What are the various methods to offer support for the improvement of the traditionally underprivileged sections of the society?

In many societies there are sections of people who are underprivileged. These people could be underprivileged because of several factors: ethnicity, religion, colour, language, nationality, gender, etc. The other people who do not come under the underprivileged section are the normal people.

The underprivileged people suffer major struggles in their life over decades or sometime over centuries. On the social development indices such as literacy, life expectancy, incarceration, health conditions, etc.. the underprivileged people lag behind the normal people significantly. Examples of underprivileged people include the indigenous people in many countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA and also the people of African descent in the USA. 

The people from the underprivileged communities have to brought into the mainstream and in order to achieve this objective,  the required job and career opportunities have to be created. Education is a powerful tool to equip the people to gain the skills required to perform the roles. These people have been deprived of education for a long time and so the governments and the social leaders have to take the initiatives to extend education to the underprivileged. There has to be a concerted effort over a long time, some times for even 50 to 100 years, to improve the skill levels of the underprivileged people by focusing on education and training.

The underprivileged people have to be empowered citizens of the society. In order to enable these people to overcome the handicap of the suppression they have suffered for a long time, leaders from these communities have to be involved in the decision making and governance forums in the society.  As an example, in Indian Parliament around 24% of the seats are reserved only for people from the underprivileged sections to contest and get elected to become members of the parliament. Using this model to reserve seats for the. underprivileged in the governance bodies, we can provide opportunity for the underprivileged to participate in the governance and enact laws that will protect their interests. 

A combination of education and empowerment would go a long way in improving the life of the underprivileged people in the society.