The vision of the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, in tune with our constitution, is to build an inclusive society where the most oppressed and backward sections of our population can live a life of dignity, pride, and actively contribute to the nation’s human capital.

These sections of the population are an important target group for the policies and programmes of the Government, and this focus has translated the country wide missions such as the ongoing Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, Aspirational Districts Program, and the Mission Antyodaya (MA) etc.

Scheduled Caste Development:

• To meet its goal of educational empowerment of the SC population, a large portion of the department’s budget is directed to scholarships and there has been a considerable success in its distribution within the target group.
• The flagship scheme of the Department, Post-Matric Scholarship (PMS – SC) for SC students has been in operation since 1944 and is the single largest intervention by the Government of India for the educational empowerment of scheduled caste students.
• It covers approximately 55 lakh students per year, studying at the post matriculation or post-secondary stage, right up to PhD.
• It has had positive outcomes on literacy levels of the target groups, on dropout rates participation in higher education, and finally in achievement of excellence and building human capital for the service of the nation.
• Other scholarship schemes for SC students are the Pre-Matric Scholarship, Top Class Education Scheme for studying in premier educational institutions and the National Fellowship, Scheme run in conjunction with UGC.

Welfare of SCs:

• An important act for protection and dignity of members of SC and ST community is the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
• The amendments broadly relate to provisions of relief amount for 47 offences of atrocities, rationalization of the phasing of payment of relief amount, enhancement of relief amount depending upon the nature of the offence, payment of admissible relief within seven days and completion of investigation and filing of charge sheet within sixty days to enable timely commencement of prosecution.

Other Details:

• Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, apart from implementing schemes directly, also keeps tract of the ‘Allocation for the Welfare of SCs’ (AWSC), which is the new name of the SC Sub Plan. The concept of Special Component Plan (SCP) for Scheduled Castes is in existence since 1979-80 to ensure proportionate flow of plan resources for the development of Scheduled Castes (SCs)/Scheduled Tribes (STs). As per consolidated guidelines of Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) issued by erstwhile Planning Commission all the States/Ministries/Departments are required to earmark funds under SCSP out of their Plan outlay, in proportion to the percentage of SC population in the States/Country. The nomenclature was changed to “Allocation for the Welfare of Scheduled Castes” (AWSC) in 2017.
• The department has developed a web-portal (e-utthaan.gov.in) in 2017 for online capturing of data from various Ministries/Department on the financial, physical and outcome based monitoring indicators as per the formats designed by the NITI Aayog. The financial monitoring has been linked with the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) and accordingly, the monitoring is carried out on a real time basis.
• Beyond education, the department has adopted an area based approach for the development of SC habitation which focuses on education, health and nutrition, Swacch Bharat, livelihood and skill development.
• The Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) envisages an integrated development of SC majority villages, primarily through convergent implementation of central an state schemes, by providing central gap-filling assistance. The programme is being taken up in villages which have more than 50 per cent SC population.

Backward Classes Development:

• Another important target group is the Backward Classes, and for whose welfare, the overall allocation in 2018-19 has been increased by 41.03 per cent.
• Scholarship schemes remain the mainstay of interventions for the BC population too, with schemes such as Pre and Post-Matric Scholarships and the National Fellowship.
• Skill development is an important intervention and is being undertaken through the National Backward Classes Finance & Development Corporation (NBCFDC).
• The way forward is to build upon basics and move towards the development of entrepreneurship abilities of this group, resulting in job creation as well.

Social Defence:

• An important but often neglected target group, is the senior citizens; whose numbers as well as the old age dependency ratio is growing exponentially. Keeping in view the changing demographics, socio-economic needs of the senior citizens, social value systems and advancements in technologies, a revised policy for senior citizens is being drafted.
• The existing scheme is Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens.
• Posts of physiotherapist attendant and yoga teachers have been created under the scheme.
• Provisions for registration, standardisation and rating of senior citizen homes have been made.
• Rastriya Vayoshri Yojana is a scheme meant for providing living assisted devices. Under the scheme of Prevention of Alcoholism and Substance (Drugs) Abuse, cost norms were increased by 30 per cent for de-addiction centres supported by the department. These centres have also been provided with cooks, full time doctors and an additional chowkidar.
• It is for the first time, a National Survey to identify victims of drug abuse has been taken up.

Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers:

• National Survey of Manual Scavengers in 170 identified districts of 18 states has been undertaken, coordinated and monitored by NSKDC (National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation) in association with the representatives of State Government and social organizations.
• Manual scavengers identified in the National Survey will be each given payment of One Time Cash Assistance (OTCA) of Rs. 40000 and rehabilitated through subsequent measures.
• Further, the NSKFDC will focus on areas of training, rehabilitation and awareness generation.
• Emphasis is also being laid on spreading awareness about the provisions of the “Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013” by organizing workshops in big municipalities with stakeholders including municipal engineers, sanitary inspectors, contractors etc.
• Engagement with Municipal Corporation is imperative to this scheme.
• Memorandum of Agreements (MoA) with panchayats and municipal corporations to purchase sanitation related vehicles and equipment are being entered into
• This department has three Finance Development Corporations viz.
  1. NBCFDC (National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation),
  2. NSKFDC (National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation)
  3. NSFDC (National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation)
• These corporations are not for profit companies with an objective to promote economic and development activities for the benefit of targeted groups and to assist them in livelihood, skill development and self-employment ventures.
• To this end the corporations work as an extended arm of the government.

Dr. Ambedkar International Centre:

• In order to further the ideas of Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar, the department of Social Justice and Empowerment has set up Dr. Ambedkar International Centre (DAIC) in 2017.
• The Centre would play a key role in the dissemination of Dr. Ambedkar’s teachings and vision, and it would be an important centre for research on social and economic issues and would function as a think tank for inclusive growth and related socio-economic issues.

The Department is committed to fulfill the promise made in the Constitution, Article 38, to secure a social order for the promotion of the welfare of the people, which is in keeping with the guiding principle of this government in ‘Sabka Saath & Sabka Vikas”. This goal will be realized only when the target population of this department, the marginalized and vulnerable are empowered to fulfill their true potential.