Statutory institutions created to protect the rights of religious minorities, bodies empowered by law and mandated by the constitution, are increasingly dysfunctional. Some exist only on paper. Others operate without leadership, members or transparency. Together, they form a pattern that critics say amounts not to neglect, but deliberate institutional hollowing. Minority Watchdogs Without Teeth: The Silence Behind Hollowed Out Statutory Protections - The Wire
The erosion of these institutions raises a fundamental question: can minority rights be protected when the bodies designed to safeguard them are systematically weakened?
For nearly 20% of India’s population, these commissions and councils are not symbolic gestures, but mechanisms of accountability. Their paralysis leaves grievances unheard, violations undocumented, and constitutional promises unfulfilled.
In an era of heightened communal tension, the absence of functioning minority institutions is not a bureaucratic drift – it is a political signal. Whether by design or indifference, India’s statutory minority safeguards are being hollowed out from within, and the cost is being borne by those they were meant to protect.
04/02/2026