Department of Social Justice & Empowerment
Department of Social Justice & Empowerment
Why in News?
- The year-end-review of the Department of Social Justice & Empowerment for the year 2022 was recently released.
Highlights
- Articles 15(6) and 16(6) were inserted in the Constitution vide the Constitution 103rd Amendment Act 2019.
- These Articles enable the States to provide upto 10% reservation for the EWS in Government jobs and Government Educational Institutions.
- The Supreme Court of India, in November 2022, has upheld the validity of the Constitution 103rd Amendment Act 2019.
- NMBA was launched in 2020 by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and is being implemented in 372 most vulnerable districts based on the findings of the first Comprehensive National Survey and inputs from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
- It Intends to reach out to the masses and spread awareness about substance use with focus on higher educational Institution, university campuses & schools, reaching out & identifying dependent population. Around 9.3 crore people have been sensitized on substance use including 3 Crore Youth and 2 Crore Women.
- Events like ‘Nashe se Azaadi- A National Youth and Students Interaction Programme’, ‘Naya Bharat, Nasha Mukt Bharat’, ‘NMBA Interaction with NCC’ are regularly organized to engage and connect with youth and other stakeholders.
- National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) is a scheme under which financial assistance is provided to State Governments, UT Administration, NGOs/VOs and Government Hospitals for different programmes for Drug Demand Reduction for Awareness Generation, Capacity Building, Counselling, Treatment and rehabilitation.
- Department of Social Justice & Empowerment (DoSJE) is implementing the National Overseas Scholarship (NOS) for Scheduled Caste etc. under which financial assistance is provided to selected students from Scheduled Castes, De notified, Nomadic & Semi – Nomadic Tribes, landless agricultural laborers and traditional artisan categories, for pursuing Masters and PhD level courses abroad.
- Number of seats under NOS has been increased from 100 to 125 with effect from 2021-22.