Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is a Government of India ministry. It is responsible for welfare, social justice and empowerment of disadvantaged and marginalised sections of society, including scheduled castes (SC), Other Backward Classes (OBC), LGBT people, the disabled, the elderly, and the victims of drug abuse. It also helps in the enforcement of legislation with regards to these marginalized groups to better enforce anti-discrimination policies.[2]
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Government of India |
| Headquarters | Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Shastri Bhawan, C-Wing, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road New Delhi,110011 New Delhi |
| Annual budget | ₹6,908 crore (US$870 million) (2017-18 est.)[1] |
| Ministers responsible |
|
| Website | socialjustice |
The Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment holds cabinet rank as a member of the Council of Ministers. The current minister is Virendra Kumar, who is assisted by a Minister of State, Rattan Lal Kataria, Krishan Pal Gujjar and Ramdas Athavale.
History edit
In 1985–1986, the former Ministry of Welfare was divided into the Department of Women and Child Development and the Department of Welfare. At the same time, the Departments of Scheduled Castes Development, Tribal Development, and Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Department of Wakf of the Ministry of Law were separated from those ministry to form the new Ministry of Welfare.
The Ministry of Welfare was renamed as the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in May 1998. In October 1999, the Department of Tribal Development was separated to form the new and independent Ministry of Tribal Affairs. In May 2004 following the formation of the First Manmohan Singh ministry, the Department of Women and Child Development was separated to form an independent ministry to be known as the Ministry of Women and Child Development, while in January 2006, the Departments of Minorities Welfare and the Wakf were separated to form the Ministry of Minority Affairs. To propagate the ideologies and philosophy of Babu Jagjivan Ram, the 'Babu Jagjivan Ram National Foundation', has been set up by the Ministry.[3]
In 2012, the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment launched Oblindia, an online library for visually impaired college students. At launch, the library included 12,000 books in 10 languages.[4]
Organisation edit
The ministry has five bureaus, each headed by a Joint Secretary: Scheduled Castes Development Bureau; Backward Classes Bureau Coordination, Media, Administration; Disability Bureau; Social Defense (SD) Bureau; and Project, Research, Evaluation and Monitoring Bureau.
- Statutory Bodies
- Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, New Delhi
- National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities
- Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI)
- National Institutes
- Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped, Mumbai (AYJNIHH)
- Deendayal Upadhyaya Institute for the Physically Handicapped, New Delhi (formerly Institute for the Physically Handicapped (IPH))
- National Institute for Locomotor Disabilities, Kolkata
- National Institute of Mentally Handicapped, Secunderabad (NIMH)
- National Institute of Visually Handicapped (NIVH), Dehradun
- National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research, Cuttack (NIRTAR)
- National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD), Chennai
- Indian Sign Language Research & Training Centre (ISLRTC)
- Public sector undertakings
- National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC)
- National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC)
- Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO), Kanpur
*Composite Regional Centres for Persons with Disabilities (CRCs)
*Public Private Partnership **Indian Spinal Injury Centre
Legislation edit
Ministers of social justice and empowerment edit
| Portrait | Name | Department | Tenure | Political party | Prime Minister | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashoke Kumar Sen[5] | Minister of Social Security | 13 June 1964 | 24 January 1966 | Indian National Congress | Lal Bahadur Shastri | ||
| Kotha Raghuramaiah | Minister in Department of Social Welfare | 24 January 1966 | 25 March 1966 | Indira Gandhi | |||
| Ashoka Mehta | Minister of Social Welfare | 25 March 1966 | 22 August 1968 | ||||
| Panampilly Govinda Menon | 22 August 1968 | 23 May 1970 | |||||
| K. Hanumanthaiya | 26 June 1970 | 18 March 1971 | |||||
| Siddhartha Shankar Ray | 18 March 1971 | 20 March 1972 | |||||
| S. Nurul Hasan | MoS, Independent Charge | 24 March 1972 | 24 March 1977 | ||||
| Pratap Chandra Chunder | 26 March 1977 | 28 July 1979 | Janata Party | Morarji Desai | |||
| Sathiavani Muthu | 19 August 1979 | 23 December 1979 | All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | Charan Singh | |||
| S.B. Chavan | 19 October 1980 | 8 August 1981 | Indian National Congress | Indira Gandhi | |||
| Sheila Kaul | MoS, Independent Charge | 8 August 1981 | 31 December 1984 | Indira Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi | |||
| Maragatham Chandrasekar | Ministry of Women and Social Welfare (MoS, Independent Charge) | 31 December 1984 | 25 September 1985 | Rajiv Gandhi | |||
| Rajendra Kumari Bajpai | Minister of Welfare (MoS, Independent Charge) | 25 September 1985 | 2 December 1989 | ||||
| Ram Vilas Paswan | 6 December 1989 | 10 November 1990 | Janata Dal (National Front) | V. P. Singh | |||
| Sitaram Kesri | 12 June 1991 | 16 May 1996 | Indian National Congress | P. V. Narasimha Rao | |||
| Kariya Munda | 16 May 1996 | 1 June 1996 | Bharatiya Janata Party | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | |||
| Balwant Singh Ramoowalia | 1 June 1996 | 19 March 1998 | Independent (United Front) | H. D. Deve Gowda I. K. Gujral | |||
| Maneka Gandhi | Minister of Welfare (till 23 May 1998) Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment MoS, Independent Charge | 19 March 1998 | 1 September 2001 | Independent (National Democratic Alliance) | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | ||
| Satyanarayan Jatiya | 1 September 2001 | 22 May 2004 | Bharatiya Janata Party (National Democratic Alliance) | ||||
| Meira Kumar | 23 May 2004 | 22 May 2009 | Indian National Congress (United Progressive Alliance) | Manmohan Singh | |||
| Mukul Wasnik | 28 May 2009 | 27 October 2012 | |||||
| Kumari Selja | 28 October 2012 | 28 January 2014 | |||||
| Mallikarjun Kharge | 28 January 2014 | 26 May 2014 | |||||
| Thawar Chand Gehlot | 26 May 2014 | 7 July 2021 | Bharatiya Janata Party (National Democratic Alliance) | Narendra Modi | |||
| Virendra Kumar Khatik | 7 July 2021 | Incumbent | |||||
List of ministers of state edit
| Portrait | Name | Term of office | Prime Minister | Party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renuka Devi Barkataki | 1977 | 1979 | 2 years | Morarji Desai | Janata Party | ||
| Napoleon (actor) | 13 June 2009 | 20 March 2013 | 3 years, 280 days | Manmohan Singh | Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | ||
| Sudarshan Bhagat | 26 May 2014 | 9 November 2014 | 167 days | Narendra Modi | Bharatiya Janata Party | ||
| Vijay Sampla | 9 November 2014 | 30 May 2019 | 4 years, 202 days | ||||
| Krishan Pal Gurjar | 9 November 2014 | 7 July 2021 | 6 years, 240 days | ||||
| Rattan Lal Kataria | 30 May 2019 | 7 July 2021 | 2 years, 38 days | ||||
| Pratima Bhoumik | 7 July 2021 | Incumbent | 2 years, 164 days | ||||
| A. Narayanaswamy | 7 July 2021 | Incumbent | 2 years, 164 days | ||||
| Ramdas Athawale | 5 July 2016 | Incumbent | 7 years, 166 days | Republican Party of India (A) | |||
See also edit
- National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities
- Department of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare (Tamil Nadu)
- Department of Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare (Tamil Nadu)
- Department of Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme (Tamil Nadu)
- Reservation in India
References edit
- ^ (PDF). www.indiabudget.gov.in. 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
- ^ "Subjects Allocated : Department of Social Justice and Empowerment - Government of India". socialjustice.nic.in. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
- ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2009.
- ^ "India's First Online Braille Library Launched". 5 January 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
- ^ "Council of Ministers" (PDF).
External links edit
- Official website