NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday pledged to help Muslims and low-caste Hindus who face discrimination in getting jobs and finding social acceptance and who also represent a major vote bank.

Mr 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,” he said at an international conference on low-caste people and religious minorities.

“It is incumbent upon any democratically-elected government to redress such imbalances and eradicate such inequities. Our government is indeed committed to doing so,” he said.

The promise came ahead of elections in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh early next year that has a large group of Muslim and low-caste voters.

The prime minister 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 move to more than double the number of places set aside for low-caste people in medical, engineering and management colleges to nearly 50 per cent.

“This is the most powerful means of overthrowing the one uncivilised aspect of our civilisation,” the prime minister said of the move.—AFP