| Seal: | Emblem of India (Tiraṅgā).svg |
| Jurisdiction: | Government of India |
| Headquarters: | Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Shastri Bhawan, C-Wing, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road New Delhi,110011 New Delhi |
| Region Code: | IN |
| Minister1 Name: | Virendra Kumar Khatik |
| Minister1 Pfo: | Cabinet Minister |
| Minister2 Name: | Ramdas Athawale |
| Minister2 Pfo: | Minister of State |
| Minister3 Name: | B. L. Verma |
| Minister3 Pfo: | Minister of State |
| Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment | |
| Budget: | (2017-18 est.)[1] |
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]
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.
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]
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.
https://dwbdnc.dosje.gov.in/
| Portrait | Minister | Term of office | Political party | Ministry | Prime Minister | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From | To | Period | ||||||||
| Minister of Social Security | ||||||||||
| 1 | Ram Subhag Singh (MoS) | 9 June 1964 | 13 June 1964 | Indian National Congress | Shastri | Lal Bahadur Shastri | ||||
| 2 | Ashoke Kumar Sen | 13 June 1964 | 11 January 1966 | |||||||
| 11 January 1966 | 24 January 1966 | Nanda II | Gulzarilal Nanda | |||||||
| Minister of Social Welfare | ||||||||||
| 3 | Kotha Raghuramaiah (MoS) | 24 January 1966 | 25 March 1966 | Indian National Congress | Indira I | Indira Gandhi | ||||
| 4 | Asoka Mehta | 25 March 1966 | 13 March 1967 | |||||||
| 13 March 1967 | 22 August 1968 | Indira II | ||||||||
| 5 | Panampilly Govinda Menon | 22 August 1968 | 23 May 1970 | |||||||
| 6 | Kengal Hanumanthaiah | 26 May 1970 | 18 March 1971 | Indian National Congress (R) | ||||||
| 7 | Siddhartha Shankar Ray | 18 March 1971 | 20 March 1972 | Indira III | ||||||
| 8 | Saiyid Nurul Hasan (MoS, I/C) | 24 March 1972 | 24 March 1977 | |||||||
| 9 | Pratap Chandra Chunder | 24 March 1977 | 28 July 1979 | Janata Party | Desai | Morarji Desai | ||||
| 10 | Karan Singh | 28 July 1979 | 19 August 1979 | Indian National Congress (Urs) | Charan | Charan Singh | ||||
| 11 | Sathyavani Muthu | 19 August 1979 | 23 December 1979 | All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | ||||||
| 12 | Shankarrao Chavan | 19 October 1980 | 8 August 1981 | 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 September 1985 | 2 December 1989 | |||||||
| Minister of Welfare | ||||||||||
| 16 | Ram Vilas Paswan | 6 December 1989 | 10 November 1990 | Janata Dal | Vishwanath | Vishwanath Pratap Singh | ||||
| Chandra Shekhar (Prime Minister) | 21 November 1990 | 21 June 1991 | Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) | Chandra Shekhar | Chandra Shekhar | |||||
| 17 | Sitaram Kesri | 21 June 1991 | 16 May 1996 | Indian National Congress (I) | Rao | P. V. Narasimha Rao | ||||
| 18 | Kariya Munda | 16 May 1996 | 1 June 1996 | Bharatiya Janata Party | Vajpayee I | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | ||||
| 19 | Balwant Singh Ramoowalia | 1 June 1996 | 21 April 1997 | Independent | Deve Gowda | H. D. Deve Gowda | ||||
| 21 April 1997 | 19 March 1998 | Gujral | Inder Kumar Gujral | |||||||
| 20 | Maneka Gandhi (MoS, I/C) | 19 March 1998 | 23 May 1998 | Vajpayee II | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | |||||
| Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment | ||||||||||
| 21 | Maneka Gandhi (MoS, I/C) | 23 May 1998 | 13 October 1999 | Independent | Vajpayee II | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | ||||
| 13 October 1999 | 1 September 2001 | Vajpayee III | ||||||||
| 22 | Satyanarayan Jatiya | 1 September 2001 | 22 May 2004 | Bharatiya Janata Party | ||||||
| 23 | Meira Kumar | 23 May 2004 | 22 May 2009 | Indian National Congress | Manmohan I | Manmohan Singh | ||||
| 24 | Mukul Wasnik | 28 May 2009 | 27 October 2012 | Manmohan II | ||||||
| 26 | Selja Kumari | 28 October 2012 | 28 January 2014 | |||||||
| 27 | Mallikarjun Kharge | 28 January 2014 | 26 May 2014 | |||||||
| 28 | Thawar Chand Gehlot | 27 May 2014 | 30 May 2019 | Bharatiya Janata Party | Modi I | Narendra Modi | ||||
| 31 May 2019 | 7 July 2021 | Modi II | ||||||||
| 29 | Virendra Kumar Khatik | 7 July 2021 | 9 June 2024 | |||||||
| 10 June 2024 | Incumbent | Modi III | ||||||||