social justice

[venugopal <gvvs@nird.ap.nic.in>]

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SS wrote <I have one comment: The phrase "social justice" needs to be
defined very
precisely else it is liable to heavy misuse. I have defined in my NIT
paper
what I call the Doctrine of Legitimate Economic Intervention which
places
social justice in the context of economic justice: "attempts to spend a
rich man's money on a person not below the poverty line would meddle
with
individual liberty, and would amount to pure robbery, also compromising
political and legal equality.  The following "doctrine" then commends
itself for adoption.
(a)     Each society has to determine its own poverty line,  based on
its
unique environment and concept of living standards.
(b)     No society can justify direct transfer/subsidy from public funds

to
anyone above this societally defined poverty line under any
circumstances.
(c)     If resources and technology exist in the society, all persons
below
this poverty line should be elevated to this level. If not, the
"assistance
line" should be lowered until the public resources available for
re-distribution are exhausted. In other words, the State can
discriminate
amongst the poor only if the resources available for distribution are
lesser than those needed to eliminate poverty.
(d)     If resources available exceed this amount, either the taxes
should be
lowered, or a higher quality of public goods provided."

Unless the words "social justice" are circumscribed very carefully, we
will
let loose all kinds of 'go-good' theories which rob the rich to help
another rich person.>
I am of the opinion that social justice has to be seen distinctly. The
above definition essentially connotes economic scale. In a society where

caste plays a dominant role, whether it is for awarding a contract or
tender or a ticket for a political party or any other favour that is
possible, one cannot have a purely economics-based definition. Gender is

also a factor which decides the very possibility of a child getting
further on in education, to cite just one instance. Discrimination based

on gender operates in several other areas, starting from phases before
birth of child! (amniocentesis of the female feotus)
 Even if two persons belonging to two different social strata have same
economic resources,  'connections' will operate in real life in favour
of one when it comes to a decision based on caste. Most of the
historical legacies, be it the level of education in a social group or
the extent of land held by its members, are due to caste.The matter is
not merely of the past, as it is a dynamic situation and every moment
one uses whatever one inherits by his/her origins and connections. For
example, if I am from a so called higher caste, I get noticed
automatically whereas another colleague from a socalled lower caste will

have to perform much more, for the same recognition to come. Same
applies to women and the discrimination due to gender. It is not merely
government schemes that I am talking about. Even in the private sector,
caste and gender does play its role in indian context, as one can see by

an analysis of social profile of top executives in different companies.
Therefore social justice has to have the traditional definition only,
i.e. a concept by which equality and fairplay is assured irrespective of

one's social position, notwithstanding the fact that people may
interpret social justice from their own perspective. In any case, we say

that people have right to have different perspectives. So, why be afraid

of varying interpretations?







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