Social Justice in Panchayati Raj in India

The Constitution of India is the best known for its magnificent social treatise, begins with the glorious preamble which guarantees the key concepts as liberty, equality, justice and fraternity to the entire people of the country. These expressions postulate an unwritten pledge that everyone will do justice to one another especially for the common man – for the man on the street and in the farm, for the driver of the bullock cart and for other suppressed and neglected sections. This was the reason why the Founding Fathers had chosen to prefer justice to Liberty, Equality and Fraternity for placement in order again social justice was assigned a preferential place over economic and political. Otherwise the expression in the preamble – “We the people of India ……………… give unto our selves this Constitution” loses its meaning and import, as much as the promise in Article 38 – The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice – social, economic and political shall inform all institutions of national life. Thus, Social Justice in a comprehensive sense must penetrate in depth and permeate in its widest spectrum to all aspect of social life, including the stigmatized untouchability and the so called members of the Backward classes. The concept of Social Justice must take within its sweep the objective of removing all inequalities and affording equal opportunities to all citizens in social and economic affairs. Our country is not a utilitarian State, but a Democratic Republic with committed to welfarism. The problems enumerated above which concern the overwhelmingly large number of the citizens, could never be successfully tackled unless the State uses its most effective ameliorating devices against socio economic and socio legal instrumentalities that necessarily calls for a total reform for balancing economic structure and thereby relieve the body politic of the tension. In the process, the new era of Social Justice in the Democratic Republic of India could be surely ushered, when our condition favours introduction of democracy at the grass root level i.e., the creation of Panchayati Raj Institutions PRIs which embodied in Article 40 of the Constitution3. The basic conviction that Village Panchayats could play an important role in the social transformation and implementation of development programmes. In this paper, an attempt has made how far the Village Panchayat contributed for achieving the empowerment of women. Dr. Irsad Ali Khan "Social Justice in Panchayati Raj in India" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-6 | Issue-6 , October 2022, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd51818.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/political-science/51818/social-justice-in-panchayati-raj-in-india/dr-irsad-ali-khan