Recently, the Siddaramaiah govt. has redefined the religious minority quota in educational institutions. The change was initiated to do away with the religious minority quota reservation in the minority institutions as the admission under this criteria was dwindling in recent years.
According to the Department of School Education and Literacy the criteria of minority quota in the religious minority institutions is 25% and 50% for the Technical Education, Higher Education, and Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood Department institutions. These conditions have been removed.
Quoting the 2011 Census, the order stated that the state of Karnataka has 78.94 lakh Muslims, 11.43 lakh Christians, and 4.4 lakh Jains, 95,000 Buddhists, 28,000 Sikhs and 1,100 Parsis. As the religious minority population is low, satisfying the quota criteria in the minority educational institution is difficult.
“It will be applicable to existing and newly-established institutions, except medical colleges,” added Manoz Jain, Secretary Minority Welfare.
Nevertheless, the criteria such as the institution has to be established by a member of the religious minority for an institution to be declared as a religious minority institution will continue.
