SOCIAL WELFARE
Man lives in society. He learns speech,
manners and philosophy in his society. He
works and moved in his society. Society
gives protection to his life and property.
The well-being of the society means the
well-being of its individual. So, everyone
work for the welfare of the society. Social
welfare is not the same as standard of
living but is more concerned with the
quality of life that includes factors such as
the quality of the environment (air, soil,
water), level of crime, extent of drug
abuse, availability of essential social
services, as well as religious and spiritual
aspects of life.
Social welfare activities in the country find
their inspiration in constitution which
postulates the goal of welfare state. Article
38 of the Constitution enjoying that the
steps shall strive to promote the welfare of
the people by securing and protecting as
effectively as it may, a social order in
which, social, economic and political shall
in form all the institutions of the national
life. They also encourage the states to
ensure that the health and strength of
wonders, men and women and the tender
age of children are not abused and that
citizens are not forced by economic
necessity to enter avocations unsuited to
their age and strength, and that childhood
and youth are protected against
exploitation and against moral and
material abandonment.
Social Welfare is a generalized term which
covers all aspects aimed at social
upliftment of the weaker and downtrodden
members of the society. In past social
welfare was not done in an organized
manner. But with the passage of time the
activities and duties of state has increased
both horizontally and vertically. The
concept of social welfare is being given
due importance. Now the concept of
welfare state is gaining importance day by
day. The social Welfare Services of the
Government of India are intended to carter
to the special needs of persons and groups
who, by reason of some handicap, social,
economic, physicals or mental are unable
to avail themselves of the amenities and
services provided by the community.
These weaker sections include women,
children, handicapped, aged and infirm,
Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes etc.
The Social Welfare Services in almost four
decades of planning having sought to serve
the development and rehabilitation needs
of the weaker sections of the society. The
programmes of Social Welfare have been
included in various Five Year Plans.
1) Women Welfare: It was realised that
the regeneration of women should be
intrinsically bound up with the
regeneration of the entire nation. Hence it
was considered necessary to initiate
specific measure for the welfare of
women. Further, the benefits, of general
welfare programmes reach women and
children indirectly. It was not adequate for
the need of women. Therefore, specific
programmes have been initiated for the
welfare of women.These programmes
include prohibition of dowry, functional
literacy for adult women, working
women’s hostels and Mahila Mandals etc.
Besides socio economic programmes have
been undertaken the Government to
provide needy women and destitute with
work and wage to supplement the meager
income of their families. Learning from
the shortcoming of the past and the tardy
progress have made in the development of
women.The nation has now taken
women’s development seriously
particularly women in rural areas. The
Development of Women and Children and
Rural Areas (DWCAR) is one such effort
in this direction and this was introduced in
the year 1982-83. This scheme has been
extended to all the districts of the country.
The basic idea behind DWCRA is to
mobilise all avenues of development
efforts to support women in order to
improve their status. This development
scheme is managed by only women
functionaries.
2) Child Welfare: No programme of
social welfare can afford to ignore the
child. Therefore, various services have
been provided to the children at district
from general social services. These include
establishment of Balwadis, grants for
organising holidays groups for school
going children of low income families,
establishment of Ashram schools,
rehabilitation of handicapped children,
probation, services, care and protection for
children, provision for both institutional
and non institutional services which
include establishment of postal schools,
children’s home to tackle the problem of
juvenile delinquency. In the Fifth Plan
highest priority had been accorded to child
welfare programmes. The most important
scheme in this field was the integrated
Child Development Services (ICDS) for
the children in the age group of 0 to 6
years. Under the scheme a package of
services consisting of supplementary
nutrition, immunisation, health check up
referral services, health education is
delivered. Further child referral services,
health education is delivered. Further child
development and welfare have been
integrated into the DWCRA Scheme.
3) Welfare of physically handicapped:
Programmes are being implemented for
the education, training and rehabilitation of
four categories of handicapped persons,
namely, the blind, the deaf, the
orthopedically handicapped and mentally
retarded. The Union Ministry of Social
Welfare awards scholarship to blind, deaf
and orthopedically handicapped students
for general education and for technical and
professional training. The national centre
for the blind, DehraDun, provides
integrated services.The National centre for
deaf at Hyderabad has a training centre for
the adult deaf and a school for deaf
children. The training centre imparts
training in tailoring, carpentry, electrical
wireman ship, gas welding and
photography etc. The Government of India
has taken steps for rehabilitation of
handicapped persons. One such step is that
pilot projects (DEC) are working in our
country for rehabilitation of handicapped.
Assistance is also given to voluntary
organisation serving the handicapped.
4) Welfare of Scheduled Castes: The
Welfare of Scheduled Caste and Tribes is
given special attention by both the Central
and State Governments, Special
Programmes for their welfare have been
undertaken in the successive Five year
Plans. Programmes for the welfare and
development of Scheduled Castes and
tribes are conceived of as being
supplement to general developmental
programmes in different sectors. Special
provisions have been made for them so as
to generate larger support from general
schemes of development. Welfare schemes
for Scheduled Castes includes Commission
for Harijan where, free education, free
books and stationery, scholarship
reservation in service, educational
institutions, legislature and Panchayats and
creation of economic opportunities for the
economic development of the Harijans.
Government is doing every possible effort
to improve their housing conditions. New
colonies are being constructed for them.
The constitution of India has provided
certain safeguards to all Harijan
Communities. Accordingly the Central
Government passed an Act the
Untouchability Offences Act, 1955 which
forbids the practice of untouchabilty in any
form.
5) Tribal Welfare: The Indian
Constitution has made important provision
for the welfare of tribal people. The
Government has given special attention to
their education and economic
development. In free India the state and
Central Govt. Have made incessant efforts
in the direction of tribal welfare. Special
programmes for their welfare have been
undertaken in the successive Five Year
Plan. The main programmes are
reservation in the services and legislatures,
post metric scholarship, girls, hostel,
overseas scholarship by central
Government. The state Sector Programme
for which central assistance is given can be
divided into three main groups, namely
education, economic upliftment and health.
The services provide to tribal's under these
programmes are free education, provision
for educational equipments; setting up of
Ashram School, supply of bullocks, seeds
and manure, development of cottage
industries and communications supply of
sheep's, pigs and goats medical facilities
and drinking water provision of houses
and house sites and provision of legal aid.
Objectives of Social Welfare:
1. Providing adequate facilities to meet
the basic needs of minimum level
such as food, clothing and shelter.
2. Ensuring satisfactory family life and
access to recreational facilities.
3. Providing adequate opportunity of
self-expression.
4. Ensuring social justice to all.
5. Ensuring adequate status to woman
in family and in society.
6. Arranging vocational training, social
education and health care of woman
through social and community
programs.
7. Gradual rehabilitation of weaker and
disabled people.
8. Looking after the health, welfare and
recreation of children.
9. Providing adequate educational
facilities.
10. Upliftment of downtrodden and
under privileged sections of society
BALANCE DEVELOPMENT:
Society needs a balanced
development. Society cannot
improve if the women lie backward.
Society cannot improve if the
women lie backward. Society cannot
improve if a section of its people
remain untouchable. Society cannot
improve if a good number of people
remain poor. Society cannot
improve if the old, the sick, the
crippled and the handicapped are not
taken care of society cannot improve
if some people take to begging and
if some people remain unemployed.
So, for the welfare of the society all
such disabilities should go. For the
balanced development of society
there should be equal opportunity
for all. Society should mobilize the
best in all of us for the general
welfare of the society. Every
individual of the society should be
made healthy, educated, enlightened,
free of corruption, well paid for his
labour and well house.
List of some social welfare programmes:
 Atal pension yojana- pension
program
 Central Government Health
Scheme- comprehensive medical
care facilities to Central
Government employees and their
families.
 Bachat Lamp Scheme-reduce the
cost of compact fluorescent lamps
 Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen
Kaushalya Yojana] - rural
development
 Digital IndiaProgramme[3] -
Aims to ensure that government
services are available to citizens
electronically and people get
benefited from the latest
 information and communication  National Child Labour
technology Projects(NCLP) - employment
 Gramin Bhandaran Yojana -
Creation of scientific storage
capacity with allied facilities in Some social welfare organizations are:
rural areas to meet the
 Ngo Alliance For Governance &
requirements of farmers for storing
Renewal
farm produce, processed farm
 Centre For Health
produce and agricultural inputs.
Education,Training And Nutrition
Improve their marketability
Awarness-
through promotion of grading,
 Live on services
standardization and quality control
 Plan international
of agricultural produce.
 Very special arts India-
 Integrated Child Development
handicapped
Services - The scheme aims to
tackle malnutrition and health CONCLUSION:
problems in children below 6 years
of age and their mothers by The dream of the good childhood has
providing cash incentives characterized the welfare states of the
conditional upon registration twentieth century, but the dream has
at Anganwadi centres and undergone marked alterations. The picture
vaccination of newborn children. of the child has changed; once an
 Jawaharlal Nehru National incompetent being with a right to state care
Urban Renewal Mission and protection, the child is now seen as a
(JnNURM) - a programme meant competent fellow citizen. This altered
to improve the quality of life and understanding of childhood has led to fresh
infrastructure in the cities. To be perceptions of parenthood, primarily a
replaced by Atal Mission for broadening of the role to include not just
Rejuvenation and Urban the mother but also the father. Parental
Transformation competencies should be developed in a
 Kasturba Gandhi Balika dialogue with science and its experts.
Vidyalaya - Educational facilities Ambitions on behalf of parenthood and
(residential schools) for girls childhood could scarcely have been higher
belonging to SC, ST, OBC, than at the beginning of the twenty-first
minority communities and families century.
below the poverty line(BPL) in
Educationally Backward Blocks In the most standard form, a social
 Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti welfare function is a mapping that
Bima Yojana [1] - Life insurance determines the level of social welfare as a
of Rs. 2 lakh with a premium of function of individual levels of welfare. In
Rs. 330 per year. fact, a numerical measure of social welfare
 Saksham or Rajiv Gandhi is not really needed for the evaluation of
Scheme for Empowerment of social situations; the only relevant part of a
Adolescent Boys – skill social welfare function is how it ranks
development social situations from the best to the worst.