To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the treatment of minorities in India.
Answered on
14 July 2022
The UK Government is committed to defending the rights of minorities, including Freedom of Religion or Belief for all, and promoting respect and tolerance between different communities. This includes hosting a recent international Ministerial Conference on 5 and 6 July which brought together governments, parliamentarians, faith and belief representatives, and civil society to strengthen international efforts to ensure freedom of religion or belief for everyone. India, like the UK, has a long democratic tradition of inclusive governance. We engage with India on a range of human rights matters and oppose discrimination against minorities. Where we have them and when appropriate to do so, we raise concerns directly with the Government of India, including at Ministerial level, while recognising that reports of discrimination against minorities are a matter for the Indian police and local legal system. The British High Commission in New Delhi and our network of Deputy High Commissions follow these reports closely.
Our network of High Commissions regularly engage with minority groups, meet representatives from minority communities and run projects supporting minority rights. Our project work primarily tackles the drivers of human rights violations, working with minority communities to encourage empowerment. We promote women's rights, promote the LGBT+ community in India and demonstrate our support. We also meet with religious representatives and, over the last three years in India, we have worked with local non-governmental organisations to bring together young people of diverse faith backgrounds to work together on social action projects in their local communities and build positive relationships between them.