The Right to Equality : The contemporary discourse

What is equality and inequality

Equality is the state of being equal, especially in
status( social,economical,political,cultural,minority etc..), rights, or opportunities.
Inequality means the condition of being unequal; lack of equality; disparity.injustice;
partiality.unevenness,
Mathematics. a statement that two quantities are unequal, indicated by the symbol ≠;
alternatively, by the symbol <, signifying that the quantity preceding the symbol is
less than that following, or by the symbol >, signifying that the quantity preceding the
symbol is greater than that following.

In other words Equality means "the state of being equal." It's one of the ideals a
democratic society,(Democracy is a form of government in which the people have the
authority to deliberate and decide legislation, or to choose governing officials to do
so.)
….Fatherof nation: M.K.Gandhi
Father of the Republic of India/ founding father of Modern India :Dr.B.R Ambedkar
by Columbia univ) shared the title father of modern India with Raja Ram Mohan
Roy….
Potti sriramulu : father of linguistic democracy in INDIA.
4 pillars of democracy: Democracy rests on four pillars legislature ,executive
judiciary and the press. - Transforming India.
3. Characteristics of ideal Democracy: India stood on the priniples of equality liberty
and fraternity which gives unity and solidarity to social life.” He was convinced that
“without fraternity, equality and liberty there will be no ideal society. These
principles indicates that All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
rights.
Legal equality, political freedom and rule of law are often identified as foundational
characteristics for a well-functioning democracy.

Democratic Values : including: democratic decision-making, freedom of speech,

equality before the law, social justice, equality, social justice.which makes the society
fair.The fight to attain different kinds of equality, like racial equality, gender equality,
or equality of opportunity between rich and poor, is often associated with progress
toward that ideal of everyone being truly equal.

Examples of inequality; inequalities ate not new to the world.

Racial discrimination exists through inequalities
Washington:
1."Your knee in my neck. I can't breathe... Mama. Mama," George Floyd
pleaded.Bystanders filmed the scene as Floyd, thought to be in his 40s, slowly grew
silent and motionless, unable to move even as the officers taunted him to "get up and
get in the car."
He was taken to hospital where he was later declared dead.
2...In America it is witnessed in New jersey that Bowman’s legislation, which is co-
sponsored in the Senate by New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker, also comes amid a
sudden and alarming increase in bomb threats being made against historically Black
colleges and universities. On Jan. 31, six HBCUs received bomb threats, followed on
Feb. 1 – the first day of National Black History Month – when an additional 12
HBCUs received bomb threats.

Transgender: Hinesburg resident Fern Feather, 29, was found stabbed to death along a
Morristown road on Tuesday morning, according to Vermont State Police.“We
absolutely need to continue to take steps to make Vermont a more equitable place and
be clear that hate has no place in our state,” House Speaker Rep. Jill Krowinski said in
a statement Wednesday afternoon.

Equality: Meaning, Features and Types of Equality!

Liberty and Equality are two most valuable rights of the people. These constitute two

basic pillars of democracy.In common usage equality is taken to mean full equality of

treatment and reward for all. It is demanded as natural equality.However, despite a

strong emotional appeal to our hearts, the notion of natural and absolute equality of all

cannot be fully accepted and realised. Men are neither equal in respect of their

physical features nor in respect of their mental abilities. Some are stronger others

weaker and some are more intelligent and capable than others.Hence equality does not

mean absolute and total equality.Equality really means equal opportunities for

development. In fact, when we talk of equality of all men we really mean general and
fair equality and not absolute equality. We really talk of a fair distribution of

opportunities reward and not equal reward for all.

two types of inequalities:

(1) Natural inequalities, and

(2) Man-made unnatural inequalities.

The former means natural differences among human beings. These have to be

accepted by all. The man-made inequalities are those which are there because of some

social conditions and discriminations. These are of the nature of socioeconomic

inequalities resulting from the operation of social system. The discriminations

practiced and inequalities maintained in the name of caste, colour, creed, religion, sex,

place of birth and the like are all unnatural man- made inequalities. Equality means

end of all such inequalities and discriminations.Positively Equality stands for equal

rights, equitable distribution of resources , equal opportunities for development and

relative equality with due recognition of merit, abilities and capacities of various

persons.

Inequality is natural or choice:

Inequality is very much natural as everyone is not look like the same in

height,weight,colour and strength etc…humans are not like any other organisms

where they get replicated. But, how to treat others is definitely a choice . we possess

qualities better than others..equality is having repect what others have possess and

respect their unique qualities

Ex. Generally we discriminate labour which we cannot do.. we discriminate

scavengers and never treat them equals..where you can not perform what they are

doing for you…we discriminate nomadics and migrants for not having permanent stay
and income..where you can not work like them…we discriminate housemades and

others where one day if they stop coming you will understad how difficult it is to

manage….like this we have so any examples.

When comes to government incentives:

equality is not where you help people to win a race by making them to sit in a

jetpack..but it is when you help people to get fit for a race..

Equality is not where you give free something to a person because he cannot afford

it,equality is when you help that person to learn how to earn by using his skills and

mind to get things of his choice.

Equality: Features:

1. Equality does not stand for absolute equality. It accepts the presence of some

natural inequalities.

2. Equality stands for absence of all unnatural man- made inequalities and specially

privileged classes in the society.

3. Equality postulates the grant and guarantee of equal rights 4. Equality implies the

system of equal and adequate opportunities for all the people in society.

5. Equality means equal satisfaction of basic needs of all the persons before the

special needs’, and luxuries of some persons may be met.

6. Equality advocates an equitable and fair distribution of wealth and resources i.e.

Minimum possible gap between the rich and poor.

7. Equality accepts the principle of protective discrimination for helping the weaker

sections of society. In the Indian political system, right to equality has been given to

all and yet there stands incorporated provisions for granting special protection

facilities and reservations to persons belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes

Other Backward Classes, minorities, women, EWS and children.and freedoms to all

the people.

Equality stands for 3 Basic Features:

(a) Absence of special privileges in society.

(b) Presence of adequate and equal opportunities for development for all.

(c) Equal satisfaction of basic needs of all.

For the above we can take examples from gender inequalities over 200,000 years ago

it is biological inequality.women were pregnant for much of their short lives and it

ends up between pragnancy and growingup children and taking care of family and

grand children/generations.Their ability to do the other things was limited over years

it has turned out to be a tradition.

Even law of royal succession passed the crown to male by skipping girl children

In religion also the differences started perpetuating and women started treating

unequal.

But the industrial revolution in 18th century brought many changes and creation of

birth control practices in 20th century gives women an opportunity to have control

over their pregnancy and helped women to concentrate on their abilities.But ofcourse

conservative men fought tooth and nail against the change and tried to prevent women

at mens jobs. we can say this a chief source of inequality is because of

conservatism,traditionalism and inertia.even today a huge percentage of worlds

population lives in cultures and believes.the man made sex roles always mandate

women get less money than men

Therefore in 200000 years ago it is of biology that prevented women full

participation but now it is sexiest tradition which makes differences.

Types of equality

Natural Equality:

Despite the fact that men 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 worthy of enjoying all human rights and freedoms.
2. Social Equality:

It stands for equal rights and opportunities for development for all classes of people

without any discrimination.A modern central theme of social equality is to end 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 stands for the grant of equal rights and freedoms to all the people and social groups.

All the people are to be treated equal before Law.

4. Political Equality:

It stands for 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.

5. Economic Equality:

Economic inequality originates from…intelligence inequality, Talent inequality,

motivation inequality.

Economic equality does not mean equal treatment or equal reward or equal wages for

all. It stands for fair and adequate opportunities to all for work and for earning of their

livelihoods. It also means that primary needs of all should be met before the special

needs of few are satisfied. The gap between rich and poor should be minimum. There

should be equitable distribution of wealth and resources in the society.

Legal Equality:

Finally, Legal Equality stands for 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 foe all. In

every society equality must be ensured in all these forms.

What is right to equality

Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states: "All are equal
before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the
law".[1] Thus, everyone must be treated equally under the law regardless
of race, gender, color, ethnicity, religion, disability, or other characteristics,
without privilege, discrimination or bias. The general guarantee of equality is
provided by most of the world's national constitutions,[4]
 The Right to Equality is one of the Fundamental Rights enshrined in the
constitution of India. It is very important to understand what this right
entails and includes. The Right to equality is both a positive equality as
well as a negative right.

Under the Indian Constitution, Right to equality is divided under the following
subheadings:

1. Equality before law (Article 14)

2. Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, caste, race, sex or

3. place of birth (Article 15)
4. Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment (Article 16)
5. Abolition of untouchability (Article 17)
6. Abolition of titles (Article 18)

Under the Right to Equality, Article 14 provides a general application whereas Art.
15, Art. 16, Art. 17 and Art. 18 have a specific application.

Equality before the law (Article 14)

Article 14 treats all people the same in the eyes of the law.
 This provision states that all citizens will be treated equally before the law.
 The law of the country protects everybody equally.
 Under the same circumstances, the law will treat people in the same manner.

Prohibition of discrimination (Article 15)

This article prohibits discrimination in any manner.
  No citizen shall, on grounds only of race, religion, caste, place of birth, sex or
any of them, be subject to any liability, disability, restriction or condition with
respect to:

 Access to public places

 Use of tanks, wells, ghats, etc. that are maintained by the State or that
are meant for the general public
 The article also mentions that special provision can be made for women,
children and the backward classes notwithstanding this article.

Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment (Article 16)

Article 16 provides equal employment opportunities in State service for all citizens.
 No citizen shall be discriminated against in matters of public employment or
appointment on the grounds of race, religion, caste, sex, place of birth, descent
or residence.
 Exceptions to this can be made for providing special provisions for the
backward classes.

Abolition of untouchability (Article 17)

Article 17 prohibits the practice of untouchability.
 Untouchability is abolished in all forms.
 Any disability arising out of untouchability is made an offence.

Abolition of titles (Article 18)

Article 18 abolishes titles.
 The State shall not confer any titles except those which are academic or
military titles.
 The article also prohibits citizens of India from accepting any titles from a
foreign State.
 The article abolishes the titles that were awarded by the British Empire such as
Rai Bahadur, Khan Bahadur, etc.
 Awards like Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Bharat Ratna
and military honours like Ashok Chakra, Param Vir Chakra do not belong to
this category.

What is the need to understand this

“The route to achieving equity will not be accomplished through treating everyone
equally. It will be achieved by treating everyone justly according to their
circumstances.” —Paula Dressel, Race Matters Institute
How do we use equality and equity?
What does equality mean? The word equality is defined as “the state or quality of
being equal; correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank, or ability.”

The word equity is defined as “the quality of being fair or impartial; fairness;
impartiality” or “something that is fair and just.” Equity is more complicated than
equality. The complication with equity is that people often disagree on what is “just”
or “fair.” These are subjective concepts and, as a result, laws and policies that attempt
to achieve equity are often challenged in court or are controversial.
The best
way to show the difference between equality and equity is with an example. For
example, if I gave a rich woman and a poor woman each $100 that would be an
example of equality since I gave both the same amount of money.Alternatively, if I
gave a rich woman $100 and a poor woman $200, then it could be said I am trying to
achieve equity by “fairly” giving the poor woman more help based on her financial
situation. Ideally, we would be able to achieve both equality and equity when it comes
to the law and society, but this is usually very difficult

Difference between equality and inequality

“The route to achieving equity will not be accomplished through treating everyone
equally. It will be achieved by treating everyone justly according to their
circumstances.” —Paula Dressel, Race Matters Institute
While the terms equity and equality may sound similar, the implementation of one
versus the other can lead to dramatically different outcomes for marginalized people.
Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or
opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and
allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.
What is a inequality simple definition?
Inequality refers to the phenomenon of unequal and/or unjust distribution of resources
and opportunities among members of a given society. The term inequality may mean
different things to different people and in different contexts.

What are the thrust areas to understand the issues of inequality

Right to Equality (Articles 14 - 18) The right to equality provides for the equal
treatment of everyone before the law, prevents discrimination on various grounds,
treats everybody as equals in matters of public employment, and abolishes
untouchability, and titles (such as Sir, Rai Bahadur, etc.).

Equality before Law basically means that all persons should be treated equally no
matter whether they are poor or rich, male or female, upper caste or lower caste. This
state cannot provide any special privileges to anyone in the country. It is also known
as legal equality.
the Indian society is characterized by a highly entrenched system of social
stratification. It is these social inequalities that created the barriers of denial of access
to materials, cultural and educational resources to the disadvantaged groups of
society. These disadvantaged groups are SCs, STs, women, OBC (non-creamy layer),
minorities and physically challenged persons. It is clear from the demographic factors
that a large section of population of our country is still disadvantaged and
marginalized.

The deprivation of dignity, identity and rights resulted in their dehumanization and
humiliation. The toils and tears of STs were not very different from those of SCs. The
STs were isolated, neglected and exploited. Both SCs and STs continue to suffer from
social disabilities even today. Women, victims of the past traditions and customs of
the Indian society, were considered to be unequal and inferior. Even today women are
being oppressed. Since gender disparity is known to lead to serious social imbalance,
it is essential to neutralize these distortions of the past. The minorities icluding
Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and others, collectively constitute about 19% of
the Indian population. Some groups experiencing deficits and deprivations in several
dimensions of development. The physically challenged persons deserve due place
and attention in the demographic setup of the nation. To ensure the same, the
Parliament has passed the Act called the Person with Disabilities

On achieving independence, the nation took a conscious decision to undo the social
and historic wrongs. For eradication of social disparities, various provisions were
made in the Indian Constitution. Our Constitution enshrined democratization as one of
the main objectives of education and anticipated the democratic expansion of
education to serve social and economic upward mobility. The Indian education system
seems to have been oriented only to meet the requirement of one-third of the
population, ignoring the interest of the rest. Indeed, historically education was
confined to certain sections of the society and did exclude large sections of the
population, making it highly undemocratic in matters of access. This exclusion in
education created ever expanding disparities that adversely affected the disadvantaged
groups of the society. Since higher education is a tool for social and economic
equality, the UGC has been addressing national concerns of access, equality, while
ensuring the standard of quality and relevance of education by implementing policies
of the Government of India and promoting several schemes