Tracing the Evolution of Social Protection in India: From Ancient Times to Modern Policies

Social protection in India is often discussed as if it began with the welfare schemes of the post-Independence era. In reality, the idea that society owes a duty of care to its vulnerable members runs through Indian thought for over two millennia. From the administrative manuals of ancient kingdoms to today’s rights-based laws, the journey reveals a fascinating shift in how the state, communities, and individuals view their responsibilities towards the poor, the elderly, widows, orphans, and workers without safety nets.

Ancient foundations: Welfare as a royal duty 🔗

Long before the language of “social security” existed, ancient Indian texts treated welfare as a moral and political obligation of the ruler. The concept of Rajadharma – the duty of the king – placed the well-being of subjects at the heart of governance. A ruler who failed to protect the weak was seen as failing his most essential function.

The clearest articulation of this idea comes from Kautilya’s Arthashastra, written around the 4th century BCE. The treatise outlines remarkably detailed welfare provisions, including state responsibility for widows, orphans, the aged, the sick, and the disabled. It also recommends famine relief measures such as distribution of seeds and provisions, remission of taxes during distress, and the construction of public works to provide employment. Ancient Indic literature consistently described the king’s duty to acquire wealth, protect it, and spend it on projects for the benefit of the needy.

Shukraneeti and the medieval continuity 🔗

The Shukraneeti, another classical text on statecraft, expanded on these ideas by laying out responsibilities for revenue management, equitable taxation, and care for those unable to support themselves. Manusmriti similarly contained provisions for the protection of property belonging to minors and women, indicating that legal protection for vulnerable groups was an established concept.

During the medieval period, welfare functions were often carried out by religious and community institutions. Temples, mutts, mosques, and Sufi shrines distributed food and offered shelter. The jajmani system in Hindu villages and the practice of zakat in Muslim communities created informal but resilient networks of mutual support based on reciprocity and religious obligation. Rulers such as Sher Shah Suri and several Mughal emperors organised grain stores and revenue remissions during periods of scarcity, treating welfare as part of statecraft rather than charity alone.

The colonial transformation 🔗

British colonial rule fundamentally restructured how social protection operated in India. The shift moved welfare away from community-based and royal patronage systems toward a more bureaucratic, codified, but often inadequate framework. Crucially, colonial welfare policies were designed less to protect the population and more to maintain order and prevent unrest.

Famine codes and relief works 🔗

The devastating famines of the 19th century forced the colonial administration to formalise relief mechanisms. The Great Famine of 1876-1878, which killed millions, led directly to the appointment of the Famine Commission of 1880 under Sir Richard Strachey. The Commission’s recommendations resulted in the creation of the Indian Famine Codes, with each province eventually developing its own version.

These codes set out detailed administrative procedures for famine relief, including public works to provide employment, grain distribution, medical aid, and the establishment of famine relief funds. However, the underlying philosophy was problematic. As historical accounts note, wages on relief works were deliberately kept at subsistence level to discourage dependency, and even during mass starvation, grain exports to Britain continued. Scholars argue that the codes served the interests of the colonial state more than the people they claimed to help.

Urban public distribution and labour laws 🔗

The Second World War created severe food shortages, particularly in urban centres, leading to the introduction of rationing systems in 1939. This was the beginning of what would later become India’s Public Distribution System (PDS). By the time the war ended, fair-price shops and ration cards had become a familiar feature of urban life in cities like Bombay and Calcutta.

The colonial period also introduced early labour legislation, including the Workmen’s Compensation Act (1923), the Trade Unions Act (1926), and the Maternity Benefit Act (1929 in Bombay Presidency). These laws, though limited in coverage, planted the seeds of formal social security for industrial workers.

Post-Independence: Building a welfare state 🔗

Independence in 1947 transformed the philosophical foundation of social protection. The Constitution of 1950 made the state the primary guarantor of citizen welfare, particularly through the Directive Principles of State Policy. Articles 38, 39, 41, and 42 directed the state to secure a just social order, provide adequate means of livelihood, and ensure public assistance during unemployment, old age, sickness, and disability.

The early decades focused on poverty alleviation and reducing inequality through planned development. The First Five-Year Plan (1951-56) emphasised community development, while subsequent plans introduced large-scale programmes for rural employment, food security, and health.

Panchayati Raj and grassroots welfare 🔗

Recognising that centralised welfare delivery had its limits, India experimented with decentralised governance through Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). The system was first formally introduced in Nagaur, Rajasthan, in 1959 following the recommendations of the Balwantrai Mehta Committee. The aim was to bring decision-making closer to the people who needed welfare schemes the most.

The truly transformative moment came with the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992, which gave Panchayati Raj constitutional status and established a uniform three-tier system across most states. The Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution listed 29 subjects to be devolved to panchayats, including poverty alleviation, public distribution, welfare of weaker sections, and social welfare. The amendment also reserved seats for women, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes, fundamentally altering who participates in welfare governance at the grassroots.

Employment programmes as social protection 🔗

Through the 1970s and 1980s, India launched several employment-based welfare programmes recognising that providing work was often more dignified and effective than direct aid. The Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme of 1972, born out of severe drought, became a model for guaranteed employment. At the national level, the National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) launched in 1980 and later the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (1989) sought to combine wage employment with the creation of rural assets.

These programmes, however, operated as discretionary government schemes. Their availability depended on budget allocations and political will rather than legal entitlement, which limited their reliability for the poorest households.

The rights-based turn 🔗

The most significant philosophical shift in Indian social protection came in the early 2000s, when welfare began transforming from a benevolence-based system to a rights-based framework. This shift was driven by civil society movements, judicial activism, and a recognition that discretionary schemes had failed to reach the most marginalised.

MGNREGA: A global benchmark 🔗

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), passed in 2005, marked a watershed in Indian social policy. For the first time, employment was framed as a legal right rather than a government favour. Every rural household was entitled to 100 days of unskilled manual work per year, with wages paid within a stipulated time and unemployment allowance payable if work was not provided.

According to analyses of the programme, MGNREGA stood out globally for combining rights-based entitlements with demand-driven employment and citizen-centred planning. It included provisions for social audits, transparency through public disclosure of records, and a strong role for gram panchayats in implementation. The programme has been credited with empowering rural women, raising agricultural wages, and providing a crucial safety net during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other rights-based laws 🔗

MGNREGA was followed by a wave of similar legislation. The Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008 attempted to extend social security to the estimated 93 per cent of India’s workforce in the informal sector. It identified ten social security schemes covering life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits, and old-age protection, and created the National Social Security Board to recommend schemes for different categories of unorganised workers.

The Right to Education Act (2009) made free and compulsory education a fundamental right for children aged 6 to 14. The National Food Security Act (2013) turned food access into a legal entitlement, covering nearly two-thirds of the population. Together, these laws created what scholars describe as a “new welfare regime” in India.

Recent consolidations and ongoing debates 🔗

In recent years, the focus has shifted towards consolidating fragmented welfare laws and digitising delivery. The Code on Social Security, 2020 amalgamated nine earlier labour laws and explicitly extended social security coverage to gig and platform workers – a recognition of how rapidly the nature of work is changing. The eShram portal, launched in 2021, aims to build a comprehensive database of unorganised workers, with over 29 crore registrations so far.

However, the rights-based approach has faced political headwinds. In 2025, Parliament repealed MGNREGA and replaced it with the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act. The new framework introduces “normative allocations” and shifts greater responsibility to state governments, raising concerns among welfare economists about whether the demand-driven, rights-based architecture that defined MGNREGA will survive in practice.

This tension – between rights-based entitlements and discretionary, target-driven welfare – is the defining debate of contemporary Indian social protection. It echoes a much older question that runs through the entire history traced here: is welfare a duty owed by the state to its citizens, or a favour granted at the state’s discretion?

What do you think? Looking at the evolution from Arthashastra to MGNREGA, do you believe social protection works better as a legal right or as a flexible scheme tailored by governments to current priorities? And how should India’s welfare framework adapt to protect gig workers, platform-based labour, and other emerging forms of employment that fall outside traditional categories?

References

1. https://www.indictoday.com/research/social-welfare-indic-civilization-jurisprudential/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_of_1876%E2%80%931878
3. https://www.gktoday.in/great-famine-of-1876/
4. https://www.britannica.com/topic/panchayati-raj
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi_National_Rural_Employment_Guarantee_Act,_2005
6. https://socialprotection-humanrights.org/expertcom/right-employment-social-protection-rural-settings-example-indian-mgnrega/
7. https://labour.gov.in/acts/unorganised-workers-social-security-act-31122008
8. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2026/01/19/india-repealing-the-employment-guarantee-act/