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), Manual Scavengers, the disabled, the elderly, and the victims of drug abuse. 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 the 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 Scheduled Castes Development Division, Tribal Development Division and the Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Wakf Division of the Ministry of Law left those ministries to form the new Ministry of Welfare. The Ministry of Welfare adopted the name Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in May 1998. In October 1999, the Tribal Development Division left the ministry to become its own ministry, the Ministry of  Tribal Affairs. In January 2007, the Minorities Division and the Wakf Unit were moved out of the ministry to form the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Child Development Division left the ministry to form the Ministry of Women and Child Development. To propagate the ideologies and philosophy of Babu Jagjivan Ram, the 'Babu Jagjivan Ram National Foundation', has been set up by the Ministry. 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. 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.