Social Justice Class 11 Notes Political Science Chapter 14 - CBSE

Chapter : 14

What Are Social Justice ?

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    • There was a general observation by the people in the Greek society that the people who were unjust were in
      good state as compared to the people who were just. The people who made the laws work in their favour, avoid paying taxes and were deceitful, were highly successful than common people. If a person can avoid being caught than being unjust looked far better than being just.
    • Immanuel Kant was a famous German philosopher who wrote on several subjects. He said that all the
      individuals should be granted dignity and the opportunity to realise their full potential and contribute to the development of the society. According to him justice requires giving the people their due and treating them in an equitable manner in such a way that they are able to pursue their goals.
    • According to the idea of proportionate justice, an individual should get the reward on the basis of his talent, hard work and risk appetite. Reward cannot be same for every task and it varies according to the efforts of the individual. For example, all the students in a class give exams but they all do not receive the same marks.
      Distribution of marks is dependent on their performance and intellect of the students.
    • We have seen that in some professions the salaries are higher as compared to the other professions. This is due to the differences in the skillset required for the work.
    • There are several parameters that are observed while evaluating that certain groups need special assistance. Physical disabilities, lack of access to education, improper health facilities are important parameters that require the intervention of the government to ensure special treatment to these groups.
    • The equality of opportunity can be ensured only when all the sections of the people have the access to basic
      necessities which are essential to realise their potential.
    • Some of the special provisions made by the Constitution for the members belonging to the Scheduled Castes
      and tribes are: It has granted reservation for them in the government jobs so that there will be adequate representation of them in the government departments. For improving educational access reservation has been provided in the educational institutions to the members belonging to these groups. This improves their educational status.
    • The three important principles of justice are: The first principle says that there should be equal treatments with the equals.
    • There should be recognition of the merit and skills of the people while the distribution of rewards and burdens.
    • The third principle says that special treatment should be given to certain classes in terms of ensuring basic
      necessities and level playing field for equal opportunities.
    • There are numerous decisions taken by the government for securing justice in the society but which are perceived as discriminatory behavior by other groups such as: The issues related to the granting of reservations to the OBCs and other groups in employment and educational institutions were not liked by the people belonging to the general section. Similarly the land distribution laws, higher taxes on the rich are some of the things which are resisted by the higher sections.
    • Rawls was a famous American philosopher who gave his thoughts on the topic of justice. Rawls said that the best way to evaluate the fairness of the decision is to put yourself in that position. Like for example if you condemned special treatment for the marginalised groups just consider yourself as marginalised and then think.
    • This practice will lead to the formulation of just laws in the society which will be acceptable by the wider masses and will have less discrimination. The merits of veil of ignorance are:
    • This idea allows the people to act as their usual rational selves and they are allowed to think about the decisions which are in their self-interests. One merit of this methodology is that people also get the chance to evaluate the things from the perspective of the worst off sections of the society that gave legitimacy to some of the special treatment received by certain sections of the society.
    • Rational thinking will be helpful in the impartial distribution of the benefits as well as the liabilities in the society. His theory gives no predetermined norms and procedures for morality and leaves the matter to the self analysis of the people.
    • There are some identifiable facts that prove that the society is lacking social justice. Some of them are: A small section of the population has access to enormous wealth, property and power, on the other hand there are sections who are suffering miserably in terms of their economic conditions.
    • The political power is possessed in the hands of the elite sections of the society and common people had no significant contribution in it.
    • Several international agencies and governments have agreed on some of the things that are the basic necessities of the individuals. Some of them are: There should be some basic amount of nourishment that every individual should get so that he remains healthy. Other things are housing, access to clean water, education and minimum wages for their work.
    • There has been a debate going on from several years about the right way of helping the poor sections of the society.
    • The capitalist are in the favour of establishing the principle of free competition in the market and feel that it will help in the promotion of merit in the society. It will bring benefit to the disadvantaged sections without compromising with the rights of the well off sections in the society.
    • The socialists feel that the government intervention is necessary in the society for the equitable distribution of the resources. Government should take the responsibility to fulfil the basic needs of the weaker sections of the society.
    • In the market based model there is no intervention of government in the fair distribution of goods. The private sector has the sole motive of making profits which can make the accessibility of even the basic necessities like food and education competitive and out of the reach of the poor people.
    • This model will work in favor of the wealthy sections of the society and will help them in making more money and the other disadvantaged sections will suffer for basic necessities.