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.
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 two ministers of state, Ramdas Athawale and B. L. Verma.
History 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.
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.
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.
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) Development and Welfare Board for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Communities (DWBDNC) Commissions National Commission for Backward Classes National Commission for Scheduled Castes National Commission for Scheduled Tribes National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes National Commission for Safai Karamcharis Adjunct Body National Board of Examination in Rehabilitation 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 for the Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, Secunderabad National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIVH), Dehradun Swami Vivekanand 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) National Institute of Social Defence (NISD) Atal Bihari Training centre for Disability Sports, Gwalior, Madhaya Pradesh Public sector undertakings National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC) National Divyangjan Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC) Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO), Kanpur National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation National Safai Karamcharis Finance & Development Corporation Composite Regional Centres for Persons with Disabilities (CRCs) Public Private Partnership Indian Spinal Injury Centre
Think Tank Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi
Legislation Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007
Cabinet Ministers Note: MoS, I/C Minister of State (Independent Charge)
PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party Ministry Prime Minister From To Period Minister of Social Security 1 Ram Subhag Singh(MoS) 9 June1964 13 June1964 Indian National Congress Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri 2 Ashoke Kumar Sen 13 June1964 11 January1966 11 January1966 24 January1966 Nanda II Gulzarilal Nanda Minister of Social Welfare 3 Kotha Raghuramaiah(MoS) 24 January1966 25 March1966 Indian National Congress Indira I Indira Gandhi 4 Asoka Mehta 25 March1966 13 March1967 13 March1967 22 August1968 Indira II 5 Panampilly Govinda Menon 22 August1968 23 May1970 6 Kengal Hanumanthaiah 26 May1970 18 March1971 Indian National Congress (R) 7 Siddhartha Shankar Ray 18 March1971 20 March1972 Indira III 8 Saiyid Nurul Hasan(MoS, I/C) 24 March1972 24 March1977 9 Pratap Chandra Chunder 24 March1977 28 July1979 Janata Party Desai Morarji Desai 10 Karan Singh 28 July1979 19 August1979 Indian National Congress (Urs) Charan Charan Singh 11 Sathiavani Muthu 19 August1979 23 December1979 All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 12 Shankarrao Chavan 19 October1980 8 August1981 Indian National Congress (I) Indira IV Indira Gandhi 13 Sheila Kaul(MoS, I/C) 8 August 1981 31 October 1984 4 November 1984 31 December 1984 Rajiv I Rajiv Gandhi Minister of Women and Social Welfare 14 Maragatham Chandrasekar(MoS, I/C) 31 December 1984 25 September 1985 Indian National Congress (I) Rajiv II Rajiv Gandhi 15 Rajendra Kumari Bajpai(MoS, I/C) 25 September1985 2 December1989 Minister of Welfare 16 Ram Vilas Paswan 6 December1989 10 November1990 Janata Dal Vishwanath Vishwanath Pratap Singh Chandra Shekhar(Prime Minister) 21 November1990 21 June1991 Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar 17 Sitaram Kesri 21 June1991 16 May1996 Indian National Congress (I) Rao P. V. Narasimha Rao 18 Kariya Munda 16 May1996 1 June1996 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee I Atal Bihari Vajpayee 19 Balwant Singh Ramoowalia 1 June1996 21 April1997 Independent Deve Gowda H. D. Deve Gowda 21 April1997 19 March1998 Gujral Inder Kumar Gujral 20 Maneka Gandhi(MoS, I/C) 19 March1998 23 May1998 Vajpayee II Atal Bihari Vajpayee Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment 21 Maneka Gandhi(MoS, I/C) 23 May1998 13 October1999 Independent Vajpayee II Atal Bihari Vajpayee 13 October1999 1 September2001 Vajpayee III 22 Satyanarayan Jatiya 1 September2001 22 May2004 Bharatiya Janata Party23 Meira Kumar 23 May2004 28 May2009 Indian National Congress Manmohan I Manmohan Singh 24 Mukul Wasnik 28 May2009 27 October2012 Manmohan II 26 Selja Kumari 28 October2012 28 January2014 27 Mallikarjun Kharge 28 January2014 26 May2014 28 Thawar Chand Gehlot 27 May2014 30 May2019 Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi 31 May2019 7 July2021 Modi II 29 Virendra Kumar Khatik 7 July2021 9 June2024 10 June2024 Incumbent Modi III
Ministers of State PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party Ministry Prime Minister From To Period Minister of State of Social Security 1 Ramchandra Martand Hajarnavis 29 October1965 11 January1966 Indian National Congress Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri Minister of State of Social Welfare 2 Phulrenu Guha 13 March1967 26 June1970 Indian National Congress Indira II Indira Gandhi 3 Kotha Raghuramaiah 18 March1967 14 February1969 4 Jagannath Rao 27 June1970 18 March1971 Indian National Congress (R) 5 Saiyid Nurul Hasan 4 October1971 24 March1972 Indira III 6 Dhanna Singh Gulshan 14 August1977 28 July1979 Janata Party Desai Morarji Desai 7 Renuka Devi Barkataki 16 August1977 28 July1979 8 Rashida Haque Choudhury 30 July1979 24 August1979 Indian National Congress (Urs) Charan Charan Singh 9 Sheila Kaul 19 October1980 8 August1981 Indian National Congress (I) Indira IV Indira Gandhi Minister of State for Welfare 10 Aslam Sher Khan 15 September1995 16 May1996 Indian National Congress (I) Rao P. V. Narasimha Rao Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment 11 Satyabrata Mookherjee 1 July2002 29 January2003 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee III Atal Bihari Vajpayee 12 Sanjay Paswan 29 January2003 24 May2003 13 Kailash Chandra Meghwal 24 May2003 22 May2004 14 Nagmani 24 May2003 22 May2004 15 Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan 23 May2004 22 May2009 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Manmohan I Manmohan Singh 16 Napoleon 28 May2009 20 March2013 Manmohan II 17 Porika Balram Naik 28 October2012 26 May2014 Indian National Congress 18 Manikrao Hodlya Gavit 17 June2013 26 May2014 19 Sudarshan Bhagat 27 May2014 9 November2014 Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi 20 Krishan Pal Gurjar 9 November2014 30 May2019 21 Vijay Sampla 9 November2014 30 May2019 22 Ramdas Athawale 5 July2016 30 May2019 Republican Party of India (Athawale) (20) Krishan Pal Gurjar 31 May2019 7 July2021 Bharatiya Janata Party Modi II (22) Ramdas Athawale 31 May2019 9 June2024 Republican Party of India (Athawale) 23 Rattan Lal Kataria 31 May2019 7 July2021 Bharatiya Janata Party 24 A. Narayanaswamy 7 July2021 9 June2024 25 Pratima Bhoumik 7 July2021 9 June2024 (22) Ramdas Athawale 11 June2024 Incumbent Republican Party of India (Athawale) Modi III 26 B. L. Verma 11 June2024 Incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party
See also 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) Reservation in India
References
External links Official website