blocks