NEW DELHI: India’s minority communities, including Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, filed more than 9,550 grievances with the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) between 2021-22 and 2025-26, covering a wide range of issues.
Muslims accounted for the highest number of complaints lodged during the five years. Out of a total of 9,557 grievances lodged with the National Commission for Minorities from across the country, the highest number of 2,059 were related to law and order matters, and 1,031 complaints concerning land disputes.
Surprisingly, only 31 grievances relating to communal violence and just 97 complaints related to hate crimes and hate speeches were filed with NCM.
According to official data from the Ministry of Minority Affairs, shared with the Rajya Sabha during the Monsoon Session, members of the Muslim community filed 6,145 grievances between 2021-22 and 2025-26.
This was followed by 1,222 grievances filed by members of the Sikh community and 644 by members of the Christian community.
The complaints covered a range of issues, including education, law and order, land disputes, religious rights, economic matters and other concerns.
Among all States and Union Territories, Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of grievances with 3,484 grievances filed by members of various minority communities, including Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis, Jains and others.
Delhi followed with 1,140 grievances, while Maharashtra recorded 690, Punjab 512, Telangana 392, Madhya Pradesh 381, Haryana 324 and Bihar 301, with the remaining complaints coming from other States and Union Territories during the period from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
“The commission disposed of all grievances as expeditiously as possible”, the Ministry claimed in reply to a member’s question. Providing a year-wise break-up, the Ministry stated that 2,076 grievances were received from India’s minority communities in 2021-22, followed by 2,423 in 2022-23, 1,999 in 2023-24, 1,390 in 2024-25 and 1,699 in 2025-26.
In 2025-26, the NCM received the highest number of 577 grievances from members of the Muslim community, compared with 378 in 2021-22, 303 in 2022-23, 386 in 2023-24 and 415 in 2024-25.
The Union Government established the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
Initially, it recognised five religious communities—Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis)—as minority communities under the Act.
Subsequently, through a notification dated 27 January 2014, Jains were also notified as a minority community. The NCM was established to safeguard and protect the interests of minority communities as guaranteed under the Constitution of India and the laws enacted by Parliament and the State Legislatures.
According to information available on the NCM website, aggrieved persons belonging to minority communities are expected to approach the respective State Minorities Commissions for redressal of their grievances.
They may also submit representations to the National Commission for Minorities after exhausting all other official mechanisms available for the redressal of their grievances.