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]

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
Emblem of India
Agency overview
JurisdictionGovernment 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$870 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 Virendra Kumar, who is assisted by a Minister of State, Rattan Lal Kataria, Krishan Pal Gujjar and Ramdas Athavale.

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.[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

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 of social justice and empowerment
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
Ministers of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
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, 110 days
A. Narayanaswamy 7 July 2021 Incumbent 2 years, 110 days
Ramdas Athawale 5 July 2016 Incumbent 7 years, 112 days Republican Party of India (A)

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. "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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