Social Inclusion refers to access to favourable opportunities in society to enhance one’s life chances. Such opportunities comprise of education, employment, social services and social protection. The absence of these opportunities is social exclusion, which results in marginalization, poverty and material deprivation.

Constitutional Provisions:

The Constitution of India through its Preamble seeks to secure to all its citizens – justice, social, economic and political; liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; and equality of status and of opportunity.

• The Indian Constitution has outlined through the Fundamental Rights and DPSPs, the state’s policies for Social Inclusion.
• Part III of the Indian Constitution provides for 6 Fundamental Rights for Social Inclusion. These include Right to Equality, Right to Freedom, Right against Exploitation, Right to Freedom of Religion, Cultural and Educational Rights and Right to Constitutional Remedies.
• These Rights are also available to persons with disabilities.
• Article 15 (3) empowers the State to make special provisions for women and children in educational institutions and employment opportunities. This provision has been widely invoked by Government for providing exclusive reservation of certain categories of posts for women and for reservation of women in local bodies and educational institutions.
• Article 15 (4) seeks to promote the educational advancement of socially and educationally backward classes of citizens, i.e, the OBCs, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in matters of admission of students belonging to these categories in unaided educational institutions
• Article 17 abolishes untouchability and its practice in any form. The enforcement of any disability arising out of untouchability shall be an offence in accordance with the law.
• The DPSPs are enshrined in Part IV of the Indian Constitution.
• Article 38 says that the state shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting effectively as it may, a social order in which justice, social, economic and political shall inform all the institutions of the national life.
• Article 39 provides for the abolition of child labour and for equal pay for equal work for both men and women.
• Article 41provides for Right to Work, to education, to public assistance in case of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement and in other cases of undeserved want.
• Article 42 provides for just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.
• The 11th schedule to Article 243 G says that Social Welfare including the Welfare of the handicapped and mentally retarded, and the 12th schedule to Article 243 W says that safeguarding the Interests of Weaker Sections of Society including the handicapped and the mentally retarded.

Governance Structures:

The Government of India’s Social Inclusion programmes is implemented by the Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment, Tribal Affairs, Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs.

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment:

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment implements 42 schemes for the welfare of Scheduled Castes. The Ministry seeks educational empowerment, economic empowerment and social empowerment under its various schemes. The Ministry is the custodian of 2 Acts, specifically aimed at curbing

1. Untouchability
2. Atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

These are the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955 and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes was set up under Article 383 of Constitution in 1990.

The economic empowerment of Scheduled Castes is through the special central assistance to the scheduled castes sub-plan (SCSP). Assistance is provided by the State Scheduled Caste Development Corporations, which implement economic development schemes with the equity transferred by the central government. The State Scheduled Caste Development Corporations provide credit and inputs by way of margin money loans and subsidy. India established the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation to provide concessional loans to Scheduled Castes families and skill cum entrepreneurial training to the youth of the target group living below double the poverty line. The National Safai Karmacharis Finance and Development Corporation has been established for economic empowerment of scavengers and manual scavengers.

Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan)

The Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities deals with the legislation governing different aspects of disability and welfare and empowerment of persons with disabilities. These are the Rehabilitation Council of India Act 1992, The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1955 and the National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act 1999.

There are 3 Statutory bodies under the Department.

1. The Rehabilitation Council of India is responsible for regulating training policies and programmes for various categories of professionals in the area of rehabilitation and special education.
2. The Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities is the statutory functionary under the Act of 1955 to coordinate work of State Commissioners for persons with disabilities.
3. The National Trust is a statutory body, which enables and empowers persons with disabilities to live independently as fully as possible and to extend support to registered organizations providing need-based services.

India has set up 6 National Institutes/ Apex Level Institutes to deal with multi-dimensional problem of disabled population in each major area of disability. The National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation is the apex level financial institution for extending credit facilities to persons with disabilities for their economic development.

The Accessible India campaign is a nationwide flagship campaign to ensure a barrier-free and conducive environment for Divyangjans all over the country, launched by the Prime Minister in 2015 for creating universal accessibility for persons with Disabilities.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs was established with the objective of providing a focused approach to the integrated socio-economic development of the Scheduled Tribes, in a coordinated and planned manner. The scheduled areas are notified under Article 244 (1) of the Constitution. Article 244 (2) relates to those areas in the State of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram which are declared Tribal Areas and provides for District Councils/ Regional Councils for such areas.

The Ministry administers grants to states comprising of special central assistance to tribal sub-plan schemes, grants under Article 275 (1) of the Constitution of India, grants for the Ekalavya Model Residential Schools; education grants for vocational training centres in tribal areas, establishment of ashram school in Tribal Sub-Plan areas, and livelihood support grants for minimum support price for minor forest produce. The Ministry also provides equity support to the Tribal Cooperative and Marketing Federation of India and the State – Tribal Cooperative and Marketing Federation. The National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation provides financial assistance to empower tribals for undertaking self-employment ventures. The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes was established under Article 338A of the Constitution as an independent body to safeguard the rights of tribals.

National Policy for Older Persons:

India’s National Policy for Older Persons seeks to encourage individuals to make provisions for their own as well as their spouse’s old age; to encourage families to take care of their older family members and to promote research and training facilities to train geriatric caregivers and organizers of services for the elderly. The Government has constituted the National Council for Older Persons to advise and aid the Government in developing policies for older persons.

Ministry of Women and Child Development

The Ministry of Women and Child Development was established in 2006 with the responsibility to advance the rights and concerns of women and children and to promote their survival, protection, development and participation in a holistic manner. It was also expected to bring about inter-ministerial and inter-state convergence with regard to women and child development programmes. The National Policy for Empowerment of Women lays down detailed prescriptions to address discrimination against women, strengthen existing institutions, provide better access to health care, equal opportunities for women’s participation in decision making and mainstreaming gender concerns in developmental process. The policies and programmes of government have been formulated on the lines of the broader vision laid down by the National Policy for Empowerment of Women.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development is the custodian of several Acts relating to women and children. Prominent among these is the Dowry Prohibition Act, the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, and the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2011.

The National Commission of Women and the National Commission for Protection of Chi8ld Rights have been established under the aegis of Ministry of Women and Child Development to safeguard the rights of women and protect children’s rights respectively.

Amongst the flagship schemes implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development are the Umbrella ICDS, Women Empowerment Schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and a series of grant in aid schemes in the field of women and child development.

• The umbrella ICDS comprises of 6 components namely

1. Anganwadi Services Scheme
2. Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
3. National Creche Scheme
4. Poshan Abhiyan
5. Scheme for Adolescent Girls
6. Child Protection Scheme

• The ICDS is aimed at improving the nutritional and child health status of children below the age of six years and pregnant and lactating mothers as also to reduce the mortality, morbidity and malnutrition.
• The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme is to celebrate the girl child and enable her education. The main objectives of the scheme are to prevent gender-based sex-selective elimination, to ensure survival and protection of the girl child and to ensure education and participation of the girl child. The scheme seeks to improve sex ratio at birth in selected gender critical districts by 2 points a year.