The UPA Government may be making tall claims on the minority welfare front, but a review carried out by the Government itself has found that minority community members figure a mere 5 per cent of the total direct recruitments made by various ministries last year. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as part of the UPA’s much-touted 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities, had announced that special consideration would be given to the recruitment of minorities in Central and state services along with other public sector undertakings. Following this, the Department of Personnel Training (DoPT) had issued a circular in January 2007, asking all the ministries to consider minority candidates during recruitments in C&D categories. It also asked the secretaries to ensure that the selection committees have at least one minority member in it. The circular said that the DoPT intends to soon take up with the state Governments the issue of hiring more people from minority communities in police force.A Group of Secretaries (GoS) was formed to review the selection process every six months. The GoS sat for its first meeting early this month and found that only 5 per cent minority community members were recruited between April and September 2007. Moreover, half of the ministries had not even bothered to furnish the GoS with details regarding the appointments they had made over the period. The Home Ministry figured at the top of the GoS list with 20 per cent recruitment from minority communities, courtesy Assam Rifles, Border Security Forces and Gorkha Regiment. The banking sections of the Finance Ministry, Minority Ministry, DoPT and Social Welfare Ministry weren’t far behind with around 10 per cent recruitment from the minority communities.The Department of Posts under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Railways appeared at the bottom of the list with a mere three per cent minority recruits.“The GoS feels that only a few ministries are serious about the directive. The whole recruitment drive seems so farcical,” said one of the official who is part of the GoM.