Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
Few days back I was going through the official website of Jammu & Kashmir State Information Commission. I could see several judgments issued by the commission in favour of different appellants. I found several appeals under Right to Information Act (RTI) being filed by people hailing from remote districts of Rajouri , Poonch , Doda , Kupwara , Kishtwar , Kulgam , Shopian , Bandipora etc. Only a couple of years back, I remember people had never ever thought of making Government accountable. When we used to go from village to village in connection with our RTI awareness campaign, even 1 % of the people were not aware about their Right to Information. With the passage of time things have changed a lot, that too within a period of five to six years. Today I feel so elated as I see people using this right to make Government answerable. It is not the case of only Right to Information which has empowered people across nook and corner of India, but the role played by several social movements , community leaders and social entrepreneurs has brought a tremendous change among the backward and socially weaker sections of the society. Today on the World day for Social Justice I pay my tribute to some of the leaders who divorced their lucrative lifestyles to work for the poor and marginalized across different parts of India. From 2009 onwards the World Day of Social Justice is observed on February 20 every year. This day is well recognized by United Nations (UN) general assembly. Social Justice day is marked to encourage people to look at how social justice affects poverty eradication. It also focuses on the goals of achieving full employment and support for social integration .
Social Justice and Child rights :
Kailash Satyarthi won Noble Prize for his work on child rights last year . He gave up his job as an electrical engineer to dedicate himself towards protecting and advancing child rights. He has been working in this sector for over last 30 years. This man has freed more than 80,000 child labourers by giving them new hope in life. Due to his zeal and zest Kailash Satyarthi’s NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) emerged as the most prominent child rights group in the country. This man became a global voice for the street children. Satyarthi passionately argued before several forums that child trafficking and labour perpetuate poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and population growth. From the factories exploiting children in the country’s biggest cities like Delhi and Mumbai to the hinterland of Odisha and Jharkhand where children are still illegally employed as bonded labourers, BBA has rescued them in almost all parts of country. Kailash has advocated for stringent laws against child trafficking and met with mixed success so far. Satyarthi in a media interview said he was concerned about the plight of child labourers around him and it finally prompted him to start an organised movement. His past attempts to raid factories employing child labourers met with hostile reaction from the factory owners and at times the police as well but the importance of his work was slowly recognized.
Social Justice & access to Information :
Aruna Roy was born in Tamil Nadu in the year 1946. She is a social activist known for her efforts to fight corruption and promote transparency .After completing her post-graduation from Delhi University, Roy taught for a year at the same college. She qualified prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS) exam in 1968. She resigned from IAS in 1974 to join the Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC) , a Rural-Development organization in Tilonia Rajasthan. SWRC was set up by her husband Bunker Roy. In 1990 she along with Nikhil Dey , Shankar Singh and others moved to village Devdungri Rajasthan, and set up Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), an organization devoted to empowering workers and peasants and increasing the accountability of local Governments. Aruna Roy along with many other activists were instrumental in the enactment of RTI legislation in different states of India right from 1996 onwards . A nationwide grassroots campaign launched by MKSS, NCPRI led to the adoption of Right to Information laws by nine states in the early 2000s. At National level Right to Information Act (RTI) was enacted during 2005 and that was only possible due to the efforts of Aruna Roy.
Social Justice through livelihood :
Vijay Mahajan also known as V M by his friends and colleagues is a Hyderabad based Social Entrepreneur who was born at Jaipur. He graduated from prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT) in 1975 and did his MBA from the reputed institute the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) in 1981. V M was a mid-career fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, USA, 1988-89, where he studied economic development policy. After completing his engineering degree from IIT-Delhi , V M worked in Philips as a marketing executive for four years. During these years he was least interested in selling Philips radio sets as he wanted to work towards the poverty eradication. Soon after completing his MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad , V M started working in the rural development field in Bihar. In 1983, he established an NGO, PRADAN which as on date is one of the leading development NGO’s in India. Pradan works with over 120,000 poor households, promoting livelihoods and community institutions. In 1996, V M set up BASIX a livelihood promotion Institution based in Hyderabad. VM chose a peculiar slogan for BASIX ie Equity for Equity. BASIX had helped support the livelihoods of over a million poor households in the agriculture, allied and non-farm sectors by extending micro-credit worth over Rs 1200 crore (US$300 million). BASIX goes well beyond micro-credit to offer a “triad” of livelihood promotion services including savings , agricultural/business, skill development , solid waste management , solar energy.
Conclusion :
At a time when we have become materialistic and capitalist driven society we must applause these living legends. Great men come and go, but what remains behind are some unforgettable impressions and heroic deeds, which transform the society for good. The idea of “Social Justice” is meant to promote just society which challenges injustice and values diversity. It can only exists when all the people from different caste , colour , religion share a common humanity and therefore have a right to equitable treatment , human rights, and a fair allocation of community resources.
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