POLITICAL SCIENCE – PSA 319

INDIAN CONSTITUTION

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY

Divya R Reddy
II BA HEP
20HEP066
Q) Explain the importance of Social Justice and Equity in Indian Constitution.
Ans:
SOCIAL JUSTICE
In a nation like that of India, totally wide and diverse in terms of culture, indigenous traditions,
mindsets and various other facts, there exists humongous amount of heterogeneity. The world’s
largest democracy has always been trying to incorporate justice from the grass root levels and
most importantly, social justice which is certainly the bedrock of Justice in our nation. The
Preamble of Indian Constitution sheds light on the importance of social justice apart from the
other objectives, like that of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. In fact, justice has been
emphasized a big time than the other principles the Preamble speaks of.

Justice, in general, refers to harmonize the interests of two individuals or groups, heeding to the
interests of the community for the welfare of the State. The three further divisions of justice
include Social Justice, Economic Justice and Political Justice. Elaborating on of Social Justice in
specific, it is the comprehensive form to annihilate the societal inequalities by means of law,
harmonizing the antagonistic claims and interests of different sections irrespective of their status
in the society. It implies the assurance of citizens being treated equally without any
discrimination based on their birth, race, caste, creed, sex, religion, class and so on. Granville
Austin in his ‘Indian Constitution: Corner Stone of a Nation (1999), throws light on Indian
Constitution providing a lot of impetus on social justice by revamping and rebuilding society for
the common good of the people, despite it borrowing from various other constitutions and
possessing its own distinct salient features. Although the feeling of social justice is relative in
nature, as it may vary from time to time subject to varied aspects, it is the very foundation of
the Indian Constitution.

The fact that Social Justice has a significant say in our Constitution is justified by the umpteen
number of provisions made by it. The core values of these provisions imply equal treatment of
the subjects providing access to equal rights and opportunities. Apart from social justice being
stressed upon in the Preamble, it has been conveyed through a good number of articles of our
Constitution, which was insisted by our forefathers, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and Pandit Nehru, in
specific. Beginning with the prohibition of human trafficking and forced labour, which is
mentioned in Article 23, Securing the welfare of the people by the state in Article 38, Equal
justice, and free legal aid in Article 39A to Article 46 which encourages the promotion of
Educational and Economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other suppressed
classes are the provisions pertaining to Social Justice and the empowerment of underprivileged
sections in a gist. On the other hand, Articles 17 and 25 promote the abolition of untouchability,
freedom to practice and propagate religion of their choice and conscience and free profession fall
under Social Safeguards. Another extremely comprehensive arena under which Social Justice is
of grave importance is, Politics, that is Political Safeguards such as Article 330, 332, 334, 243D
and 243T which focus on affirmative actions which are to be availed to the marginalized
communities, in political sphere, be it Legislative Assemblies, Panchayats or Municipalities.
These provisions are further monitored by Article 338 which enunciates the set up and presence
of National Commission for Scheduled Castes. These articles in a nutshell are the provisions
made by Constitution in terms of Social Justice.

As rightly connoted by various extremists and forefathers, Social Justice, is an upshot of social
revolution which seeks to liberate the oppressed from the clutches of the exploiters in the past.
This revolutionary impact gave a solid substance to the Rule of Law to come up with the
Directive Principles of State Policy. In the IV Part of the Indian Constitution, these Directive
Principles happen to acknowledge the significance of achieving social welfare and the common
wellbeing of the citizens by aiming to set up a Social Welfare State which endeavors to secure
socio-economic justice. This was backed by the notion to eradicate the various other enigmas
India and her people have been subjected to, due to the exploitation by the Elites, under the
guise of poverty, unemployment, social, economic, and political backwardness.

Certain number of articles and provisions take cognizance of the grave need to put an end to
the discrimination made on the basis of gender, that has resulted in women being exploited since
ages. the 42nd Article speaks of providing necessary humane conditions for work and for
maternity relief. Right to Work, to Education and to Public Assistance under Article 41 makes
effective provisions to aid people in arranging apt educational opportunities, liberty to work and
public assistance ensuring in times of unemployment, old age, and other unexpected conditions.

Though there are awe-inspiring number of provisions, articles, objectives that aim to ensure
Social Justice in our nation via Constitutional means, in my perspective, implementing them
from the ground level would certainly take years. The contemporary cases act as illustrations for
the above statement. The various initiatives taken by the Government and its other organs to
achieve this target of ascertaining the required justice, which will be followed by economic and
political justice. The Judiciary has played a vital role in making this possible too. As
anticipated by Nehru and Ambedkar, these three broad branches of justice are complimentary
and co-exist in a society, especially, in Indian context. Therefore, Social Justice by all means
proves to be the suitable foundation for rightly interpreting the vision to accomplish the
objectives the Constitution is aiming to improvise.

EQUITY
“He who seeks equity must do Equity” – Joseph Story

The concept of Equity refers to the quality of being fair and impartial, by providing the
citizens with what they shall ensure improvement of the Nation. Equity also may be defined as
freedom from bias or impartial treatment, enabling justice by giving them what belongs to them
or what they truly deserve. The recognition of particular characteristics of an individual or a
group and ensuring providing them what the Nation owes to them for ameliorating the
conditions of the Country. This implies the comprehension of calibers of millions of talented
citizens being discerned despite the diversity of a nation like that of India, hence, it’s an intent to
take this diversity into consideration without any sort of discrimination. Equity tends to
highlight the differences and attempts to deal with the unequal provisions made by the
Constitution, the Law of Equity serves this purpose in an appropriate manner.

Equity and equality are two principles which are compatible and go hand in hand to a great
extent. Albeit the constitution does not directly mention equity anywhere, throughout, it comes
into limelight in the form of equality during numerous occasions. Thereby, throughout this piece
of information, I shall try to bring out the instances of equity which seem to fall under the
concept of equality. Equality as an objective, is embodied in the Preamble of Indian
Constitution which in itself manifests its sacrosanct and mandatory existence to meet the rest of
the ideals put forth by the Constitution makers. To begin with, in India as a Democracy, equal
rights to vote and being politically active makes a huge difference as this opportunity is vital in
deciding the prospect of the rulers of the Nation. With regards to economic field, equality spoken
about would incline to talk about the equal opportunities and wages (salaries) provided for the
work done, it is intensified by the saying – “Equal pay for Equal work”. Similarly, there are a
huge number of provisions which ensure equity, ultimately making things equal in a society.

In the contemporary world, human resource acts a thriving force to advance the development of
a nation and education lays the perfect foundation for the enhancement of the upcoming
generations. The principles of equity alongside with equality shall assure to a great extent, the
availability of educational opportunities. There are various provisions in Indian Constitution
guaranteeing good quality of education. A few important ones are as follows: Free and
Compulsory Education, as Right to Education under Article 21A and the Directive Principles
of State Policy itself aim for providing education. The fundamental duties have, off late,
included the duty to provide free, compulsory, and Universal education for children until the age
of 14. Education for the minorities: Article 30 of the Constitution urges the administrators to
administer and provide education to the backward classes as per the rights of minorities.
Article 29 (1) also tries to safeguard the linguistic minorities’ interests by educating them. The
scholarships and affirmative actions mentioned in various parts of the Constitution also
empower the children of weaker sections of the society to improve their educational
qualifications, improving the literacy rate and rationality of the citizens. The Constitution also
emphasizes the importance of women and differently abled children education via various
provisions as they too seem nothing less in helping our nation grow, in reality.

There is absolutely no point in entitling citizens with rights when there is no equality and equity
in the same context. All these disparities are directed to be discarded by the following
provisions as well. This can be summed by equality before law which falls under Article 14,
ensuring equal protection of the laws and it declares that “the state shall not deny to any person
equality before law”. No discrimination ideal under Article 15 is subjected to prohibit any kind
of discrimination on certain grounds. This very article also provides equal right to use the public
places as the citizens, the taxpayers are entitled for its usage.

In order to assure equity and equality from the various parts of the Nation, especially the most
basic level, Article 17 prohibits the inhumane practice of untouchability. This is reinforced by
Article 18 which abolishes the titles of honor with which the Bourgeoisie exploited the
downtrodden for centuries.

In addition to the above articles and provisions, civic equality is accomplished by providing for
Universal Adult Franchise, and by reiterating the absence of discrimination by saying no to the
set up of special electoral polls for people based on their religion, caste, or status and this is
presented to us in the 325th and 326th articles, as mentioned at the very beginning.

Hence, the subject matter of equality finds its very roots in the form of equity which is being
provided to the best of their knowledge by the Government. But unfortunately, the thin line of
difference between equity and equality is seemed to have been defenestrated in today’s world
due to various reasons well known to all to us. Unequivocally, we should not provide any
occasion for the government to exploit us, in any manner when it comes to equity as this is
extremely indispensable to make growth process rapid and efficient. I would say, until equity is
implemented in the quintessential manner from education until one employs himself as a
responsible citizen of a nation, the progress of the nation will see a halt as the role of equity
cannot be denied as far as its importance in the Constitution is taken into consideration.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) Introduction to the Constitution of India (25th Edition) by Durga Das Basu
2) Constitutional Government in India (Revised Edition) by Prof. M V Pylee
3) Constitution of India – A handbook for students by Subhash C Kashyap
4) Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution (Oxford) edited by Rajeev Bhargava
5) Indian Polity by M Laxmikanth
6) Equity and Equality in Education by Dr Ajit Mondal -
https://wbsu.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Sem-2-Contemporay-Issue-Unit-2i-AM.pdf
7) Social Justice under Indian Constitution by Dr. Puneet Pathak Centre for Law, School for
Legal Studies and Governance, Central University of Punjab - https://thelawbrigade.com/wp-
content/uploads/2019/05/puneet.pdf
8) Social Justice Provision in Indian Constitution Dr. Shridevi S. Suvarnakhandi Assistant
Professor B.L.D.E. Association‟s Law College, Jamkhand
https://www.arcjournals.org/pdfs/ijps/v6-i3/1.pdf
9) Equality Vs Equity and their provisions in the Indian Constitution - Dr. Satish Kumar
https://www.slideshare.net/SatishRaj4/equality-vs-equity