New Delhi: A government-appointed committee tasked to study the status of religious and linguistic minorities says these communities are "under-represented" and "sometimes wholly unrepresented" in government jobs and has recommended that 10 percent government posts be reserved for Muslims.

The report of the National Commission on Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by Justice Ranganath Mishra, former chief justice of India, was tabled in the Lok Sabha Friday amid noisy scenes.

Stressing that education was the "most important requirement for improving the socioeconomic status of backward sections among religious minorities", the report says that literacy levels of Muslims and Buddhists were low and next to Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).

"Educational levels of religious minorities vary considerably from one community to the other. While educational level of Jains, Christians and Parsis is higher, that of Muslims and Buddhists is low and is next to SC/ST," according to the 449-page document in two volumes.

"Since the minorities - especially the Muslims - are very much under-represented, and sometimes wholly unrepresented, in government employment, we recommend that they should be regarded as 'socially and educationally' backward in this respect within the meaning of that term as used in the constitution," says the report, which was presented to the government in 2007.

Recommending that 15 percent of posts in all cadres and grades under the central and state governments should be earmarked for minorities, the commission specifically says that 10 percent of that should be reserved for Muslims, which form the largest -- 73 percent -- share of the minority population in India.

"The remaining five percent (should be reserved) for the other minorities," it says.

"In no case shall any seat within the recommended 15 percent go to the majority community," it emphasizes.

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