Minority religion status sought

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Oct 14 : The Committee on Inclusion of Sanamahi Religion in the list of Minority Religions of India (SALAIMIREL) has urged Chief Minister N Biren Singh to do the needful and get Sanamahi religion included in the list of minority religions of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), Act 1992.
In a letter addressed to the Chief Minister, SALAIMIREL stated that Sanamahi religion which has a meagre population of 2.2 lakhs only as per 2011 census report is  still not included in the minority list while the Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi and Jain which have a population of 17 crores, 2.8 crores, 2 crores, 80 lakhs, 57 thousand and 40 lakhs as per the census report are already given minority status by the Government of India.
According to SALAIMIREL, Sanamahi  religion is absolutely a separate religion and its population is very less than the population of
Hindus.
The committee further continued that the socio-economic and educational status of the believers of Sanamahi faith would improve considerably if the religion is given minority status.
In Manipur, break up of religious population as per 2011 census was Hindu (41.39 percent), Christian (41.29 percent), Muslim (8.40 percent) and Sanamahi including others (8.19 percent), according to the committee.
Claiming that Sanamahi religion fulfils the criteria required to be a religion of global standard, SALAIMIREL urged the Chief Minister to send a recommendation to the Ministry of Home Affairs for the inclusion of Sanamahi religion in the list of minority religions.
Reportedly, N Biren Singh has assured of placing the proposal before the State Cabinet for sending a recommendation to the Centre during a meeting with the members of SALAIMIREL, today.