Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
	Emblem of India
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.)
Ministers responsible	Virendra Kumar Khatik, Cabinet Minister; Ramdas Athawale, Minister of State; Pratima Bhowmik, Minister of State; A. Narayanaswamy, Minister of State;
Website	socialjustice.nic.in

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]

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 the 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 Scheduled Castes Development Division, Tribal Development Division and the Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Wakf Division of the Ministry of Law left those ministries to form the new Ministry of Welfare.

The Ministry of Welfare adopted the name Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in May 1998. In October 1999, the Tribal Development Division left the ministry to become its own ministry, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. In January 2007, the Minorities Division and the Wakf Unit were moved out of the ministry to form the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Child Development Division left the ministry to form the Ministry of Women and Child Development. 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]

Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007

Ministers of Social Justice and Empowerment[edit]

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		Rajiv Gandhi
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)	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
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	Bharatiya Janata Party (National Democratic Alliance)	Narendra Modi

List of Ministers of State[edit]

Ministers of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry
Name	Term of office			Prime Minister	Party
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	1 year, 266 days
A. Narayanaswamy	7 July 2021	Incumbent	1 year, 266 days
Ramdas Athawale	5 July 2016	Incumbent	6 years, 268 days		Republican Party of India (A)

References[edit]

^ "Budget data" (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.
^ "A brief on Babu Jagjivan Ram National Foundation" (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

[1] "Budget data" (PDF). www.indiabudget.gov.in. 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 15 September 2018.

[2] "Subjects Allocated : Department of Social Justice and Empowerment - Government of India". socialjustice.nic.in. Retrieved 25 October 2021.

[3] "A brief on Babu Jagjivan Ram National Foundation" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2009.

[4] "India's First Online Braille Library Launched". 5 January 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2019.

[5] "Council of Ministers" (PDF).

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