New York, March 2 (IANS) Over 2,000 delegates from India and other countries will meet here this July to discuss the challenges and opportunities being faced by minorities, Dalits and other backward classes in India. The main organiser of the International Dalit-Minorities Conference July 4-6 is the American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin (AFMI) based in Michigan.

Union Minister for Steel Ram Vilas Paswan will chair the conference. He said in a statement that the meet would draw global attention on discrimination based on caste, gender and religion and deliberate on the means of their elimination.

Politicians, community leaders and intellectuals from the US, Britain, Nepal, Malaysia and the Middle East, besides India, will participate in the conference.

“This conference will attempt to highlight the problems faced by India’s marginalised communities and seek practical solutions for it,” AFMI president Ali Qureishi said in a statement.

“Its main focus will be educational empowerment and social justice for the suppressed communities,” Qureishi added.

AFMI is dedicated to socio-economic and educational development of Muslims and other underprivileged masses in India.