Social Empowerment

What the official syllabus says

UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination, Paper II: General Studies I.

Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.

This page covers social empowerment.

Topics in detail

Meaning

• Social empowerment: dignity, voice and capability for groups that have been excluded
• Dimensions: social, economic, political, educational, legal

Historical roots

• Nineteenth- and twentieth-century reform and anti-caste movements: Jyotiba Phule, Sree Narayana Guru, E.V. Ramasamy, B.R. Ambedkar
• Constituent Assembly debates on equality and reservations

Groups and their empowerment

• Scheduled Castes: abolition of untouchability (Article 17), the Protection of Civil Rights Act (1955), the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (1989)
• Scheduled Tribes: the Fifth and Sixth Schedules, PESA, the Forest Rights Act
• Other Backward Classes: the Mandal Commission and reservation; the Indra Sawhney judgment (1992)
• Economically weaker sections: the 103rd Amendment (2019)
• Religious and linguistic minorities: Articles 29 and 30
• Persons with disabilities: the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016
• Transgender persons: the NALSA judgment (2014) and the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019
• Women, children and the elderly

Instruments of empowerment

• Reservation in education, jobs and legislatures (Articles 15(4), 16(4), 330, 332)
• Constitutional bodies: the National Commissions for Scheduled Castes and for Scheduled Tribes, the National Commission for Backward Classes
• Education and skills; scholarships and hostels
• Economic tools: credit, self-help groups, land rights
• Political participation through local government
• Social movements and civil society
• Financial and digital inclusion: bank accounts, digital literacy, direct benefit transfer

Challenges

• Persistent discrimination and violence
• Benefits captured by better-off sections (the ‘creamy layer’ debate)
• Gaps in implementation and awareness

Overlaps

• General Studies II covers welfare schemes for vulnerable sections and the bodies that protect them.