MAJOR POLICY INITIATIVES
IN THE SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT SECTOR
The Ministry of Social
Justice & Empowerment continued to ensure social justice and
empowerment of SCs, OBCs, Minorities, persons with disabilities,
children in need of care and protection, the elderly, victims
of substance abuse etc. Some major initiatives and achievements
during the year 2002 are :-
EMPOWERMENT OF SCHEDULED CASTES
Educational Empowerment
- Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Scholarship
Dr. Ambedkar National
Scholarship Scheme for Meritorious Students belonging to SCs/STs
has been launched on 14th April 2002 to recognize,
promote and assist meritorious students amongst these sections
for pursuing higher studies.
The Scholarship will
be given as one-time grant as per the following norms:-
Student
securing highest marks Rs.60,000/-
Student securing
2nd highest marks Rs.50,000/-
Student securing
3rd highest marks Rs.40,000/-
Girl student
securing highest marks Rs.40,000/-
(in case she
is not in the above three
categories)
__ _____________
Rs.1,90,000/-
The students scoring
highest marks in the regular Class X level examination
conducted by the Education Board/Council
are eligible for the scholarship. In case, none of the first three
eligible students are girls, the girl student scoring the highest
mark will get a special award. Additionally, 250 special merit
scholarships @ Rs.10,000/- each will be given to select SC/ST
students.
Social Empowerment
- Revision of list of SCs under
Article 341 of the Constitution
The
lists of Scheduled Castes for different States and Union Territories
have been notified. For modification in the existing lists of
Scheduled Castes, the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment)
Bill, has been passed by Parliament.
- Inclusion in the lists of
Scheduled Castes
12
Communities
have been included in the lists of Scheduled Castes namely Mangali,
Mrigan in Orissa, Ramdasia & Ramdasia Sikh & Ravidasia
& Ravidasia Sikh and Mochi in Punjab, Balmiki and Chain in
West Bengal and Balahi & Balai, Bhangi & Mehtar, Chamar,
Chikwa & Chikvi, Koli & Kori, Kotwal in Gujarat for extending
benefits of reservation etc.
through an amendment in the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order,
1950.
Financial Empowerment
From 1st
October 2002, the income ceiling for loans for the scheduled castes
has been increased from Rs.31,952/- to Rs.40,000/- in rural areas
and from Rs.42,412/- to Rs.55,000/- in urban areas by the NSCFDC.
The interest rate on term loans has been decreased from 7% to
6% per annum upto the loan of Rs.5 lakh and from 9% to 8% per
annum on more than Rs.5 lakh. The annual interest rate on micro
financing loan has been decreased from 12% to 5% per annum.
EMPOWERMENT OF OBCs
Women Empowerment
A new scheme has
been initiated recently to economically empower the women belonging
to Other Backward Classes living below the Poverty Line. Under
the Scheme, a loan of upto Rs.50,000/- would be provided to the
women above 18 years to start their own small enterprise. The
rate of interest will be @ 4% p.a. which is very low in comparison
to other loans available in market.
WELFARE OF MINORITIES
Women Empowerment
A new scheme "Mahila
Samridhi Yojana" for providing Micro Financing for training
to women belonging to Minorities community in tailoring, knitting,
embroidery and allied
trades has been launched by National Minorities Development Finance
Corporation (NMDFC).
Financial Empowerment
Under Micro-credit
Scheme, NMDFC disbursed Rs.5.76 crore covering 16,855 beneficiaries.
Educational Empowerment
- Maulana Azad Education Foundation
Maulana Azad
Education Foundation assisted 207 NGOs for establishing/expansion
of schools/residential schools/ colleges, vocational/technical
training, hostels and remedial coaching etc.
- Remedial Coaching for Minority
Students
Schemes of "Remedial
Coaching" and "Pre-Examination Coaching" has ben
launched by Maulana Azad Education Foundation for educational
development of minorities.
SOCIAL DEFENCE
Initiatives for Older Persons
The second
meeting of National Council for Older Persons was held on 18.10.2002
under the Chairmanship of Hon'ble Minister (SJ&E). The meeting
discussed at length the issues concerning the welfare of the elderly,
the action taken by various concerned Ministries/Departments concerning
senior citizens and also reviewed the progress made in the implementation
of the National Policy for Older Persons (NPOP).
During the
year, two meetings of the Inter Ministerial Committee constituted
for the effective implementation of NPOP by all the concerned
Ministries were held. The First meeting of Inter Ministerial Committee
was held on 18th April, 2002 which was attended by
various concerned Central Ministries/Departments and also by representatives
of State Governments/UT Administrations. The meeting approved
the Plan of Action 2000-05 for implementation of National Policy
for Older Persons (NPOP). The second inter-Ministerial Committee
meeting was held on 23.12.2002. The meeting reviewed the Plan
of Action to implement NPOP.
The Ministry
of Social Justice and Empowerment is the nodal Ministry for issues
relating to the welfare of the elderly. The Ministry is networking
with all the concerned Ministries/Departments in order to develop
effective programmes in both monetary and non-monetary aspects
for the care and support of the elderly. The Ministry stressed
on programmes targeted for the rural population of the elderly
but at the same time is concerned with the financial and physical
well being of all senior citizens.
The Hon'ble
Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Dr. Satyanarayan
Jatiya also addressed the International Assembly on Ageing held
in Madrid, Spain in April 2002, where the Madrid Declaration and
International Plan of Action on Ageing was adopted. The Minister
addressed the world assembly in Hindi.
As regards
the implementation of the Scheme of Integrated Programme for Older
Persons, financial assistance was given for 222 Old Age Homes,
201 Day Care Centres and 27 Mobile Units in different parts of
the country during the year 2002-03.
Drug Abuse
Prevention
- National Survey on the extent,
pattern and trend of drug abuse
in the country.
The Ministry,
in collaboration with the UNDCP ROSA, New Delhi, has undertaken
a comprehensive national survey on the extent, pattern and trends
of alcoholism and drug abuse in the country. This multi-strategy
and multi-dimensional study has for the first time provided with
a diverse range of authentic information on the profile of substance
abuse in the country. The Survey would provide us with essential
inputs for future programme planning and intervention.
- Sensitization meeting with
the Secretaries and Directors of Social
Welfare, Health
Departments in the North Eastern and Southern
States.
A two-day
Workshop was held in Guwahati, Assam on 7th and 8th
November, 2002 for sensitization of the senior officers of the
Social Welfare and Health Departments in the North Eastern States
on various issues of alcoholism and drug abuse. The Meeting was
attended by Secretaries and Directors, including Project Directors
of States AIDS Control Societies. A similar meeting was also held
at
Chennai with the
representatives of the Social Welfare Departments of Andhra Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Pondicherry.
- Strengthening the Regional
Resource & Training Centres (RRTCs)
To strengthen
the delivery of services of the NGOs, 8 RRTCs have been established
in different regions of the country so as to support the professional
developlment of the service providers simultaneous with research
and documentation in the field of alcohol and drug abuse prevention.
The Government of India have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding
with the RRTCs for providing them with regional mandate on training,
research and documentation.
Children in need of care
and protection
A toll-free
24-hour phone service 1098 is being run in 42 cities. A child
in distress or an adult can dial the number and seek help. Upto
December 2002, 27 lakh calls
were received and relief was provided. The cities where CHILDLINE
service is available are Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Alwar, Bangalore,
Baroda, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Chandigarh, Chennai,
Cochin, Coimbatore, Cuttack, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad,
Imphal, Indore, Jaipur, Kalyan, Kolkata, Kozhykode, Kutch, Lucknow,
Mangalore, Madurai, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Pune, Puri, Ranchi,
Salem, Shillong, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirapalli, Udaipur,
Varanasi, Vijayawada, Vishakhapatanam and Wynad.
During the
year 2002, Childline Service was started in 10 cities of the country
raising the total number of cities covered to 42.
EMPOWERMENT OF PERSONS WITH
DISABILITIES
Integration of most Marginalized
The
National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy,
Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities had earlier been
set up with a corpus of Rs.100 crore from the Government for the
persons of the above 4 disabilities requiring life-long care.
29 Day Care Centres in 13 States and 24 Residential Centres in
12 States and 5 Respite Care Centres in 5 States have been set
up. The Trust has also organized "Caregivers' Training"
for 88 organizations. This goes a long way towards meeting the
needs of this category of persons.
Disabled Empowerment
- Occupations Identified for
Disabled
The Committee
of Experts including representatives from the corporate and voluntary
sectors has identified 120 occupations at executive/Management/Supervisory
levels and 945 occupations at skilled/semi-skilled/unskilled levels
for employing disabled persons without compromising on the quality
of work.
- Scholarship Scheme for Disabled
A new Scholarship
scheme for the meritorious disabled students has recently been
launched. 500 annual scholarships for technical education are
being given. For Ph.D/M.Phil and Post-Graduate/Graduate level
professional courses Rs.1,000/- per month for students residing
in hostels and Rs.700/- p.m. for day scholars and for Diploma/Certificate
level professional courses Rs.700/- p.m. for students residing
in hostels and Rs.400/- p.m. for day scholars will be provided.
The Awardees will also be reimbursed the course fee subject to
a ceiling of Rs.10,000/- per year. Financial assistance may also
be given for purchase of a computer with editing software for
blind and deaf graduate and postgraduate students pursuing professional
courses and for purchase of support access software for cerebral
palsied students.
Technical Assistance for
Rehabilitation
- ALIMCO provides artificial
limbs to Afghanistan
A team of
experts from the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation (ALIMCO)
has proceeded to Afghanistan on 21.10.02 to contribute to the
task of rehabilitation of persons who have lost their limbs in
recent years. The team will hold two camps at Mazar-e-Sharif and
Maimna to rehabilitate 1000 people with state-of-the-art artificial
limbs. They will also train local persons to ensure that follow
up care is provided. The equipment etc. carried out by the team
will be left behind for use by the local experts.
