EQUALITY

Equality is a powerful moral and political ideal that has inspired and guided human society
for many centuries. It is implicit in all faith and religions which proclaim all human being to
be the creation of god. As a political ideal that all human beings have an equal worth
regardless of their colour, gender, race, or nationality. It maintain that being deserve equal
consideration and respect because of their common humanity. It is this notion of a shared
humanity that lies behind, for instance, the notion of universal human rights or crimes against
humanity.

We live in India, the largest democracy in the world. This means that in India, there is a rule
of the people, by the people and for the people. There are many important requirements for a
country to truly be democratic and the most important is Equality for its citizens. This means
that everybody is equal in the eyes of law, without any discrimination on grounds of race,
religion, gender, caste, class or birth.

Equality is so important because it preserves the “dignity” of an individual. Dignity means

self-respect and the respect an individual deserves from others for being a fellow human
being. It is an essential and basic human right. However, this ideal case doesn’t exist. Even
today, many forms of inequality exist in India.

NATURAL AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY

A distinction is sometime made in political theory between natural inequality and socially
produced inequality.

Natural inequalities are those that emerge between people as result of their different
capabilities and talents. Whereas socially produced inequalities are those which emerge as a
consequence of inequalities of opportunity or the exploitation of some group in a society by
others. Natural inequalities are considered to be the result of the different characteristics and
abilities with people are born. It is assumed that natural differences cannot be altered. `Social
inequalities on the other hand are made by societies. Certain societies may, for instance,
value those who perform intellectual work over those who do manual work and reward them
differently. They may treat differently people of different race or colour or gender. Difference
if this kind may reflect the values of a society and some of these may certainly appear to us to
be unjust.

CASTE SYSTEM is one among the social inequality which society face, and the most
aggrieved one is Indian society.

The caste system is an ancient, age-old belief system that plagues India till today. It is a
system that has divides Hindus into rigid, hierarchical occupational groups called “varna“.
considered some groups “pure” and some “impure”. This Varna system includes four Varnas-
Bhramin,

Types of Inequality in India:

Casteism

Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra, in descending order of purity. Today also, discrimination
against people of various caste groups is common in rural areas, but surprisingly, even among
educated urban dwellers

Untouchability

Due to the above Varna system, one of the most negative, yet unique features of India is the
untouchability system. This system wrongly looks at the people from the lower castes as
“impure”. Other people of higher castes used to refrain from touching them, thus calling them
“untouchables“. When such cruel incidents are still seen in the news, it is an embarrassment
to our country and us.

Gender Discrimination

In India, traditionally, females and males were given rigid roles that they had to follow. For
example, in villages, women are expected to cook, clean, bear children and raise them and
men are the ones who work and earn money. The law does not allow such kind gender
discrimination. Males and females are equal in the eyes of law and they must be given equal
dignity and opportunities.

Class Inequality

When we look around, we can see that everyone doesn’t have equal amounts of money or
resources. We hear news of a billionaire whose house costs a billion dollars, but at the same
time see beggars on the roads with no food or shelter. This called Class Inequality, where
people of a high class have excess resources, while the majority live in poverty with no basic
food, water, clothes or shelter. There is no equal distribution of resources.

Religious Discrimination

It is sad to see that in some places, people who follow a different religion than most people
often face discrimination. They are looked down upon, often with suspicion. India is
a secular country and these practices are not allowed by law. We are all free to peacefully
practise any religion we want to.

Racism

India is a diverse country with people belonging to different places. People have different
cultures, food, clothes and also look different but it doesn’t mean they should be
discriminated against.

We need to know that Equality is a basic human right and every human being on Earth
deserves fair treatment and access to opportunities.

Types of Equality

1. Natural Equality:

Though human differ in respect of their physical features, psychological traits, mental
abilities and capacities, all humans are to be treated as equal humans. All are to be considered
to avail all human rights and freedoms.

2. Social Equality:

Social equality is referred as equal rights and opportunities for development for all classes of
people without any discrimination such as civil rights, freedom of speech, property rights,
and equal access to social goods and services. However, it also includes concepts of health
equity, economic equality and other social securities. It also includes equal opportunities and
obligations, and so involves the whole of society. Social equality requires the absence of
legally enforced social class or caste boundaries and the absence of discrimination motivated
by an inalienable part of a person's identity. For instance, sex, gender, race, age, sexual
orientation, origin, caste or class, income or property, language, religion, convictions,
opinions, health or disability must not result in unsatisfactory treatment under the law and
should not reduce opportunities unreasonably.

Specifically, Social equality stands for:

1. Absence of special privileges for any class or caste or religions group or an ethnic
group.

2. Prohibition of discrimination against any one on the basis of caste, colour, creed,
religion, sex and place of birth.

3. Free access to public places for all the people, i.e. no social segregation.

4. Equality of opportunity for all people. It however accepts the concept of protective
discrimination in favour of all weaker sections of society.

Contemporary theme of social equality is to eliminate gender inequality, to ensure equal

status and opportunities to the women and to ensure equal rights of male and female children
to live and develop.

3. Civil Equality:

It is elaborated as the grant of equal rights and freedoms to all the people and social groups.
All the people are to be treated equal before Law. Civil liberty comprises of the enjoyment of
similar civil liberties and civil rights by all the citizens. Civil laws should treat all the
individuals equally. There should not be any discrimination of superior and inferior, the rich
and the poor, caste and creed, colour and race, clam and tribes, groups and classes. Rule of
law is in force in England and in the eyes of the rule of law all are equal. Equal treatment is
given to all by the rule of law.

4. Political Equality:

It is referred as equal opportunities for participation of all in the political process. This
involves the concept of grant of equal political rights for all the citizens with some uniform
qualifications for everyone. All citizens must possess similar political rights, they should
have similar voice in the working of the government and they should have equal
opportunities to actively participate in the political life and affairs of the country. Political
equality guarantees the enjoyment of similar political rights to all citizens. Universal adult
franchise is a means to this end. Universal adult suffrage has been introduced in India. The
same provision has been made in England, U.S.S.R., U.S.A., France and many other
countries.

5. Economic Equality:

Economic equality does not indicate that equal treatment or equal reward or equal wages for
all. It denotes to fair and adequate opportunities to all for work and for earning of their
livelihoods. It also means that primary needs of all should be fulfilled before the special
needs of few are gratified. The gap between rich and poor should be lowest. There should be
equitable distribution of wealth and resources in the society.

Economic Equality is closely associated to political equality. Professor Laski stated the
immense significance of economic equality. "Political equality is never real unless, it is
accompanied with virtual economic liberty; political power".

According Lord Bryce, Economic Equality "is the attempt to expunge all differences in
wealth' allotting to every man and woman an equal share in worldly goods". But this concept
of perfect economic equality can never be materialised in practical politics.

Generally, economic equality mean the provision of equal opportunities to all so they may be
able to make their economic progress. This can be done only in Socialism and not in
Capitalism. Henceforth, Capitalism should be replaced by Socialism.

6. Legal Equality:

Legal Equality is defined as equality before law, equal subjection of all to the same legal
code and equal opportunity for all to secure legal protection of their rights and freedom.
There should rule of law and laws must be equally binding for all. In every society equality
must be ensured in all these forms.

7. Equality of Opportunity and Education:

Equality of opportunity and education means that all the citizens should be given equal and
similar opportunities by the state. All the individuals should have similar chances to receive
education. They should have similar opportunities to develop their personality. Racial or any
type of discrimination should not be observed. There should not be any distinction of caste
and creed, colour and race, rich and poor. In India, all are provided with equal opportunities
and all have equal rights to education.
FEMINISM:Feminism is a political doctrine of equal rights for women and men.
Feminists are those men and women who believe that many of the inequalities we see in
society between men and women are neither natural nor necessary and can be altered so that
both women and men can lead free and equal lives.

According to feminists, inequality between men and women in society are result of
patriarchy. This term refer to social, economic and cultural system that values men more han
women and give men power over women. Patriarchy is based on the assumption that men and
women are different by nature an and this difference justify their unequal positions in society.
In the current era, now women are more aware of their rights and how to acquire them. And
thus came the era of feminist people who support equal rights for both men and women.

CONCLUSION
Inequality was always in our roots and part of our day to day life, and we never bothered
much. The most affected group by inequality were female girl child, and the women. It seem
is easier to supress this section and so the patriarchy arises. Another section which was most
affected was the poor and downtrodden section which were suppressed by rich zamindars, or
precisely said, they were exploited. But after the formation of The constitution of India,
several rights were made in favour of such sections. Moreover proper education to mass
population led them to realise their rights and gave them strength and ability to fight for their
basic fundamental rights. Now there are several ngos and organisation who work in favour of
equality. But such rooted evil custom can be removed from our society only when we
perform our fundamental duties properly.
 POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSINGMENT

EQUALITY

Submitted by: Aditi Bhushan Submitted to: R C SETHI

BALLB B

1983168