Smriti Zubin Irani, the minister of minority affairs, stated in a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha today that 175 women from Bihar were among the 40,000 women who received training nationwide over the past three years, from 2019–20 to 2021–2022. In the State of Bihar, trained women have been distributed as follows per community over the previous three years: Muslims -175; Christians 0; Sikhs 0; Buddhists 0; Jains 0; and Non Minority 0.
Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Zoroastrian (Parsi), and Jain women are chosen by the agencies authorised by the Ministry under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
Beneficiaries selected for training under the programme are those whose combined annual income does not exceed Rs. 2.50 lakh. In order to find and choose female trainees, the organisations also enlist the help of the head of the local authority, municipality, or gramme panchayat.
Under this plan, the Ministry creates training facilities. The chosen organisations must carry out the initiatives directly through their organisational structure in the neighbourhood, village, or region where the training is held. In the previous three years, the agencies in the state of Bihar have put the programme into effect in the district of Bhojpur.
The Nai Roshni scheme has been merged as a component of the Pradhan Mantri Virasat Ka Samvardhan (PM VIKAS) scheme with effect from FY 2022–2023. Its goal is to improve the livelihoods of minorities, particularly artisan communities, through skill development, education, and leadership training, to support their entrepreneurship interventions. The eligibility criteria for choosing an organisation or agency under the said scheme are available on the website.
