Sector overview at a glance
The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment is entrusted with the empowerment of the disadvantaged and marginalized sections of the society. The target groups of the Ministry are:
- Scheduled Castes
- Other Backward Classes
- Persons with Disabilities
- Senior Citizens and Victims of Substance Abuse
The Ministry has been implementing various programmes/schemes for social, educational and economic development of the target groups. As a result there has been considerable improvement in the welfare of these groups.
Due to discontinuance of caste census after 1931, disaggregated demographic data for OBCs is not available. The Mandal Commission had estimated OBC population at 52% of the total population. Similarly, authentic data for Victims of Substance Abuse is not available. At least 1% of the population is understood to be addicted.
The Overall, Scheduled Castes, Senior Citizens and Persons with Disabilities population as per Census 2001 is given below:
| Category | Population | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | SC | Percentage (%) | Sr. Ctz | Percentage (%) | PD | Percentage (%) | |
| Persons | 102.9 | 16.7 | 16.2 | 7.7 | 7.5 | 2.2 | 2.1 |
| Male | 53.2 | 8.6 | 16.2 | 3.8 | 7.1 | 1.3 | 2.4 |
| Female | 49.7 | 8.1 | 16.3 | 3.9 | 7.8 | 0.9 | 1.8 |
Note: SC - Scheduled Castes, PD - Persons with Disabilities and Sr. Ctz - Senior Citizens (60+)
Source: Census of India, 2001
