About Directorate
The Directorate of Minorities was carved out of the Directorate of Backward Classes and created in the year 1999-2000 to ensure a more focused approach towards issues relating to the notified Minority communities, namely Muslims, Christians, Jains, Buddhist, Sikhs, and Parsis. The Directorate working with the vision to enable all the Minority Community people to lead a productive life with equal opportunities in the fields of Socio, Economic, Education, etc. The mandate of the Directorate includes Planning Coordination, Evaluation, and Implementation of development programs for the benefit of the Minority Community. The main functions of the department are to introduce schemes to promote accelerated socio-economic development of Minorities, introduce educational concessions for students, implementation of schemes for the development of Women and Children, providing training and employment opportunities, thereby tackling the problems of economic backwardness among the Minorities. The Directorate is the nodal agency of the schemes being implemented by the State and Central Government Minority Welfare Department. The Directorate is located in Bengaluru.
Jeelani.H.Mokashi, is the Director for Directorate of Minorities. The Director is assisted by the Joint Director, Deputy Director, and three Assistant Directors. The Directorate has a sanctioned strength of 63 Officers/Staff.
District Minority Welfare Offices are established in all the 30 Districts and these Districts officers are implementing minority welfare schemes under the coordination and supervision of deputy commissioners and chief executive officers of Zilla Panchayat of each district.
The population of a religious minority is 16.28% of the total population of the state. Muslims, Christians, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis in Karnataka are considered as religious Minorities.
In Government Order No. SWD-22S BCA-2000 Dated:30.03.2002 the following religious minorities are classified in various backward groups and are provided reservation in education and employment under article 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution.