What Is Social Justice?

Justice is the concept of fairness. Social justice is fairness as it manifests in society.

That includes fairness in healthcare, employment, housing, and more. In a socially-
just society, human rights are respected and discrimination is not allowed to
flourish. 

The principles of social justice

For social justice to become a reality, four pillars must be built: human rights,
access, participation, and equity. Social justice can’t be achieved without these
four principles.

Issue of justice in Pakistani society:

Age discrimination: ‘Few care about elderly’

In Pakistan, old age means being in the throes of joblessness, poor health, loss of
control over life. Older peoples’ rights continue to be neglected; 11.6 million
Pakistanis are over 60 years of age; figure will rise to 43.3 million by 2050

Pakistan has an extremely poor track record when it comes to addressing issues
associated with human rights of older persons. It ranks depressingly low in the
Global Age Watch Index: at 92 out of 94 countries. It has one of the lowest
pension income coverage in the world. It ranks particularly low with respect to
health of older persons, with a relatively low life expectancy and even lower
healthy life expectancy. It ranks low also with respect to satisfaction of older
persons with social connectedness, civic freedom and public transport.

October 1, which is recognized as International Day of Older People by the United

Nations, is an occasion to raise awareness on population ageing and rights of older
people so that they should have active, secure, healthy and dignified lives.

What is ageism?

Ageism refers to the stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination towards others or

oneself based on age.
Ageism is observed inside organization, interpersonal interaction and sometime
within ourselves. One out of every two older people are facing the age
discrimination around the world and contrary to this in Europe, younger people are
facing higher ageism than other age groups iv. Ageism affects both younger and
older people, as both age groups are generally considered as dependent member of
the society instead of productive members of society. Ageism against younger
people manifests across many areas such as employment, health, housing mainly.
Among elderly, ageism is linked to poor physical and mental health, increased
social isolation and loneliness, increased financial insecurity, lower quality of life,
and early death. In addition to that, Ageism is thought to be responsible for 6.3
million incidents of depression worldwide.

Age discrimination

The practice of letting persons age unfairly become a factor when deciding who
receives a new job, promotion, or other job benefits. Also the decision about
terminating employees also should not be solely based on their age

Ageism affects all aspects of a person's life, especially their career. Age
discrimination arises when people are treated unfairly or not allowed equal
opportunities as the rest in the same situation as a result of age. Such occurs when
people are regarded as too young or too old. Age discrimination examples include
forcing an employee to retire after attaining a certain age and failing to employ
people because they are too young.

Ageism in workplace

Ageism specifically in the workplace remains a global issue additionally, in the job
market, ageism or age discrimination is a significant barrier in getting employment,
getting training, earning positive performance reviews, and even holding or
securing a job. This is because of the belief embedded in most of the societies that
older workers have less productive capability; they are less efficient and less
active.

Pakistan is not different from others and will have 40 million older populations by
2050. Despite the fact that Pakistani society is still regarded as traditional, the
status of older population has altered significantly in all aspects of life because of
the gradual prevalence of modernization. Young family members considered their
elders as traditional and unproductive member so they try to shift their
responsibility on the shoulder of the government. In addition to that, the result of
this mind set leads to an increase in age-based prejudice and stereotyping of older
individuals. The consequences of these stereotypes and age discrimination against
older population are social isolation, stress depression and poor physical as well as
mental health among the elderly people. Older women, like the rest of the globe,
are the most vulnerable group in the context of ageism. As, gender inequality is
already a problem for women in the developing countries like Pakistan, and
gendered ageism is an additional obstacle for them. Working women faced gender
discrimination in term of promotion and salary as usually, employer believe that
being a woman they will not pay for equal treatment. Ageism has a substantial
impact on mental health because financial burden of lost earnings as a result of job
loss can lead to increased depressive symptoms and reduced life satisfaction.

What does ageism in the workplace look like?

Even if a company takes steps to reduce ageism during the hiring process,
discrimination may still occur within the office. There are some examples of age
discrimination in workplace settings.

 Ignoring older candidates for promotions

Workplace incentives, such as raises, bonuses and promotions, are typically a

reflection of an individual’s job performance. However, they may indicate ageism
if you’re frequently passing up older workers in favor of younger workers.

 Making false assumptions

Many preconceived notions about older workers, such as older people being bad
with technology, are false. However, if you don’t address them, it can lead to older
employees being denied opportunities. Here are some ways stereotypes might
guide a manager’s decisions:

 Assigning a project to a younger employee because it involves technology

Refusing to train an employee or give them learning opportunities

Assuming an older employee holds certain opinions or political beliefs.

 Blatant harassment and ageist remarks

Ageism can manifest in the form of playful teasing about someone’s age,
appearance or retirement plans. It could also be more aggressive, such as
pressuring an employee to retire or calling them over-the-hill or ancient.

 Unfair disciplinary action

Disproportionate disciplinary action is a common tactic used by employers who

want to get rid of an older employee but don’t have a fair reason to fire them.
Instead, they’ll unfairly reprimand the worker to reduce their job responsibilities or
even encourage them to quit. Here are a few examples:

 Maintaining unreasonably high standards for older employees

Only letting younger employees get away with mistakes

Yelling or taking away benefits after a minor mistake

 Types of organizational justice

1. Distributive justice:

Distributive justice is not singularly about fair treatment or positive outcome, it

is to bring positive outcomes through the fair and equal allocation of resources and
opportunities to the employees. We can connect the distributive justice with the
ageism in the workplace for example:

 Reserving learning opportunities for younger employees: Ageism may

manifest when employers continuously allow younger people to attend
industry seminars or offers them incentives to study while overlooking older
people.
 2. Informational justice

Informational justice focuses on whether employers provide adequate explanations

to employees with an emphasis on timeliness, specificity, and truthfulness For
example:

 As older employees are more likely to be reassigned rather than trained

when organizations are dealing with performance problems which means
that they are not provided with the enough information to improve their
performance.

3. Procedural justice

In this type of organizational justice, the employee is concerned about whether the
process adopted by the organization to decide the outcome is fair or not. An
employee will feel that procedural organizational justice has occurred when he will
be allowed to voice his opinion about the decision-making process For example

 Older employees may not be granted equal opportunities for participation

and decision making in work-related training and development activities.

4. Interpersonal justice:
Is all about how an employee is treated. It is defined as the extent that an employee
is treated with dignity, respect, and fairness. 

On an interpersonal level, older workers may experience toxic, ageist

commentaries on a day-to-day basis. On an individual level, workers who
assimilate negative age stereotypes from society are likely to erroneously perceive
their abilities as inferior to that of younger co-workers. This internalized
misconception can lead to potential withdrawal or lack of initiative for work
engagements.

Conclusion:

Population ageing is regarded as one of the most critical challenges of our

societies. It is the outcome of extraordinary developments in technology, medicine,
public hygiene and the adoption of more healthy lifestyles. It is a phenomenon to
celebrate! At the same time, many societies are struggling to adapt to the changing
demographic structures and to turn the challenges of an ageing population into
opportunities. Pakistan’s older population, which has reached already 12.5 million,
will double by 2030 and will reach close to 40 million by 2050. It is therefore
imperative that the country responds urgently to the most critical needs of its older
people and at the same time promotes more profound societal changes which
creates age-friendly and enabling environments in which people of all ages can
flourish. Supporting older people and particularly older women to have a secure
income through universal social pensions should be a priority in Pakistan. Ensuring
that health services are aligned to the health needs of the older population
especially at the primary health care level is essential to assist older people to
remain active in their communities. Finally, eliminating all forms of age
discrimination and providing an environment in which older people are protected
from violence and abuse will help them exercise their choices and contribute to
society

https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/what-does-social-justice-mean/
#:~:text=Justice%20is%20the%20concept%20of,is%20not%20allowed%20to
%20flourish.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/154037-In-Pakistan- old-age-means-being-
in-the-throes-of-joblessness-poor-health-loss-of-control-over-life

https://www.helpage.org/newsroom/latest-news/pakistan-older-people-facing-health-
catastrophe-but-are-being-ignored/