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), trans-people and LGBTQ people, the disabled, the elderly, and the victims of drug abuse.

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
Agency overview
JurisdictionRepublic of India
HeadquartersMinistry of Social Justice and Empowerment
Shastri Bhawan,
C-Wing,
Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road
New Delhi,110011
New Delhi
Annual budget₹6,908 crore (US$970 million) (2017-18 est.)[1]
Ministers responsible
Websitesocialjustice.nic.in

The Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment holds cabinet rank as a member of the Council of Ministers. The current minister is Thawar Chand Gehlot, who is assisted by a Minister of State, Rattan Lal Kataria, Krishan Pal Gujjar and Ramdas Athavale.

History

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.[2]

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.[3]

Organisation

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.

*Composite Regional Centres for Persons with Disabilities (CRCs)

*Public Private Partnership **Indian Spinal Injury Centre

Legislation

Ministers
  • Asoke K. Sen (13 June 1964 – 24 January 1966) (Social Security)
  • Kotha Raghuramaiah (24 January 1966 – 25 March 1966) (Department of Social Welfare)
  • Ashoka Mehta (25 March 1966 – 22 August 1968) (Ministry of Social Welfare)
  • P. Govinda Menon (22 August 1968 – 23 May 1970)
  • K. Hanumanthaiya (26 June 1970 – 18 March 1971)
  • S. S. Ray (18 March 1971 – 20 March 1972)
  • S. Nurul Hasan (24 March 1972 – 24 March 1977)
  • Pratap Chandra Chunder (26 March 1977 – 28 July 1979)
  • Rabi Ray (25 January 1979 – 15 July 1979)
  • Sathiavani Muthu (19 August 1979 – 23 December 1979)
  • S.B. Chavan (19 October 1980 – 08 August 1981)
  • Sheila Kaul (MoS, Independent Charge) (08 August 1981 – 31 December 1984)
  • M Chandra Sekhar (MoS, Independent Charge) (31 December 1984 – 25 September 1985) (Ministry of Women and Social Welfare)
  • Rajendra Kumari Bajpayee (MoS, Independent Charge) (25 September 1985 – 02 December 1989) (Ministry of Welfare)
  • Ram Vilas Paswan (06 December 1989 – 10 November 1990)
  • Sitaram Kesari (21 June 1991 – 16 May 1996)
  • Kariya Munda (16 May 1996 – 01 June 1996)
  • Balwant Singh Ramoowalia(01 June 1996 – 19 March 1998)
  • Maneka Gandhi (MoS, Independent Charge) (23 May 1998 – 01 September 2001) (Social Justice and Empowerment)
  • Satya Narayan Jatiya (01 September 2001 – 22 May 2004)
  • Meira Kumar (23 May 2004 – 22 May 2009)
  • Mukul Wasnik (28 May 2009 – 27 October 2012)
  • Kumari Selja (28 October 2012 – 28 January 2014)
  • Mallikarjuna Kharge (28 January 2014 – 26 May 2014)
  • Thawar Chand Gehlot (26 May 2014 – Incumbent)

Ministers of State

See also

References
  1. "Budget data" (PDF). www.indiabudget.gov.in. 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  2. "A brief on Babu Jagjivan Ram National Foundation" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2009.
  3. "India's First Online Braille Library Launched". 5 January 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
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