The deliberations around an Equal Opportunity Commission in India were initiated by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India in 2007. The express mandate of the expert committee chaired by Professor N.R. Madhava Menon was to formulate a blueprint for a statutory commission that would foster and safeguard the culture of equality and the values enshrined in the Preamble to the Constitution of India with specific protections for deprived and vulnerable groups
