Critical analysis of the role of Affirmative Action in creating

conditions of Social Justice

Social Justice and Affirmative Action

Social justice refers to creating an environment in the society where every individual has
equal access to opportunities, wealth, health care and other privileges. It aims to create a
balance in the society and ensure no discrimination against any individual on any basis and to
maintain an environment where the relations between an individual and the society are fair
and just.

Every country aims at creating conditions of social justice so as to ensure smooth working
and functioning of the country. In order to ensure social justice, it must be noted that there
must not be any kind of discrimination in the society. However, it is human nature, where
there are a group of people there will arise situations where a few of them will be treated
differently due to various factors like, caste, race, sex, etc., and hence, it is the duty of the
government to take measures to ensure that no individual is discriminated and everyone is
treated equally and to do so, the government takes affirmative action or reverse
discrimination action to uplift the minority disadvantaged sections of the society by providing
them with special privileges in order to uplift them to the level of the majority advantaged
section of the society.

Affirmative action policies intend to create access for the historically disadvantaged or non-
dominant sections of the society to education, employment, and other opportunities and
advantages. Affirmative action policies are necessarily used in heterogeneous societies where
there a few ethnic or cultural communities dominate the rest. The affirmative action policies
aim to overcome the long-running inequalities and segmental prejudice in countries or
societies with ethnic diversities.

The first and foremost aim of affirmative action policies is to help overcome the political,
social and economic inequality which means it is corrective in nature. Secondly, it is
compensatory in nature meaning, it compromises for the discrimination or inequality done in
the past. Lastly, affirmative action policies ensure equality in diversity i.e., it creates a
balance among people belonging to different backgrounds. Thus, affirmative action policies
aim to bring every individual in the society on the same page so as to ensure equality and
social justice.

Affirmative action provides for methods for ratification of injustice that prevailed in a society
for a long time. It aims towards making good the bad done in the past. Here, the only thing
considered is uplifting the oppressed section of the society but in doing so the rights of the
majority advantaged section of the society are compromised. According to the libertarian
view, ‘right’ is more important than ‘good’. This means every individual has the right to
equality and any government policy must not prohibit him/her from such right which is not
only a constitutional right but also right provided under natural law. According to the
Libertarianism philosophy of law, affirmative action taken by the state to ensure social justice
invades the rights of individuals and leads to extensive state interference and hence, the state
has no power to introduce such moral legislations which create a danger to the right of one
individual to protect the right of another.

Affirmative action policies should not be reverse discrimination policies i.e., when the
backward section of the society is uplifted it must not hamper the rights of the upper section
of the society. Both, the accusation and transfer from the rich to poor or upper to backward
section must to justified and if not the injustice must be rectified in order to ensure that rights
of no individual are violated. But in general practice, ‘good’ is more important than ‘right’
which means, the greater good of the society is of higher value as compared to the slight
invasion in an individual’s right.

However, affirmative action aims at securing the rights of each and every individual in the
society and it is a misconception that though affirmative action the state violates the right to
liberty of the individuals.

Affirmative actions taken in India in order to create conditions of social justice

India is arguably the most culturally, linguistically, socially and economically diverse country
and with this diversity comes to prejudice and biases at various levels mainly related to the
caste to which an individual belonged. In ancient India, the society was basically divided into
four groups, namely, Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. The division of the
society into the four groups was mainly on the basis of the occupation of the individual or in
which family such an individual was born. The social distance between the four groups
increased to such an extent that it leads to untouchability. The practice of untouchability
continued even through the British era and realizing the hierarchic structural problem of the
society the framers of the Constitution thought it fit to frame certain special provisions as
affirmative action policies to uplift the backward classes specifically the scheduled castes
(SC) and schedule tribes (ST) in the country. The discrimination prevailed not only on the
basis of caste but also on the basis of the sex of the individual. Women did not have an
identity of their own; they were associated and identified by the male member of the family.
The affirmative action policies in India are seen as persuasive liberal response to the
extensive history ill-treatment, deprivation of equal opportunities, discrimination, and
injustice by the upper-caste sections on the underprivileged backward class population.

The makers of the Constitution inserted special provisions in order to curb out the inequality
and discrimination prevailing in the society. These special provisions were made under,
Article 15(4) which empowered the state to make special provisions for the upliftment of
socially or educationally backward classes of citizens or for SCs or STs; Article 16(4) which
empowered the state to make reservation for appointments or posts for any backward class
citizens; Article 341 and 342 provide for the procedure to be followed by the government to
include a particular caste or tribe in the list of SCs or STs to enjoy the benefits given to
backward classes.

The special privileges provided to the backward community was very essential in order to
compensate them for the injustice, prejudice, discrimination being faced by them for so long
and facilitating the decent human existence. The Indian Constitution provides for various
affirmative action policies to ensure no further injustice to the suppressed section of the
society. This affirmative action followed in the country aim to correct whatever has been
happening and compensate the people suffering and this is done by ‘quota system’ where a
certain percentage of seats or spots are specifically reserved based on religion, gender,
physically handicapped, etc.

The reason behind introducing the ‘quota system’ or ‘reservations’ in India for the suppressed
sections at the time of formation if the Constitution was to ensure that people from both the
backward and higher classes come on the same level and live with same rights and dignity
together in the society.
Current scenario and suggestions for change

The affirmative action policies of reservation and quota system applied in India were to bring
the lower caste (SCs, STs and OBCs) into the main stream and give them special treatment as
a corrective and compensatory measure. However, now, 70 years into independence, the
country no more requires reservations for the backward communities as now there is a greater
understanding of equality and dignity to all in the citizens and no longer are the people
belonging to these communities subjected to any kind of injustice. In fact, the individuals
belonging to the general category are being subjected to injustice as even with the same or
better qualifications and merits the don’t get the job in a government office or an admission
in an educational institution only because there was another candidate who might not be
deserving if considered merits, is chosen only because he belongs to the backward class.

Providing reservations even now on the basis of caste is not justified as it deteriorates the
efficient functioning of the society and leads to disharmony and greater injustice. The
reservation and quota system has been long taken advantage of by political parties to fill their
vote banks and if this continues it might destruct the administration of the country.
Affirmative Actions if implemented with goodwill will yield successful results that will
benefit the whole society. However, now it is recommended that reservation must be
provided but not anymore on the basis of caste or sex but on socio-economic factors.
Reservation for the economically weak will help in uplifting the poor and eradicating the
problem of poverty as a whole.

Conclusion

In order to create conditions of social justice in any state, it is necessary for the government
to introduce affirmative action policies to ensure that all individuals in a society are on an
equal level and enjoy equal rights, opportunities, privileges, etc. However, it is important that
the government time and again checks how much the society has developed since the last
affirmative actions were introduced and analyze the new challenges that need to be addressed
and resolved. Social justice cannot be achieved without introducing affirmative action or
reverse discrimination but it must be taken care of that, such policies of the government do
not extensively interfere with the rights of any individual. Affirmative actions are often used
by political parties or politicians to achieve personal motives but if that happens the very
foundation of justice and equality will be destroyed.
References

1. Amarnath Mohanty. “Affirmative Action in India: An Alternative

Perspective.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 42, no. 30, 2007, pp. 3151–
3157. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4419845.
2. Stroud, Sarah. “The Aim of Affirmative Action.” Social Theory and Practice, vol. 25,
no. 3, 1999, pp. 385–408. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23560381.
3. NAYYAR, DEEPAK. “Discrimination and Justice: Beyond Affirmative
Action.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 46, no. 42, 2011, pp. 52–59. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/23047306.