Empowerment from the above - Responses and Impacts of Social Security Schemes in Up

Abstract

The issue of empowerment of the marginalised groups in India is very much related to the question of social change. People are not empowered because they are socially discriminated. Since social hierarchy in India is not separate from the economic hierarchy, people, who are enjoying higher social status also belong to economically well-off section of the society. Therefore, unless social discrimination is addressed in the country, economic discrimination is also not supposed to be eliminated, and hence, the very agenda of empowering the marginalised people remains unfulfilled. Empowerment of the marginalised groups is an important and prioritised agenda of the democratic government in India. The policy responses from the government to address the issue have mainly been evolved around the 'economic empowerment'. It is being assumed that if socially and economically marginalised groups receive economic benefits from the government that would enhance their economic status and they would also feel their social status improved. The question this paper addresses is whether policies that are targeting the economic empowerment alter the social empowerment of the marginalised groups which reflects upon the changes in traditional social structure to remove social discrimination.