The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) is a statutory body under the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India, established in 1993. It is responsible for safeguarding the interests of minorities—Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians (Parsis).

The Union Government set up the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Six religious communities, viz; Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians (Parsis) have been notified in Gazette of India as minority communities by the Union Government all over India. Original notification of 1993 was for five religious communities: Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians and Muslims; later in 2014, Jains were also added. ^{[failed verification]} As per Census 2001, these six communities consist of 18.8% of the country's population.

The NCM adheres to the United Nations Declaration of 18 December 1992 which states that "States shall protect the existence of the National or Ethnic, Cultural, Religious and Linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity.”

The Commission has the following functions:

The Commission has the following powers:

The act states that the Commission shall consist of:

As per the Census 2011, the percentage of minorities in the country is about 19.3% of the total population of the country. The population of:

Although the Indian Constitution does not define the word Minority, it has provided constitutional safeguards and fundamental rights to minorities: