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WORLD DAY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

Young Bites. Dated: 2/21/2020 10:44:21 AM

MAHADEEP SINGH JAMWAL The 20 February approved by ‘The United Nations General Assembly’ on 26 November 2007 and starting in 2009, every year is celebrated as ‘World Day of Social Justice’. Its root traced to the world summit for social development that was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1995 and resulted in the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action. It is an international day recognizing the need to promote social justice based on the concepts of human rights and equality. Social justice is a concept of fair and just relations between the individual and society, as measured by the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity, and social privileges. The principles of social justice are an essential part of effective delivery. There are four interrelated principles of social justice; equity, access, participation and rights. When we explore the area where social justice is much required, we find, it is the poverty, exclusion, gender equality, unemployment, human rights, and social protections at the top. Good social behaviors are foundation stones of delivering social justice. Thinking about others, caring for them, and working for their betterment all are aspects of social justice. A debate on social justice takes its flight when common man’s problem stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system. Global inequality is growing with half the world’s wealth now in the hands of one per cent of the population, study by ‘Credit Suisse’ a leading global wealth manager founded in 1856 with headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland having operations in over 50 countries. The middle class has been squeezed. ‘Oxfam’, (a nonprofit organization fighting against inequality in India) study 2019 reveals India’s top one per cent owns half of National wealth: bottom 60% just 4.8 per cent. With the top one per cent of the country’s richest getting richer by 39 per cent as against just three per cent increase in wealth for the bottom half of the population. There are 1.77 million homeless people in India. More than 50% people in India live in their own houses, while almost 30% live on rent and 13% in their parents' house. Living in your own house gives one a sense of security and content as against living in someone else’s house. These grey areas required to be debated on the day. Equality of opportunity is not enough. Unless we create an environment where everyone is guaranteed some minimum capabilities through some guarantee of minimum income, education, and healthcare, we cannot say that we have fair competition. Equality of opportunity is absolutely necessary but not sufficient in building a genuinely fair and efficient society. The United Nations' (UN) World Day of Social Justice is annually observed on February 20 to encourage people to look at how social justice affects poverty eradication. It also focuses on the goal of achieving full employment and support for social integration. Social Justice can be defined as: the way in which human rights are manifested in the everyday lives of people at every level of society. Social Justice should look forward for ‘Dignity of the Human Beings’, ‘Primacy of the Common Good’, ‘Reciprocal rights and responsibilities’, ‘Dignity of work and rights for workers’, and ‘Fundamental option for the poor and vulnerable’. Just gathering on the day and few speakers deliberating on the importance of the ‘World Day of Social Justice’ and roaring voices of Government on the day to do away the basics of social justice such as: poverty, exclusion, gender equality, unemployment, human rights, and social protections, not going to testify the real motive of the UN in pronouncing the day as such. We are supposed to develop topics for teaching students about the need for social justice that should include (but are not limited to) poverty, global citizenship, human rights, and sustainable development. The students need to be involved into the debates to share their views, vision and thoughts to overcome the issues where we have to look for Social Justice. Social Justice makes the way for the society to perform better. It can turn life around if social justice implemented in true sense. In these days of difficulty, we must and shall choose the path of social justice, the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man. Delivering social justice is not possible without preparing first the environment to change and to transform. We have to work on good future plans focusing on some aspects such as: enabling children to attend their schools and completing their education, helping young children to develop skills that would help them in securing good jobs in future, providing opportunities based on their skill set, age and educational background. Social Justice guarantees decent life for all. Social Justice should be delivered voluntarily by those in power and not when the pressure exerted by the denied class. There can be no peace without social justice and respect for human rights. The author can be reached out at 999expo999@gmail.com