THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major shift from its earlier stance, the Kerala government on Thursday decided to restructure the minority scholarship ratio in accordance with the 2011 population census. The decision was taken after the Kerala High Court struck down the 2015 government order allocating the merit-cum-means scholarship for minority communities to Muslims and Latin Catholic Christians and Converted Christians together in the 80:20 ratio, stating the ratio was legally unsustainable.
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As per the census, the state has a minority population of 26.56% Muslims, followed by 18.38% Christian, 0.01% Buddhist, 0.01% Jain and 0.01% Sikh population. Since there would be applicants from these communities, the scholarship ratio will be restructured without the eligible sections losing the number and amount of scholarships. A sum of Rs 23.51 crore is required for distributing scholarships and the cabinet meeting decided to sanction a non-budgetary allocation of Rs 6.2 crore.
The High Court had also directed the state government to pass appropriate orders for providing the scholarship to members of the notified minority communities in accordance with the latest population census available with the State Minority Commission. As per the cabinet decision, the state would restructure the ratio based on the 2011 census with no eligible communities losing their due share.