The foundation of our Constitution is social justice. It is mentioned in the preamble itself – Justice: Social, Political, and Economic. If the ideas of social justice were not to remain on paper, how do we give them concrete shape? How do citizens realize that it is through governance they ought to get social justice? I read the other day in the newspaper of a Muslim woman who three year’s back was accused of drug peddling. She was acquitted by the High Court. Three years have passed and yet the fact of her acquittal has not reached the jail authorities and she continues to be in jail. There have been cases of under-trial prisoners languishing in prison but here you have the instance of a person honourably acquitted by the High Court, continuing to be in jail.

Primary Education

The Directive Principles of State Policy in our Constitution have, in a way, elaborated on the way in which State power should be used to promote welfare, reduce inequalities, universalise education and so on. The Constitution required governments to universalise education in ten years. It is more than 50 years since the adoption of the Constitution and yet we are far away from universal primary education. The basic problem in my view is the societal structure. In terms of political rights, in terms of voting rights, people are equal. But in the societal structure they are not equal. One had hoped that after adopting a democratic Constitution, with industrialization, with the right to move from one part of the country to the other, with universal adult franchise, things should improve. May be to some extent it has improved. But the fact remains, that in our country a person’s status in life is determined by where he or she is born. It continues even now, to be a dominant reality. If a man’s status is determined by where he or she is born, then you have before you the structure of an unequal society. That is why, while Dr. Ambedkar on the one hand spoke about this, he also made provision, to some extent, for reservations. Though reservations became an instrument to grab political power, the fact remains, that Dr. Ambedkar’s doctrine of preferential opportunities was meant to give social justice to those who for generations were denied education, were considered the scum of the earth. I do not think, he ever had considered caste as an instrument of political power.

There are two ways of looking at this problem. If one is to take the view that reservations in educational institutions, in jobs are to equalize opportunity, then this is something which militates against the very idea of an equal democratic society. Another way, a more constructive way of looking at it, would be to consider it, at least for a period of time, a breathing space so to say, for people who have been denied opportunities to come up in life.

Unfortunately, after the Mandal Commission’s recommendations, reservations became more an instrument of capturing power, an instrument for political mobilization. Even then, I am not persuaded that reservations are totally wrong. Therefore, when we talk about social justice in a society where people have been denied opportunities by being born into a backward caste, reservations have a place.

Recently the Supreme Court ruled (what Dr. Ambedkar himself had said) that reservations could not be more than 50%. In some states reservations have touched almost 70% and now there is a move to provide reservations even for upper castes based on economic back-wardness. To take a more positive and balanced view of social justice, I would like to know, how are the underprivileged placed in terms of education, health facility, housing, and other opportunities of life. In Maharastra we have 65,000 primary schools out of which 12,000 schools i.e. nearly 18% are one-teacher schools. That means, there may be 200 students, 4 classes or 5 classes, but there is only one teacher. The proportion of drop-outs amongst these underprivileged groups is very high. If 100 joined the primary first class, hardly 9 or 10 survive to take the matriculation. That is why I think, constitutional provisions were made to provide education particularly for persons from scheduled castes and tribes as a matter of social justice.

Social Reality in Rural India

I would like to share with you two cases of what is the social reality outside the cities. Traditionally, from the days of the British some tribes were labelled as criminal tribes and among them are the Pardhees. A few days back in a village in the Usmanabad district of Maharashtra, criminals entered a farmer’s house, and killed two persons - the farmer and his wife - and robbed their belongings. The police were investigating, when the funeral procession of the two persons killed was moving towards the crematorium. On the side of the road an ST Bus was standing at the bus stop. There were some five Pardhees inside the bus. They were travelling in the bus and had nothing to do with this case as they were from some other place. At that moment somebody from the crowd shouted “these are the people”. These five Pardhees ’were dragged out of the bus, beaten mercilessly and stoned to death.

In Nashik district, a young Dalit from a village, a college student, fell in love with a Maratha girl. If it had been the other way round, there would probably have been no problem. But the Maratha community in the area would not tolerate a Maratha girl marrying a low caste Dalit boy. Both were of legally marriageable age. So they just ran away and married. What was the result? The village was pillaged by upper-caste Hindus.

Recently an entire Dalit basti1 in a village in the Raigad district of Maharashtra was attacked and Dalit houses burnt because the Dalits ‘dared’ to draw water from a well used by the Hindus. The springs from which they drew water had dried. So they were compelled to use a well used by the Hindus a kilometre away. The caste Hindus felt that the well was polluted. However, this did not stop the Dalits from using the well. They continued to draw water from the ‘Hindu’ well despite the fact that they were beaten up as nothing stops a person from quenching his thirst. So, the upper caste Hindus brought dirt and chemicals and polluted the water.

These are not isolated events. They are widely reported by the media. So if we are thinking in terms of social justice it is governance that matters. Good governance, effective governance. Unfortunately, barring a few exceptions, those who are elected as representatives, are not really bothered about government programmes reaching the people. It is true that the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution giving powers to the Panchayats has done the right thing, We have reservations for women. In some places the Sarpanch2 is a woman. Now, I am told, government has come out with a rule that a Sarpanch must follow – the two-children family norm. But if one is already elected and it is found that the person has more than two children, to disqualify his/her election is not a proper thing to do. But then in our hierarchical society does the woman have any right, any say about the number of children she will have? If that’s not true about educated family, what are we talking about rural families.

So my point is that to equalize opportunity to see that education, health facility, housing, better roads, etc. are available to these vulnerable, deprived sections of the community, there must be enough pressure on the government, on the elected representatives to ensure that this is being done.

Purpose of Political Power

Politics today has sunk to depths of degradation as at no time in the past. I remember, the time when the Chief Minister was talking about the grave famine situation in the State, he expanded the cabinet to a record number of 69 ministers. In Meghalaya out of the 60 members of the Assembly, 40 are ministers. What is the use of, what we call in Marathi Prayojan3. What is the purpose of political power? What is it meant for? Politics is the use of political power for public service, public upliftment, for redressal of grievances, for the removal of injustice. Politics is not for accumulation of private wealth. However, politicians and political parties have long given up this responsibility. And now, by mixing religion and politics, the situation has further deteriorated and action of the kind that we, as secular citizens desired, is becoming increasingly impossible.

Accountable Governments

When we are talking about social justice imperatives, we may have more laws in various walks of life, but we need governments that are accountable. We need representatives who are answerable and therefore we need citizens who are more active, and are more articulate and who are aroused when they find that an injustice is being done. Otherwise whatever has been written in the Constitution will remain on paper. And, we will have to either depend on our judges or on good officers to achieve even partial results.

Right to Recall

Therefore, the imperatives, as I understand them, are in terms of social action by citizen’s groups and, I would suggest the incorporation through an amendment to the Constitution of the ’right to recall’ an elected representative who is not doing his job for which the people elected him or her. Today, a representative is elected for five years. Irrespective of whether he attends the assembly or not, whether he does his job or not, whether or not he makes illegal money, whether there are demonstrations against him, whether or not the press writes against him, his five-year tenure is safe and secure. We, who elected him, can do nothing to legally have him or her removed if we have lost confidence in him. Therefore, can we think in terms of a law to recall representatives who do not do their job. Such a law is, for instance, prevalent in Switzerland and in the state of California in the United States. I am not saying that this is the answer to our problem because such a provision also can also be misused. But in today’s situation when neither politicians nor elected representatives nor bureaucrats fear the citizens, what else can the citizens do?

People’s Apathy

One reason why politicians and political parties rule the roost is because of the widespread apathy of people like us. Elections may be a foreign idea, but our universal experience is that illiterate, uneducated people, participate in far greater numbers in the electoral process by casting their votes than the urban elite. What does this signify? It signifies that the poor and uneducated have understood that it is in their power to bring parties and individuals to power and when they are not satisfied, they can throw them out next time round. But not the urban elite who have become cynical and have decided to keep out of the ‘dirty game of politics’.

On the other hand today’s urban elite seems to prefer filing writ petitions in courts of law seeking justice. I am not saying approaching the courts is wrong. But, at the same time, at the ward level, at the local level, it is necessary for local committees to be formed to deal with problems of citizens.

There was a time when I, as a socialist, believed that social justice meant that all means of production must be publicly owned. I do not subscribe to this belief any longer as it is not a solution. But social economic justice also implies the pursuit of proper economic policies, ensuring that the target groups for which government programmes are designed get the full benefit of social welfare programmes.

Rajiv Gandhi, when he was Prime Minister, said that he knew that only 10 paise of every a rupee earmarked for welfare reached the target group. In these circumstances he set himself a modest target. He said he would endeavour to see that at least 15 paise reach the target group! This is a travesty of justice.

Active Citizenship

I began by drawing attention to the sad case of a woman who was acquitted after due trial by a court law and yet spent three years in jail. What did the High Court do when this was brought to their notice? Was any one punished? Did any one suffer? That is the tragedy of our democracy. Therefore, the State must pursue proper policies, government must be accountable and the courts of justice must ensure that their decisions and orders are properly implemented. The rulers, our elected representatives, are permanently insulated from action. We may have stray instances of action being taken, but overall it is the agencies to whom I referred which have got to be made more effective. Finally, how do I, as an individual as a citizen relate to these problems? Do I feel motivated to write a letter to a newspaper, do I feel like writing a letter to the person concerned who has done something wrong? Recently, the entire Board of Directors of the Jalgaon District Co-operative Bank was suspended and an Administrator named. The court ordered that the properties of all the directors be confiscated because they had misbehaved. The Chairman happens to be a Minister. He has not resigned. Even worse is the fact that the Chief Minister has not kicked him out of the cabinet. This is the kind of political culture that brings our democracy into disrepute.In England today, Tony Blair is going through an ordeal, for having ‘sexed’ up the intelligence report to justify taking Britain into war against Iraq.

I think as a community, as a people, we are very docile. We do not initiate action for the right kind of things. Nor are we motivated or moved to do things when we see something wrong is being done. There was this awful instance of more than a dozen persons in a train watching a minor girl being raped and not one going to her rescue. May be this is the result of the mind-set at the top which permeates down and contributes to so much apathy, so much inaction, so much indif-ference saying it is not my business. More so it is the case with the educated, the enlightened, the elite. With the rise of consumerism, with the type of gliterrati that now appears to be the staple diet of the press, glitter seems to have become the ideal of life. Our sensitivity, our motivation is blunted. I am not blaming anyone. I am tremendously moved when I get into a bus and see a school-going boy with bags in hand, seeing an old man, getting up immediately to give him a seat. This gives me the feeling that all is not lost. There is hope yet.

Finally I will tell you a story, that has inspired me. It is not a true story. It is the subject of a documentary by Sai Paranjpe. This documentary is about an old man in a village who goes to the post office to collect a money order sent to him by his son employed in a distant industrial town. The old man has his grandson with him. The grandson sees his grandfather putting his thumb impression and take his money. He asks his grandfather ‘Grandpa why did you put your thumb impression. Can you not write? His grandpa replies, ‘no, I cannot write, I cannot read, I never went to school’. The grandson asks: ‘Grandpa if I teach you, will you learn? ‘Sure’, replies his grandfather ‘I will’ . Within two or three months the old man is able to write his own name. The next time the postman comes with the money, the postman puts the stamp pad in front of the old man. The old man pushes aside the stamp pad, takes the pen from the postman’s pocket and signs his name. This is a very simple story. But one grandchild’s action changed the life of an old man. This symbolises the type of action that is required in a democratic set-up like ours. The little boy is my role model. That is all I have to say.

1. Basti - a Hindi word for dwelling, a place where people live. In this case where the Dalits live.
2. Sarpanch - A Hindi word for the head of the Panchayat.
3. Prayojan - Marathi word for purpose.

(An abbreviated and edited version of a talk delivered on September 27, 2003 at St. Xaviers College, Mumbai).

Professor SADANAND VARDE is an educationist, social worker and former minister for education in the government of Maharashtra.