The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE) is a Ministry of the Government of India responsible for the welfare, social justice, and empowerment of disadvantaged and marginalized communities. It was formed in May 1998 by renaming the erstwhile Ministry of Welfare (1985–1998), with the purpose of providing greater focus to the issues of social justice for groups like Scheduled Castes (SCs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and persons with disabilities.
The MSJE functions as the operational arm for translating the Directive Principles of State Policy, particularly Article 46 of the Constitution, into schemes and laws. It operates through two main departments: the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (renamed in May 2012).
Its mechanism involves administering landmark legislation such as the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, and the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. Key schemes include the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for Scheduled Castes and the Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana (AVYAY) for senior citizens.
The Ministry connects to statutory bodies like the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). A significant recent change occurred in 2020-21 with the revision of the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for Scheduled Castes (PMS-SC), which replaced the 'committed liability' system with a 60:40 Centre-State funding ratio and mandated the central share be released directly to students via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).