Jain Community in Delhi Demands Official Status

April 25, 2008

Author: Madhusree Chatterjee

Source: The Asian Pacific Post

Wire Service: IANS

http://www.asianpacificpost.com/portal2/c1ee8c441987a7f70119880e9c740093_Jain_community_in_Delhi_demands_official_status.do.html

The Jain community in the Indian capital is raising the pitch for minority status on par with the Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, Muslims and Parsis, listed as notified minority groups under the Delhi Minorities Commission Act, 1999.

Members of the community say they want minority status primarily because they want to incorporate Jainism, the religion of the community, as a subject in Jain schools. The capital and its adjoining areas have eight Jain schools. They are not being able [to] teach Jainism to their children because most of the Jain schools in Delhi are partially funded by the government, which doesn't allow the teaching of any particular religion at schools unless it is a minority community.

"The government is ignoring the community. We want minority status as enshrined in the Indian Constitution, which empowers the government to accord minority status to six marginal ethno-religious groups, so that we can teach Jainism to our children in schools run by us. We don't want reservations in jobs or in education," Chakresh Jain, head of the Delhi Jain Samaj, told IANS.