Social justice like any other form of justice is
essential for the development of the country. Social justice can be compared to
rain that is if social justice is achieved then beautiful aroma of economic and
political justice will naturally follow. The word “social” means every
individual living in the society and “justice” refers to protecting the rights
of the individual and punishing the wrong doers[1].
Thus, social justice can be elucidated as ending all kind of social
inequalities and providing equal opportunities to everyone irrespective of
their caste, religion, sex, colour etc.[2]
In ancient times, the concept of Dandaniti and Dharma
was practiced. People used to link justice with the duties mentioned in the
dharma and were expected to perform the duties mentioned in the dharma
devotional. Any individual failing to comply or perform the said duty was
punished. Hindu dharma conceptualised the system of Varna where people
according to their birth were categorised into the groups of Brahmans,
Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. There was another group of people as well
called Untouchables. They were the one who were either out casted or whose
caste cannot be determined. Brahmins were the priest and teachers who read and
interpreted dharma. Kshatriya looked after day to day governance system whereas
Vaishyas were the skilled merchants, farmers, sellers. At the bottom were the
Shudras and the untouchables who used to do menial work like sweeping, manual
scavenging etc.This social hierarchy created a bifurcation of haves and haves
not. On one side Brahminswere regarded as god by the entire population and on
the other sideuntouchables were treated as animals whose existence will only
pollute the earth. Untouchables were not allowed to enter temples or schools.
They had different living space along with different well for taking water for
any purpose. They had no proper sanitation system and the area where they lived
was often unclean and unhygienic. Fa -Xian, a Chinese in his book wrote about
the social system of India emphasising on the intensity of discrimination and
hardship that untouchables faced and mentioned that untouchables are considered
so contaminated that when they leave their houses in evening or night, they
have to continuously clap their hands to warn people of upper caste about the
existence so that the upper caste people can avoid their view and save
themselves from contamination.
This water tight social categorisation created gap
between the various castes of Hindu religion. Among the unprivileged group was
also DR.
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the Chairman of our Constituent Assembly. He was very
much influenced by Jean Jacque Rousseau ideology of “Man is born free but
everywhere he is chains” and considered social inequalities nothing but a chain
which hampers the growth of a person.He always intended social equality and
human rights as he was also victim of cruelty by Hindu fundamentalist in his
childhood and thus devotionally worked his time on the earth for the
advancement of deprived classes. B.R Ambedkar in his Mook Nayak magazine wrote
about caste inequalities and how he feels that caste system in Hinduism is like
a tower with no entrance and exit as the people born in upper caste gets all
the privilieges even if they do not deserve it and the people born in lower
caste even after being deserving does not by any means get the chance to reach
to the position of the upper caste. He did not also actually believed in
religious scriptures because on the
scriptures on the one side it says that all living and non- living forms are
creation of the same god but on the other side says to treat some group of
people in such a degrading way or like animals.
Dr. B.R Ambedkar gave
many inspiring speeches, did social movements, published various magazines
which focused specially on the topic of caste and drafted the constitution in
such a way which help people of lower caste to get certain rights and
privileges which helps them get included in the mainstream of the population
but despite of many efforts by B.R. Ambedkar and leaders like Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi, India is still struggling with the issue of discrimination
on the basis of caste. As B.R. Ambedkar in one of his speech told that no
British Government can solve the problem of inequality that we suffer. It is
“we”, Indians who can solve this problem by establishing a government which is
not afraid to amend the social as well as the cultural codes and Sawarj
Constitution can henceforth provide us the political power to bring relief to
the people[3]. There
are various legal frameworks adopted to counter this problem. Article 14 of the
Indian Constitution mentions that state shall provide equality before law and
equal protection of law to its citizen. Article 15(1) prohibits discrimination
on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them and
15(2) states that no person on the above mentioned grounds will be subjected to
any liability, restriction or condition with regards to access to shops,
restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment or use of wells, tanks,
roads, bathing ghats and places owned wholly or partly by the state fund for
the use of public. This Article also specifies that nothing shall prevent the
state from make any special provision for the advancement of any socially and
educationally backward classes of the citizen or for the schedule caste and the
schedule tribe.Article 16 prescribes that no person on the basis of caste,
religion, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any one of them be
subjected to any form of discrimination in matter of employment of employment
or office under the state and the Parliament can make special provisions for
the advancement of social and educationally backward people or for the schedule
caste and the schedule tribe. An independent provision is also embedded in the
Indian Constitution for the abolishment of the practice of untouchability that
is Article 17. Article 25(2) provides for the opening of temples for the
Harijans. Many schemes have also been introduced by the Government to create
social and economic conditions for this category of people in order to
compensate them of what they had been deprived earlier and to bring them in the
same position like others. Schemes like;
· Free
coaching for SC and OBC students which help them to appear in competitive
examination and get appropriate job in private or public sector.
· Babu
Jagjivan Ram Chhatrawas Yojna aimed to create hostel facilities for students
belonging to schedule caste especially girls as it one of the means to achieve
quality education. [4]
Their
no doubt that government and non- governmental organizations are working hard
to eliminate discrimination and create a social structure based on equality.
Independent Act like Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities)
Act, 1989 has also been enacted and implemented to curtail this discrimination
but still practices like this exist in our country and many criminals acts are
also based on this. One of cases of this that were widely reported in India and
overseas was of 2 teenage Dalit girls who were gang raped and murdered in the
Badua district of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2014. Cases like these are very common against
people of lower caste. As per the analysis of the report of National Crime
Records Bureau (NCRB), 2016 crime against Dalit has increased by 25% from 16.3%
from 2006. This increase in crime is handicapping the growth of the country and
is highlighting to every foreign state the inability of India to provide what
is the essence of the constitution and is explicitly mentioned in the preamble
that is “Justice” and “Socialism”.
CONCLUSION
Caste
system is one of the hindrances in the establishment of an egalitarian society.
It is not possible to fully abolish caste system but more efforts should be
done to bring each and every caste in same position or in the position where
they are no longer in situation from where there is no scope of growth or
development. As B.R. Ambedkar once mentioned that society is like a boat where
each sailor (caste) should protect and not destroy another sailor because if he
intends to create problems for the other sailor it will lead to the destruction
of the whole society. [5]
[1]Oxford
Law Dictionary
[2]Quoted by: C.J P.B Gajendragadkar
[3]Ambedkar BAWS, Vol.2(1982),pp503-06
[4]Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment
[5]Mook
Nayak, Issue 1
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