includes debate by practitioners and academicians on a contemporary topic

KEY WORDS

Social Isolation Constitution of India Role of State Civil Society Economic Growth Inclusive Innovation Poverty Informal Sector Partnership Networking Universal Healthcare Quality Education Schooling Governance

A Quest for Social Justice: A Colloquium to Build a Network

Andre Beteille, Dipankar Gupta, Ashish Nandy, Frederico Campos Guanais De Aguiar, Renana Zhabwala, Sharit Bhoumik, Nomfundo Walaza, Zhang Xuemei, Mark Woodruff, Austin Williams, Almudena Suarez Fernandez, Shirley Cramer, Dileep Mavalankar, Isher Ahluwalia, Jonathan Douglas, Vijaya Sherry Chand, Gerard Lemos and Anil Gupta (Coordinator)

INTRODUCTION

Anil K Gupta

Professor Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad e-mail: anilg@iimahd.ernet.in

The goal of social justice can sometimes be seen as making a lionÂ’’s den, a happy zoo. It can also be seen as balancing the competing claims for common spaces, be it in economic, social or cultural domains. But the most contentious situa- tion arises when historically marginalized communities expect past wrongs to be set right through affirmative action. The contestation arises not just on the action the state or the other civil society actors take, or the intentions behind those actions but also on the consequences of those actions. Three spheres of social responsibility could be: Intentions, actions, and consequences. These three spheres are mutually over- lapping and the zone where these three spheres intersect is the zone that is of utmost importance to this colloquium. The three spheres are:

•• Intention –– Policies, institutions, and implementation. Rawls and Amartya Sen argue about the centrality of the role of institutions in ensuring justice. Rawls proposes that if we have fair institutions, there will be fair outcomes. The issue that remains less clearly articulated is: From whose point of view should one evaluate the outcome? Similarly, whose conception of justice we are going to take into consideration? When policies are not backed up by appropriate institu- tions, actions lose their coherence and genuinity of purpose. I have always be- lieved that if there are strong and fair institutions, even weak policies might be incrementally improved. But no matter how strong are the policies, if institu- tional base is weak, the implementation is bound to lose purpose. Social justice is as much about designing accessible and accountable institutions as about fair norms of resource allocation.

•• Actions –– The legitimacy of Actions will be determined by choice of criteria, pro- cedure, and intervention. The criteria for determining entitlements may influ- ence the fairness of inclusion or exclusion. Criteria for judging fairness in a historical context with unequal capabilities, skills or the ability to use opportuni- ties available poses many dilemma. The procedures for implementing the crite- ria may be sometimes completely at variance with the procedures to implement

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the same. Under such circumstances, the interven- tions will fulfill letter of criteria but may lose the un- derlying spirit. When reservation for backward classes and socially disadvantaged groups was in- troduced, I had raised this issue with the Chairman of the committee set up to decide the criteria. By ig- noring the capacity building aspects, benefits reached the second generation youth (the sons and daugh- ters of bureaucrats, technocrats and other privileged people among the socially backward groups, who could afford the available coaching facilities). The first generation learners, that is children of illiterate or less educated families were far fewer if at all. Even among these, those who could not afford coaching could not aspire for admission to elite educational institutions. I had suggested that at least one year coaching be provided by the leading private institutions at pub- lic cost so that the prospects for such first generation learners may improve. Justice suffers when we use such criteria rather ineptly or follow procedures which ignore the genuine purpose of the interven- tion.

•• Consequences –– In the case of social justice, certain consequences are visible/recognizable while certain others are non-recognizable, amplified or subdued, segmented or networked, and reversible or irrevers- ible. The focus on only visible consequences might mean that some of the underlying tensions may sim- mer and remain underground for long and when they erupt, it might be too late or too

Figure 1: Mapping Social Justice Themes and Actions

disruptive. The consequences of social justice policies and inter- ventions occur in multiple do- mains but not all are easily visible. During our recent Shodh Yatra in Bastar region, we noticed this paradox being faced by the tribal communities under pressure from police and Maoists. The state has acknowledged the historical ne- glect of the region but by unleash- ing police action (almost always insensitive, coercive and indis- criminate), there are deeper conse- quences for the psyche of local communities which can be ig- nored only at oneÂ’’s own peril.

The trio —— policies, institutions, and

The sphere of consequences becomes very tricky to handle because we only look for the recognizable or the visible consequences and thus neglect the hidden, non-recognizable ones. The not-so-visible or the non-recognizable consequences are vital to the achievement of social justice.

so-visible or the non-recognizable consequences are vital to the achieve- ment of social justice. For instance, the state declares an emergency when some people die of swine flu but the same state does not care if many of its poor citizens die slowly and out of persistent starvation. This is be- cause hunger deaths are relatively less visible due to their occurrence in the deprived and neglected part of the society which the media and the state often do not find attractive enough for their attention.

This Colloquium was organized by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) in partnership with British Council and the Indian Council of Social Science Research

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A QUEST FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: A COLLOQUIUM TO BUILD A NETWORK

Formal Informal

Policies Institutions

Criteria

Procedure Intervention

(Gupta, 2009)

Action

Intention

Action

Recognizable

• Segmented • Fragmented

Reversible

Not visible

• Amplified • Networked

Irreversible

Consequences

actions —— would define the intention. So, the task on hand is to look out for these three factors that will form the intention for the attainment of social justice. Simi- larly, if the sphere of action is considered, the criteria, procedure, and interventions need to be found out for the attainment of social justice and the same applies to the sphere of consequences. But, the sphere of conse- quences becomes very tricky to handle because we only look for the recognizable or the visible consequences and thus neglect the hidden, non-recognizable ones. The not-

with the the following expectations:

•• Lateral learning among different countries: Much of the global knowledge has not been harnessed ad- equately for local use . For instance, a Mayor of Bra- zil, while working on the rapid bus transport system, developed gymnasiums, pedestrian pathway , etc., along with it. In India, cities like Delhi and Ahmeda- bad replicated only the idea of rapid bus transport system while ignoring the development in the other associated areas. So, we would like to see what les- sons we can learn from other countries over the years and how to de/contextualize them elsewhere.

children learn lessons on the school or learning boat and during night, they shift to their parentsÂ’’ living boat. To my mind, this is a wonderful example of social innovation and can be implemented anywhere in a similar situation where coastal fishing is popu- lar. Examples such as this are worthy of replication and hence should be shared in the form of a data- base from which different people can learn and rep- licate. Similarly, I had the opportunity to put together, along with another colleague, the innovations re- ceived by the 13th Finance Commission, chaired by Dr. V L Kelkar, from various states in India. Subse- quently, in its recommendations, it suggested that a

•• In the space of social manage- ment, there is a need to know how to expand that space where peo- ple —— not just civil society actors but also the people in government and private sectors —— take initia- tives to create an entrepreneurial solution to achieve social justice.

•• Case studies worthy of replica- tion: The practices of the success- ful case studies in one country could be replicated in another country. Also, sometimes failures teach more than the success and hence these should also be shared.

•• Database creation: A multi-media and multi-language database could be created wherein all the case studies, experiences, lessons, etc., of all the involved countries would be shared. This should be something that this network should develop at the earliest.

The state declares an emergency when some people die of swine flu but the same state does not care if many of its poor citizens die slowly and out of persistent starvation. This is because hunger deaths are relatively less visible due to their occurrence in the deprived and neglected part of the society which the media and the state often do not find attractive enough for their attention.

District Innovation Fund be created in each District and also a National Centre for Innovations in Public Sys- tems be created. Similar iniatives from different countries need to be pooled so that global movement for inclusive innovations can be strengthened.

I also shared the experience of the Honey Bee Network through which the Society for Research in Sustain- able Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI), National Innovation Foun- dation (NIF), and Grassroots Innova- tion Augmentation Network (GIAN) are harnessing the grassroots innova- tions for larger inclusive develop- ment at community level. It requires a reflection on why thousands of grassroot innovators and traditional knowledge holders have unhesitat- ingly shared their knowledge even

This would enable seamless when the state, markets, and civil so-

knowledge sharing and thus en- able all the countries to benefit from each otherÂ’’s knowledge base. An example of a unique social in- novation from the southern part of India: a school on a boat devised by district education authorities while faced with the problem of teaching the children of the fishermen community. Most of the time they used to be in water for their livelihood and hence it was difficult to educate them through conventional me- dium of on-land schools. The school or learning boat goes along with the fishermenÂ’’s living boat and pro- vides education to the children. During daytime, the

ciety have done very little if at all for their welfare. Why those who are economically poor but rich in knowledge tend to contribute so much towards public goods? Why are their knowledge and resource

rights violated by the outsiders with impunity?

The Colloquium brought together fairly diverse experi- ences from six different countries, viz., UK, India, Mexico, South Africa, China, and Brazil. Social justice policies and their scrutiny across six countries through an evolving network might trigger a discourse on develop- mental chain reactions along different directions.

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Concepts of Social Justice: State Does Not Matter

Andre Beteille

Professor Emeritus, Sociology University of Delhi e-mail: andrebeteille@yahoo.co.in

Ibegan my career as an empirical sociologist study- ing inequality or social stratification in South India, covering different dimensions of social stratification –– social, economic and political. Sometime about 15 years ago into my professional life, I was invited to give a talk at the Law Faculty, University of Delhi and while talk- ing about the different dimensions of social stratifica- tion, I pointed out at the contradictions between the ideals of equality and the practice of inequality. One of the students in the audience asked me very innocently, ““Prof. Beteille, what is your definition

When one talks about social justice from the viewpoint of a social activist or someone who is engaged in social advocacy, the natural tendency is to be incensed by the violation that takes place in front of his eyes. Women are raped, children are abused, untouchables are torched, blacks are humiliated and so on. So, it is good to think about many instances of violation of social justice that takes place everyday in front of our eyes. One tendency which I find rather unfortunate is to pick up the state and use that as a target for all the misfortunes that the

of equality?”” I had absolutely no an- swer to the question. I had thought a great deal about different aspects of inequality but I had taken equality for granted. So, later in my life, I tried to devote a fair amount of time in try- ing to understand what our commit- ment to equality signifies. Everybody seems to prefer equality to inequal- ity. If so, then why so much inequal- ity continues even today in all the societies across the globe? This is an interesting and fascinating problem. I do not think even those who wish to get rid of inequality and institute equality in the society can afford to completely ignore the complexities and ambiguities that are inherent in the idea of equality.

It has been the tendency

of the people, especially the intellectuals, to blame the state or the bureaucracy for all the misfortunes that is caused to the ordinary people. The larger society in which all these happen cannot put all the responsibility and blame on the state.

ordinary people face in their every- day lives, most of which emerge from their own society. I do not say that the state cannot do anything. But, it has been the tendency of the people, especially the intellectuals, to blame the state or the bureaucracy for all the misfortunes that is caused to the or- dinary people. The larger society in which all these happen cannot put all the responsibility and blame on the state. When the Indian Constitution was adopted in 1950, it is ironical to see that there was too much expecta- tion from the state by every Indian. And, it was thought that all the prob- lems would be solved by the state. If something goes wrong, we go to the government. If we need support for

I will begin with my sense of discomfort about the no- tion of social justice. Social justice is a broad term. My discomfort arises from my inability to find an appropri- ate framework in which the discussion can have coher- ence. A great deal can be said by way of giving different examples of abuse or violation of social justice. What is difficult is to present a framework for having a comfort- able discussion on social justice across different coun- tries and continents with wide historical diversity. I will focus on some of the historical diversities that we have undergone in the last 60 years or so.

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a good cause, we go to the government. I think, the peo- ple who steered the helm of affairs in the first year of Independence may have been mistaken, though on the whole they have acted on good faith which did not get justified by itself. It was evident later that what was ex- pected by the people was not actually met. So, the pen- dulum swung to the opposite end. Someone who went to the college in 1950s had a huge amount of expecta- tion from the state to change everything in the society. It was rather the civil society that could have taken these initiatives to create a better world. The turnaround came between 1975 and 1977 with the declaration and after-

A QUEST FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: A COLLOQUIUM TO BUILD A NETWORK

math of emergency. It is wrong to believe that we can dispense with the state in moving forward, looking for a better life for the people. If we do, that would be a very serious mistake.

In the independent nation, the makers of New India attributed all the problems of the country to the alien rule; they felt that once that rule came in their hands, they could do anything. They thought they could create equality and social justice. But, in fact that is not how it turned out to be.

to serve our purpose, but even among them, there were good people with good will. In the independent nation, the makers of New India attributed all the problems of the country to the alien rule; they felt that once that rule came in their hands, they could do anything. They thought they could create equality and social justice. But, in fact that is not how it turned out to be. The movement away from great hope in the state to disenchantment with the state and the corresponding movement to a great faith in the peo- ple of India built the idea that once the right people are there, all the problems would be solved. It is to the credit of Ambedakar who did not

I do want to dwell on what I believe to be the exemplary qualities of the people who met in the constituent Assembly between 1946 and 1949 and wrote the Constitution of India. The chief architect of the Constitution of India, Dr. B R Ambedakar, consid- ered an untouchable, despite being in opposition to the Congress, was ap- pointed as the Chairman of the draft- ing committee of the Constitution of India. When some of my French friends pointed out about the dis- crimination against the untouchables in India, I told them that in 1950, if the French were rewriting their Constitu- tion, I can bet that they would not get an Algerian or a Guianacian as the Chairman of the committee. The mem- bers of the drafting committee were over optimistic. Ambedkar had the clearest sense of the possible dan- gers and obstacles to the implemen-

have that kind of starry-eyed view of the ordinary peo- ple of India. He felt that the ordinary people of India needed to be educated and the Constitution would help them to educate themselves. So, it is the state that should take the responsibility of educating people about the con- stitutional morality. However, when we tried to exam-

tation of the Constitution that they were writing. He said that constitu- tional morality is not a gift of nature; it has to be cultivated. We must rec- ognize that our people are yet to learn it. It is easy to write the rules, but the ethos and moral framework which is necessary to make those laws effec- tive is a far more difficult thing to cre- ate. Ambedakar was not confident that India would meet the kind of constitutional morality which would enable an effective functioning of the Constitution, devoted to equality and social justice. However, the people who wrote the Constitution genu- inely believed that everything would be possible as ‘‘we had our own gov- ernment then.Â’’ They had convinced themselves that nothing was possi- ble during the British rule. Alhough I do not think that British were here

Though the British were not in favour of the practice of untouchability in India, they did not want to burn their fingers by getting too deeply into the customs based on religion of the Indian people. So, the British, in fact, did not abolish the practice of untouchability. The first thing the Indian Constituent Assembly did was to make the practice of untouchability unlawful.

ine our present predicament, we found various things that had gone wrong. Following the ideas of Dr. Ambedkar, ““Nothing is easier than replacing bad laws with excellent laws but nothing is more difficult than to get rid of old customs and create new customs.”” What I wish to bring to your notice is that our regu- latory rules are all in favour of equal- ity, but the habits of the heart still cling to the old hierarchical practices. Therefore, I think it is not very help- ful to attribute the responsibility for all the problems to the state and bu- reaucracy. We have to take a closer look at the people in the country and see the kinds of changes that are, in fact, taking place and the new con- tradictions these changes are releas- ing.

The Indian society has been practis- ing social exclusion for centuries, if

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not for a millennia, on a scale which no other society has ever done in the human history. But, this was gradu- ally erased during the colonial rule, particularly during the last 50 years of the colonial rule. But, with a new Constitution and with a new demo- cratic political order, economic plan- ning, higher rates of economic growth, release from economic stag- nation and so on, social exclusion has changed its form. Social exclusion is no longer something that can be le- gally justified. All the rules which are related to social justice have been scrapped or abolished. Though the British were not in favour of the prac- tice of untouchability in India, they did not want to burn their fingers by into the customs based on religion of So, the British, in fact, did not abolish the practice of untouchability. The first thing the Indian Constituent Assembly did was to make the practice of untouchability unlawful.

In the past, social isolation was practised mostly in the form of geographical isolation —— like the tribals, who had very little to do with the social, economic and political life of the

prevailed in the past and what pre- vails today is that the people no longer have the legal sanction that they used to have in the past. How- ever, I believe that inequality is de- creasing in India. A century ago, women were not even admitted into the universities. Today universities and other occupational spaces are being occupied by women, though not always in equal terms with the men. This is a major change of which we should not lose sight. I know, the women were not allowed in the Uni- versities of Cambridge and Oxford until the 1880s. The first of the two women graduates in the whole of British Empire were two women

from my city of Calcutta. There is no doubt that inequal- ity is increasing, though only in certain forms. For ex- ample, inequality in the sphere of distribution of income is certainly increasing. But that does not mean that in- equality in every aspect is increasing. There is one par- ticular basis for social exclusion that was practised in the traditional Indian society, based on the opposition between the notion of purity and pollution. The segre- gation of the tribals was also justified with the notion of

mainstream people, were geographi- cally isolated into forests and hills. The dalits were part of the main- stream society. They were separated from the village communities either through segregation or isolation. The people who did not like to stay with the untouchables in the past, now find different indirect ways of segre- gating them. Social exclusion has not yet disappeared completely. And, there is a limit to which you can change these things by legislation. Even today, though people live with the untouchables, they find different means and ways of segregating them. The main difference between what

problem across the world as well.

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A QUEST FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: A COLLOQUIUM TO BUILD A NETWORK

Even today, though people live with the untouchables, they find different means and ways of segregating them. The main difference between what prevailed in the past and what prevails today is that the people no longer have the legal sanction that they used to have in the past.

getting too deeply the Indian people.

Our regulatory rules are

all in favour of equality, but the habits of the heart still cling to the old hierarchical practices. Therefore, I think it is not very helpful to attribute the responsibility for all the problems to the state and bureaucracy.

purity and pollution. Those rules of purity and pollution have eased quite considerably , though they have not disappeared completely. But, in the process these groups have acquired a kind of political identity which makes them major players in the po- litical arena and which tends to threaten the growth of citizenship, if by citizenship we mean a set of rights and obligations that adhere to the in- dividual as citizens irrespective of birth in a particular caste, commu- nity, or race. So, what we find in In- dia at present is a complicated picture and I am sure you will find the same

The State Does Matter

Dipankar Gupta

Former Professor Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) New Delhi e-mail: dipankargupta@hotmail.com

We cannot talk about social justice unless we fac- tor the state in the picture. I would argue here that when we talk about justice, we do not talk about it as a neutral topic which could be ap-

marches; or should we look at Muslims as citizens?”” This would make a major difference.

I have recently begun my study to understand how the Muslims cope in the society after several years of the carnage. In the course of my study, I realized that when such kinds of in- cidents happen, we go there, as vul- tures do, to find out who is doing what, how much and for whom. And, we write about it. Many NGOs do outstanding jobs in providing trauma

counseling, shelter, food, etc., and more importantly they connect the victims to the state by asking for compensa- tion for the victims. But, as time goes by, a new ““nor- mal”” sets in. A normal situation is one which is fraught with the underlying tension. If you read Habermas, you will think that the past was wonderful and there was no contradiction. Only when money and power came in later, all the problems started. But, that is not true. In fact, Talcot Parson once said very tellingly that it is very easy to study conflict and change, but it is difficult to study stability. Sitting on a powder keg of divisive forces,

plied anywhere in the world. Here, I would rather talk about social justice in a very contextualized fashion —— in a liberal democratic society where justice involves transparency, inter- subjectivity, and universality. There is justice in tribal society and other such societies, but we are not talking about those kinds of social justice in our country, nor do we want to talk about NGOs. When I talk about civil society, I talk about the traditions which began way back with Ferguson, Adam Smith, and Hegel that connected the individual with the state. I do not talk about the NGOs because most of the NGOs in our contemporary society are doing the best to let the state off the hook: ““Well, the state does not work, here we are! We will work for you.”” That is not the role of the civil society. That is going against and inimical to the thrust of modernity. Ambedkar said, ““It is easy to for- mulate law. Liberty and equality by

the way are the easiest things in the world. But what is difficult is the fra- ternity. You can not legislate frater- nity.”” This fraternity is the essential corner of what we call social justice today. Without the notion of frater- nity, there is no justice at all.

In this regard, there are two exam- ples from India —— the terrible ethnic carnage in 1993 in Mumbai and the worst ethnic carnage in 2002 in Gu- jarat. What I would like to ask is that, ““Should we look at Muslims as vic- tims, which is the way the civil soci- ety will look at and may tell them to hold hands, sing songs and go for

We all know that democracy is not easy; in fact it is the toughest thing to implement. It is difficult because the laws are of republican spirit, if the state does not implement those laws, people tend to see themselves as victims and that is what we should try to avoid.

it is difficult to understand how soci- ety remains stable. This is what we should look at. So, the new normal which emerges is a normal where again conflict and contradiction per- sist, negotiation takes place, and peo- ple have to tread very carefully not to step on fending stones.

So, in the first round of the carnage, you have the bodily harm where you want shelter, protection, trauma counseling, help for sending children to school again, getting a new job as the old job is lost, getting a new place to live and so on. But, in the fullness of time, if we look at the pictures of

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If it is the job of the state to give the victims justice, it is also the job of the state to take them from victimhood to citizenship.

the carnages, we can understand how victims cope with that in the long run. That is when the idea of ““justice”” comes in and ““victimhood”” steps out. To find a new job, a shelter, and a suitable school for the

or madarsas are not pushing them towards fundamen- talism.

However, we need to take a hard look at what we mean by civil society. If we think of civil

children were some of the problems. These kinds of problems, however, were sorted out both in Bombay and Ahmedabad, though not in the best possible ways. But a new normal had emerged. This normal was not free from tensions, contradictions, and worries, but yet it was normal in the sense that you could tell what you would do tomorrow. But, what hurt the victims is that they were never seen as citizens. And, what they wanted more than anything else was justice. The victims argued that they could find a new shelter, a new job and so on, but what about justice? And that is what the victims do not get. That is why one can put the blame fairly on the state —— if it is the job of the state to give the victims jus- tice, it is also the job of the state to take them from victimhood to citizen- ship.

One of our failures comes from the fact that all of us think that we are superior to others and others are trying to come as close to us as possible. Thus, we need the democratic republican law to be implemented properly. The democratic republican law is something which never evolves naturally from the ground, but comes from the mind and we should work accordingly.

societies as NGOs, then we would be looking at people as victims and it does a lot good to our ego. What I am trying to point out is that these peo- ple should be seen as the victims of injustice and therefore they should be seen as citizens as they too desire a sense of equal participation. If we look at human being as normal peo- ple, not Muslims as ““Muslims”” but as normal people, and if we can put ourselves in their shoes and have that kind of intersubjectivity, then I think justice will be served because you will have universality, transparency, and intersubjectivity.

We all know that democracy is not easy; in fact it is the toughest thing to implement. It is difficult because the laws are of republican spirit, which is actually important. If democracy is all about voting, there would not be

In fact, there is a fairly orthodox Muslim organization called the Tablig-e-Jamad, that teaches the children to lead the life of a Muslim. However, as the Muslims did not like the orthodox ideology of Tablig-e-Jamad, they refused to go to its mosque and instead set up their own mosque under ramshackle tents. When asked about the reason, they argued that the mosque clerics do know about what is happening above the ground and below the ground but they do not know about what is happening on the ground. In fact, many of the faith-based organizations

Livelihood and Social Justice

Ashish Nandy

difficulty. Thus, if the state does not implement those laws, people tend to see themselves as victims and that is what we should try to avoid. Human beings are natu- rally bad, what makes them good are the laws. One of our failures comes from the fact that all of us think that we are superior to others and others are trying to come as close to us as possible. Thus, we need the democratic republican law to be implemented properly. The demo- cratic republican law is something which never evolves naturally from the ground, but comes from the mind and we should work accordingly.

Senior Honorary Fellow, Centre for Studies in Developing Societies e-mail: ashisnandy@gmail.com

Any form of livelihood imposes certain kinds of de- all, I think, human beings need a livelihood – not only a mands on our concepts of social justice. First of profession but also perhaps some kind of vocation. The

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A QUEST FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: A COLLOQUIUM TO BUILD A NETWORK

difference between a profession and a vocation is that profession talks of only expertise, competence, and training while vocation in addition talks of a way of life where a particu- lar form of work is seen by an indi- vidual as rewarding in itself, that he is doing it not just for the sake of money or earning a livelihood but because it makes sense to him as a human being; it is in tune with his way of life, his values and is also seen by him as being socially useful and something which makes his work in- trinsically worthwhile for the society as a whole. For example, no musician can be great if he sees music only as a way of earning his livelihood. Nor can he or she look at music as only a profession, a matter of training or earning money, or being in public eye, or a matter of being a successful stage performer. The musician, some- how or other, must also see music as intrinsically worthwhile. That is why they often trace the origins of their music to certain forms of divine gift. Many others see music as a part of their inheritance, something that they have learnt from their forefathers and gurus; music to them is almost a form of worship. And I would suspect that to be the crucial link between social justice and livelihood, social justice must create space for that kind of belief in the intrinsic work. As far as health is concerned, social justice also requires that everybody gets a chance of not only proper access to healing systems or healthcare but also must have a right to choose between different types of healing sys- tems and social justice must allow a person to deny or refuse to accept healthcare when he or she thinks it is unnecessary or not commensurate with his or her dig- nity. Thus, a terminally ill person might decide not to live on a life support system and be a

Ayurveda, Yunani and other forms of folk medicines, we would not really know the basis of the knowledge, the limits of the kind of a particular treat- ment being given to you and cannot make informed choices. I think social justice demands that each patient gets full information so that he or she can decide what he or she wants to do with the healing system. This also means that the agency must shift from the person who is treating the patient to the patient himself. No doctor has the right to decide on be- half of the patient what is better for him or her.

The issue of education and social jus- tice is open-ended. It cannot be grap- pled with as easily as in the case of health. As in the field of health, in education too, one should be in- formed about the options open; whether any particular educational choice is compatible with oneÂ’’s tem-

vegetable for the next twenty years.

I suspect that this absence of trans- parency in healthcare systems is matched by the kind of traditional se- crecy which is also often found in many older healing systems. In

Education is the process through which we all acquire our concept of social justice.

a longer leisure period between 5 and 10 that could be used to make more money so that he can get out of that profession in his middle age rather than old age. Also, I think, education is the process through which we all acquire our concept of social justice.

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As far as health is concerned, social justice also requires that everybody gets a chance of not only proper access to healing systems or healthcare but also must have a right to choose between different types of healing systems and social justice must allow a person to deny or refuse to accept healthcare when he or she thinks it is unnecessary or not commensurate with his or her dignity.

perament or personal inclination or whether one is be- ing pushed into a professional career because his family is economically insecure. His becoming a doctor or an engineer, though not suitable to him, may be good for the family. Your interest may lie in painting, filmmaking, or mass communication, but the family might think they are too risky to be taken up as a profession. But I do believe that these choices should be read out before a student and the student should be ultimately responsi- ble for the choice he makes and unless that minimum right is given he will be a disgruntled member in the profession and look at the profession only instrumen- tally. He can never develop a sense of it being a voca- tion. It will always remain his profession and the attempt will always be to work from 10 to 5 so that he can have

Our concept of social justice is not the same as what it was when we were young toddlers or even later when as a teenager we entered the education system. We should ultimately recon- cile these two or often more than two concepts of social justice. My concept of social justice as a student must make sense to the society to some extent for it to be valid and the soci- etyÂ’’s concept of social justice must make some sense to me as an indi- vidual to have commitment to the concept of social justice. It is because this commitment is often lacking that social justice becomes a slogan, some- thing that you say for the sake of pub- lic consumption, something that you declare on the Independence Day or the Republic Day and forget the very next day, something which becomes a ritual demand, a ritual articulation of certain values and its real substance is lost for both you and those who are listening to you.

I donÂ’’t think social justice is very salient in the current scenario. I hear a lot about social justice from the Islamic activist groups. That is because in Islam, social justice is a very important concept. Social justice is a relatively more important concept in some of the Semitic creeds. I have heard that in Judaism too, it is of important value. It is relatively less well-articulated in Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain philosophies. That does not mean that the con- cept of social justice does not exist but the concept of social justice is defined in less absolute terms because it varies with social and cultural location. This makes so- cial justice a somewhat difficult concept to handle be- cause what is social justice for you is not social justice for me. But this also allows you certain kinds of free- dom and flexibility that may not be

that easily available in the Semitic creeds.

For instance, affirmative action be- comes easier because when we say we need affirmative action for the Dalits or for the tribals, implying that others cannot have it, it is gulped eas- ily because their idea of space- and

time-specific social justice allows us to reconcile with that. All protests against reservations, as all of us might have noticed, have mostly come from the middle class. Outside the middle class, it is taken for granted that something has to be done for the Dalits and the tribes. Actually, tribals have not been that articulate in India. Dalits have at least made their de- mands felt while the tribals have been relatively quiet in this matter and yet the society and the Constitution mak- ers made a commitment for provision of special amenities for these two communities. In the case of other communities, it has been more con- troversial partly because they are nu- merically very large. In democracy, number matters and if you belong to a large caste group, you can influence

the political process more directly. Many people fear that affirmative action for these groups will allow them to pump into the political system. And that some people in the social sector who do not have the confidence, may take advantage of the reservation system and using po- litical clout will deprive others of their dues. What is social justice for them will become social injustice for others. But this is only in case of numerically prepon- derant caste groups and communities which are very large in size, mainly the farming communities such as the large caste communities of traditional farmers, for example, the Jats of Northern India, the Marathas of Western India, the Patels of Western India, the Reddys of Andhra, the Lingayats in Karnataka and so on and so forth.

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The concept of social justice is defined in less absolute terms because it varies with social and cultural location. This makes social justice a somewhat difficult concept to handle because what is social justice for you is not social justice for me. But this also allows you certain kinds of freedom and flexibility.

In democracy, number matters and if you belong to a large caste group, you can influence the political process more directly.

These communities, really speaking, are Shudras. But these farming communities, because of their large size, wield enormous political clout; they produce major political leaders, min- isters and now have a significant presence in Indian public life and perhaps do not even need that kind of affirmative action. But in some cases, certain sectors may need it while the others may not and in such cases, there are controversies and I

can well imagine people objecting to affirmative action. But on the whole, these communities are not controver- sial. What is controversial is the need for smaller communities just entering politics and demanding affirmative action. But there is always the dan- ger that using their new found politi- cal clout, they would use affirmative action and be unjust to other commu- nities. They are often unjust to parts of their own communities which have not acquired the capability to absorb the benefits of affirmative ac- tion. So, in these communities, we often find some families corner or monopolize all the fruits of affirma- tive action. And the students of so- cial justice have to learn to make sure that the idea of social justice is not deployed to ensure the continuation of such lop-sided system of social justice.

However, implementation of social justice schemes can misfire or become a liability. In a country like India, there is employment guarantee scheme and one of the insti- tutions with which I am associated did a study of the scheme in Orissa and found nearly ninety per cent of the money being pocketed by dishonest local politicians, bureaucrats and others who are handling the scheme. This kind of a thing happens but it is not possible to enumerate all possible ways social justice schemes or projects get co-opted or hijacked by the privileged mem- bers of the society. This is especially so in the case of those public funds which are meant for the bottom of the society and yet there is no proper monitoring sys- tem to ensure that it reaches the bottom. One of our

Prime Ministers, Rajiv Gandhi, used to say that only twenty per cent of the money targeted for the very poor ac- tually reaches them. I would suspect that perhaps that apprehension still holds true of large parts of IndiaÂ’’s social sector because of which our at- tempt to deliver social justice has not often succeeded. But we are probably learning. People are very alert and the democratic system is still functioning. And, it is functioning not because of people like us in the middle class or because of the privileged service sec- tor society, but for the simple reason that at the bottom of the society, there are people to whom political partici- pation means a lot. It is a matter of

life and death for them and that is why the politicians after a point have to be responsive to them. They cannot hope that every time they can go only at the election time and hoodwink the people into voting for them. People are becoming more knowledgeable; in fact from the various surveys we have done on the electoral be- haviour, it is pretty clear that the bottom level of the Indian society is at least as much politically knowledge- able as the other sectors of the society and these people have a greater commitment to the democratic system; the legitimacy of the system of democracy is high amongst them and they feel efficacious or capable within the democratic system; they know they can change the government and this feeling has grown over the years. So, ultimately, that is the best check against the misuse of schemes to deliver social justice in this part of the world.

The democratic system is still functioning. And, it is functioning not because of people like us in the middle class or because of the privileged service sector society, but for the simple reason that at the bottom of the society, there are people to whom political participation means a lot.

Prioritizing the Poor: Towards Social Justice in Latin America

Frederico Campos Guanais De Aguiar

Head, International Cooperation Office National School of Public Administration (ENAP) Brazil e-mail: frederico.guanais@enap.gov.br

Ihave interest in the way the policies for social justice are implemented. Let me ask myself, how deep is our commitments to social justice? What are the tools avail-

able to us to achieve the ends of social justice? I have been working on the implementation of several

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development programmes in Latin America. We have been hearing time and again that growth helps in pro- moting social justice, but in reality it did not help us much. Mere economic growth does not much help the de- prived sections. For example, in Bra- zil, around the 1970s, there was a tremendous growth rate (about 12 %), but it never sustained for long. In 1980s, in fact it drastically came down to about -4 per cent. So, the message is that growth alone does not solve the problems. Even if we achieve in terms of quantity , what about the quality?

However, more than 22 per cent of the people lived un- der extreme poverty in Brazil till 2003. When a strong and committed social reform policy started in 2003, the percentage of poverty reduced fast, from 17 per cent to 8 per cent during 2003 to 2008. During the same period, the poorest eight per cent of the people increased their income at the rate of 10 per cent while the income of the richest 10 per cent grew on an average at the rate of 1.5 per cent per annum. How did it happen? The govern- ment decided to take a particular

draw money from an ATM which he would use for buying food. But peo- ple were fond of buying liquids, ci- gar, and even gambling away with this money. So, there was a lot of con- fusion and conflict about this pro- gramme. The government thus realized that the people did not fully realize its importance and hence gov- ernment control or regulation was necessary, mostly in case of the gov- ernment implemented programmes though that may even intrude into the lifestyle of the people. Finally, it was decided that the citizens would bring their purchase slips to prove that they have purchased only food

from the money that they had withdrawn using this Food Card. But, it did not work. So, finally in 2003, it was decided by the government not to give subsidy to the poor under various heads but to give a lump sum amount per family that they would spend on their ne- cessities which would be decided by the family, not by the government. Thus, all cash transfer programmes merged into one and the focus shifted to family instead of child, mother, energy, hunger, etc. And interestingly,

amount of money and give it to the poor. This happened not by discrimi- nating against the others but by prioritizing the needy . Thus, social justice could be achieved not by ne- glecting the privileged section of the society but by prioritizing the needy and deprived.

In an educational reform programme in Brasilia in Brazil, the government took extra measures to retain the chil- dren in school. They gave incentives to the children as well as to the par- ents to make sure that the children were kept in school.

There was another programme called Zero Hunger Programme which en- sured that all the people had three meals daily. In a scheme called Food Card, a needy person could with-

While providing money, the government ensures that the family gets sufficient food. For ensuring that the benefits reach the poor, the government works in collaboration with different networks as well as different civil society bodies. What we learnt was that social commitments prioritizing the poor is very important for an inclusive growth and social justice.

if there is a woman in the family, gov- ernment ensures that the card be is- sued on her name, not on the name of the male head. In all these pro- grammes, both local as well as the federal government take equal re- sponsibilities. The local government collects the data from the people and sends it to the federal government which makes the decision and con- trols all the programmes. There are also regulatory measures that guide and make the citizens accountable for carrying out their responsibilities. For example, if there is a small child, in the age group of 0-6 years at home, he/she must be taken to the hospital for regular check ups; similarly, a child of 6-17 years of age should be sent to school. If the family does not comply with this, they get the first warning followed by the second

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Mere economic growth does not much help the deprived sections. For example, in Brazil, around the 1970s, there was a tremendous growth rate (about 12 %), but it never sustained for long. In 1980s, in fact it drastically came down to about -4 per cent.

warning from the government. Then they block the ben- efits from the government and it takes five times to com- pletely block the benefits. The whole idea of the govern- ment is not to punish the people, but to ensure that they use the benefits of the government appropriately.

While providing money, the government ensures that

the family gets sufficient food. For ensuring that the ben- efits reach the poor, the government works in collabo- ration with different networks as well as different civil society bodies. What we learnt was that social commit- ments prioritizing the poor is very important for an in- clusive growth and social justice.

Ways of Knowing, Feeling and Doing: Going Against the Grain

Anil Gupta

If for some reason, the state becomes indifferent to peopleÂ’’s development, can we still progress? I think, we can indeed progress even when the state is indiffer- ent. However, the progress would definitely be more if the state acts responsively.

It took more that 20 years for our government to recog- nize the knowledge and potential our people have for

Given the philosophy of SRISTI, ““Give me a place to stand, I will move the world”” –– the famous Archimedian dictum, I share the belief that many of us collectively have in the power of knowledge-rich-economically poor people to attempt solutions to many of their intractable problems. Given a little support, innovative knowledge can help us remove poverty, generate employment, and thus help in establishing a fair and just society. Though in our society, there are a lot of customary prejudices

solving problems. Even today a large tions and organizations of our coun- try are not convinced about this. National Innovation Foundation has mobilized, with the help of Honey Bee network volunteers, more than 1,26,000 ideas, innovations, and tra- ditional knowledge practices ( not all of them unique or distinctive, of course), and cases as examples of creative innovation from 545 districts of our country. But, we have not been able to convince many government departments and institutions about their significance. Thus, mere existence of ideas is not good enough proof that ideas would be taken forward. But we have to carry it forward. How do we do that?

The intellectuals of our country think that by mere pro- duction of knowledge, we would solve our problems. But it never happens that way. Though we have pro- duced enough knowledge, we ““feel”” less for it and ““do”” (act) even lesser than what we feel. The gap between knowing, feeling, and acting is a paradox that every in- dividual faces in his everyday life. And we should act upon bridging this gap.

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number of institu-

The gap between knowing, feeling, and acting is a paradox that every individual faces in his everyday life. And we should act upon bridging this gap.

about sharing knowledge, but a lot of people treat their knowledge as an open source. About 95 per cent of the innovators have shared their knowl- edge with us in good faith without any reservation or restriction.

It is not only in the realm of technol- ogy but also culture and craft that local genius unfolds itself in many di- verse and distinctive ways. I can cite the examples of innovative painting from Purulia by Bhabi Mahato and

many other women elsewhere like Ram Tamari Devi from Champaran who used walls, grain bin, and other such places to articulate their creativity. Is it not a dis- grace to call such culturally- or knowledge-rich people as unskilled as the national employment guarantee pro- gramme tends to look at them? While certain gaps take time to bridge, there are certain other gaps that bridge very fast. For example, within the last six years, more than 400 million cell phones have been sold in the coun- try cutting across different sections of the people. There- fore, it is not true that the state and the market cannot work together. In this case, the state provided the policy and the bandwidth while the market provided the low-

cost technology thus bringing in a revolution in the world of cell phones. So, for bridging the socio-economic gaps, what is important is to under- stand the right combination of insti- tution, technology, and policy.

Let us take another example ——

soyabean in Brazil grew by 400 per

Given a little support, innovative knowledge can help us remove poverty, generate employment, and thus help in establishing a fair and just society.

fabricating solutions ——We can over- come mainly three barriers to learn- ing–– language, literacy, and localism. People must learn in their own lan- guage; they must learn even if they are illiterate; and they must learn not only from local but also from outside sources. Thus the need for multi-lan- guage-multi-media databases of in-

cent in 15 years. The reason was that the average land holding for novations and outstanding tradi-

soyabean cultivation was 400 hectares (in general, the average land holding in Brazil was about 70 hectares). Irrigation was brought in. However, such a fast growth of soya cultivation was attributed to the scale. It was argued that there is not much difference in productivity between the farmers of Madhya Pradesh, who grew soyabean in 1-2 hectares of land and that of the soyabean farmers of Brazil. The earlier inference that the scale was responsible for growth was misplaced. Like the green- house revolution in China, by aligning different institu- tion, technology , and policy , various gaps can indeed be bridged fast. The challenge thus is to find out why similar alignment does not take place for many other social sector policies in different countries.

What Honey Bee Network has been doing, is to follow ABC and DEF.

A stands for access; B for bridge between formal and informal science, and C for creativity, collaboration and compassion –– here we find people who are not only crea- tive but also compassionate and collaborative. They are interested in solving not only their own problems but also that of others. In fact, many of the innovations are triggered not by the innovatorsÂ’’ own problems but only by the problems of the others. But still there are prob- lems that have not yet been solved, for example, tea leaf plucking, transplantation of paddy, crushing of Mahuwa seed, etc., for which we have not been

tional knowledge. Despite the fact that first such database was shared by Honey Bee Net- work at the Global Knowledge Conference in Toronto, in 1997, there are still not many such databases around the world. Similarly, a search on the web would not re- veal many significant sources of empirical information on grassroots innovations around the world. Global si- lence on such vital aspects of social justice indicates a deep-seated pedagogi- cal, philosophical, and policy bias against intellectual participation of people, not just the

physical one as often advocated by many.

The Golden Triangle of creativity consists of Innovation, Investment, and Entrepreneurship. The transaction costs of each actor being high, unless institutional mechanisms exist to reduce or eliminate the same, the triangle will not get forged. The innovators do not know where they can find investors who would invest in their innovation; they are not always sure, with whom they can share their knowledge; on the other hand, the entrepreneurs do not know where innovators or investors are. We solved these problems by creating a micro-venture fund:

Creating a micro-venture fund. All the multilateral fi- nancial organizations like the World Bank, ADB, IFC etc., would agree that micro-finance is a powerful tool and they would support it as a measure for alleviating pov- erty. But none of them would talk about micro-venture finance only because the poor peopleÂ’’s ideas do not seem

able to find a suitable innovation yet.

D stands for diversity , design and distribution; E stands for energy, eth- ics and equity –– What kind of ethics do we use to bridge these kinds of gaps? What kinds of ethics could make our policy makers more ac- countable? And F stands for fellow- ship, fostering partnerships, and

For bridging the socio- economic gaps, what is important is to understand the right combination of institution, technology, and policy.

to them to have market. As there is no market for the idea, there is risk and when there is risk, they would need risk fund. That is how the In- formation Technology (IT) and Bio- technology (BT) revolution started. If venture capital is necessary for IT and Bio-technology, would it not be also helpful for supporting the creative and innovative ideas of economically

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poor people? In response to this need, in 2003, a micro-venture innovation fund (MVIF) has been created with the help of Small Scale Industry De- velopment Bank of India (SIDBI). Al- though the fund provided for this purpose is very small, it is the first step. It is run by the National Inno- vation Foundation (NIF) established with the help of the Department of Science and Technology, Govern- ment of India in 2000.

I have often been asked how do we find innovation. Let me narrate one incident. Once I was in Brazil and we were walking in the slums around the University of Rio. We found a man, Ubirajara, with a cycle having an in- teresting feature —— a stand on the front wheel. This is very helpful for a small businessman who carries and sells small amount of goods. However, India and China, which have the maximum number of bicycles never came up with such an idea. This can actually be a good solution for our poor people, who want to vend things on a cycle.. This is a case of spreading innovations across cultures. Thus it is not necessary that ““Innovation would occur where density of enterprise is maximum; they could actually occur on the margins and that could even be global margin.

Similarly, one in Anil K Gupta