NGOs, women groups must engage in deradicalisation of youths, says Rajnath

New Delhi: The Government on Thursday asked religious groups, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and women groups to help bring back misguided people into the mainstream, as radicalisation of youths becomes a matter of concern.

The government feels that digital platforms should play a major role in bringing communal harmony and there also should proper narratives to be developed as the mass penetration capacity of the social media has been increased.

Chairing the 21st meeting of the governing council of the National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH) here Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that communal harmony is an issue that concerns not only the Home Ministry alone, but for the entire nation.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani assured that "The Government is committed to promoting communal harmony despite certain mischievous elements attempting to create a wrong perception of the communal situation in the country."

The I&B minister also said that NBT and Directorate of Publications Division will organise exhibitions and sale of books sensitizing communal harmony in sensitive areas. The government also aims to have suggestions of religious and social leaders.

Statistics show that the occurrence of communal riots is more in North India than in South India. The possibility of recurrence of communal riots in places already affected by such riots is greater than those areas which have not witnessed communal riots at all.

Surveys say that communal tensions in India are more politically motivated than caused by the religious factors. Apart from political interests, economic interests also play an important role in instigating communal clashes in India. For example, illicit trade practices can result in communal violence.

In most of the riots, the majority of victims did have nothing to do with communal hatred. In other words, in the majority of cases, the perpetrators of violence and victims of violence are different persons.

The possibility of communal riots is higher in urban areas when compared with that of the rural areas. This is due to the presence of a large number of the minority population in urban areas. Most of the riots have occurred during a clash of religious festival. In India, communal riots are also common preceding elections.

Though the Home Ministry's report in 2016 mentioned that the number of communal clashes has gone down followed by 2012 (668), 2013 (694), 2014 (644) and 2015 (751) and 2016 (278).

Earlier, Irani told reporters that the government would reach out and would organize symposiums in various cities or in district level to discuss various important issues like augmentation of its budget with various local organizations or groups. Apart from group discussion the government would also organize international conferences, exhibitions of books, documentaries and enhance inter-faith dialogues.