New Delhi, Jan 6 (IANS): The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) Education Board has urged the Union Government to increase the allocation for minorities to cater to their educational needs in the upcoming budget.

The JIH Markazi Taleemi Board (Education Board) organised an online conference on the 'Upcoming budget-2022-23: Education and Minority concerns'. Experts, economists, academicians, educationists, journalists and intellectuals from different states participated in the meeting.

The organization pointed out that they were not properly monitored nor even was it disclosed how many students belonging to minorities benefited from these schemes. "The government cut the education spending for minorities in last year's budget. The allocations for the minorities have been slashed from Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 4,800 crore. Whereas, at present at least Rs 10,000 crore is required to cater to their education needs," it added.

The JIH stated that minorities play a vital role in any democratic country. Therefore, it is crucial to always keep in mind their sustainable development while making a project or plan, particularly their education budget.

Drawing the government's attention to the increasing educational needs of minorities, in view of their educational backwardness, the JIH has demanded that the government sufficiently increase their budgetary allocation. It added that a huge amount is required to get primary to higher education, for which financial assistance is essential particularly for the backward and underprivileged sections.

Urging the government to achieve the goal of public spending of 6 percent of the GDP on education in the next budget, the speakers called on the government to improve the quality of spending and decentralise the process of budgeting.