The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment is entrusted with the empowerment of the disadvantaged and marginalized sections of the society. 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.

The Department of Disability Affairs has been created on 12th May 2012. As per Census 2001, the population of persons with disabilities in the country was estimated at 2.2. crore.