Manmohan pledgesequality for Muslims,low-caste Hindus
Manmohan Singh cited the findings of a recent report that said Indian Muslims, numbering around 138 million in the country of 1.1 billion, were poorer and had less access to education and jobs than other communities.
"The Muslim community in certain parts of our country have not had an equal share of the fruits of development," Singh said at an international conference on low-caste people and religious minorities.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. "It is incumbent upon any democratically elected government to redress such imbalances and eradicate such inequities. Our government is indeed committed to doing so."
The promise came ahead of elections in India's most populous -- and electorally crucial -- state of Uttar Pradesh early next year that has a large group of Muslim and low-caste voters.
Singh's Congress party-led government has launched a slew of programs aimed at the groups, including setting aside university places, since it assumed power in May 2004.
Singh compared the discrimination against low-caste Hindus by upper caste people to apartheid, calling it a "blot on humanity".
He praised his government for its controversial move this year to more than double the number of places set aside for low caste people in medical, engineering and management colleges to nearly 50 percent.
"This is the most powerful means of overthrowing the one uncivilised aspect of our civilisation," the prime minister said of the move.
Earlier, India set aside 22.5 percent of those places for "scheduled" tribes and low castes such as the Dalits, once known as untouchables.
The government has lifted the quota to 49.5 percent to embrace the "other backward castes", or OBCs, who are one rung up on India's social ladder.
The scheduled tribes and low castes make up around two-thirds of India's one-billion-plus population and wield huge electoral clout, analysts say.
The government's affirmative action plan sparked nationwide protests by thousands of university students, who said the move would lower academic and professional standards.