ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT
(SHRI RATTAN LAL KATARIA)
(a) & (b): The focus of the Department of Social Justice’s welfare efforts is on the requirements of the poorest households as represented by the socially, educationally and economically marginalized sections of the society including Scheduled Castes (SCs), Other Backward Classes, Senior Citizens, Victims of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Transgender Persons, Beggars, Denotified and Nomadic Tribes (DNTs), Economically Backward Classes (EBCs) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS). The Department is implementing various programmes/schemes for the welfare of these poor and marginalized sections, the details are given at Annexure-I. For the socio-economic advancement of the poorest SC households, the government has made in “Allocation for the Welfare of Scheduled Castes (AWSC)” in the Budget. An amount of Rs. 83256.62 crore has been allocated in the year 2020-21 under AWSC for various Departments. The Department-wise allocation for the year 2020-21 and 2021-22 is given at Annexure–II. The government has increased allocation for the year 2021-22 from Rs. 83256.62 crore to Rs. 126259.20 crore by 51.65% under the welfare of SCs. As a result of this multi-sectoral and inter-Departmental allocation for welfare, the Government is able to make substantial contribution for economic betterment of several of these poorer sections.
(c) Accessible India Campaign (AIC) was launched by this Ministry on 03.12.2015 as a nation-wide flagship campaign for achieving universal accessibility. The campaign focuses on enhancing the accessibility of built environment, transport system and information & communication eco-system to make the life of Persons with Disabilities more convenient with the following maseures .
i. Under built up environment, Rs 465.49 crores have been released to States/UTs to make 1180 identified buildings accessible. Out of these, 356 buildings have been made accessible CPWD has made 998 central government buildings accessible.
ii. Under the transportation system, 709 A1, A & B category railway stations, seven Short Term Facilities and two Long Term Facilities have been provided at 603 railway stations. Further, 35 International Airports and 55 Domestic Airports have been made partially accessible. Out of 1,47,368 buses, 42,169 buses are partially accessible and 10,175 are fully accessible.
iii. Under Information and Communication Technology ecosystem, 584 identified websites of States/UTs have been made accessible. In addition, 95 Central Government websites have been made accessible.
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