Social security in India is one of the least among the developing countries of the world, the root cause of which lies in the embedded inequalities in Indian society. Dr BR Ambedkar’s warnings in his last speech to the Constituent Assembly resonate even today. He said, “On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality”.

Economic And Social Inequality With Political Equality

1. Economic Inequality

1. The top 10% of the Indian population holds 77% of the total national wealth. Due to such economic inequality, a huge section of society is trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty. b.
2. About 63 million Indians are pushed into poverty because of healthcare costs every year. c.
3. While the country is a top destination for medical tourism, the poorest Indian states have infant mortality rates higher than those in sub-Saharan Africa. 2.

2.Social Inequality

1. Gender Inequality: The Economic Survey has mentioned the Son Meta Preference. It says that the desire for a male child has created 21 million “unwanted” girls in India between 0 and 25 years. This has an impact on girl child education, her right to make decisions regarding her life, and eventually has an impact on the health and education of her family. Women are compelled to perform unpaid work such as household chores. They do not have any financial security or asset ownership due to social discrimination. Most of the women work in their family business or agriculture, comprising a large part of the unorganised sector.
2. Caste and Communal Discriminations: For the marginalised communities like Dalits and Adivasis, they are not able to get better jobs because of lack of access to proper education. This affects social mobility and deepens the gap between the rich and the poor, the privileged and the marginalised.

3. Political Equality

The introduction of parliamentary democracy laid the foundation of political equality which accords one man with one vote which has one value for choosing the political representatives.

1. 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 under Articles 14 to 18 of the constitution of India.
2. Article 14 of the constitution of India along with equality before law provides for equal protection of the law as well. It includes affirmative actions or reservations provided to backward classes under Article 16.
3. The 73rd and 74th amendment provide reservation for women in local bodies. One-third of the total number of seats to be reserved for women.

Consequences Of This Contradiction

1. Due to economic and social deprivation, members of marginalised communities lack the bargaining power based on their political equality.
2. The recent crisis of migrant workers during the lockdown period of a pandemic is a classic example of how this contradiction affects the marginalised people. Lack of representation, social status and education along with poverty are the reasons that rather than demanding social security benefits they preferred to start walking on their feet.
3. While marginalised communities keep struggling for basic means of survival, their political equality appears to be largely devoid of substantive impact on their lives.
4. The social and economic inequalities have diminished the possibility of realising freedom in the truest sense for a major section of vulnerable and marginalised sections in India.

Social Security

Social security is the protection that a society provides to individuals and households to ensure access to health care and to guarantee income security, particularly in cases of old age, unemployment, sickness, invalidity, work injury, maternity or loss of a breadwinner. Article 41 of Directive Principles asks the state to make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want. Article 42 says the state shall make provisions for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity benefits.

Major Challenges To Effective Social Security Measures In India

1. Unorganised or informal sector: According to economic survey 2018-19, almost 93% of the total workforce in India is informal. Social discrimination against SCs and STs pushes them to such informal sectors for their bread and butter. Thus they are least covered under the social security schemes of India.
2. Invisible role of women: Care responsibilities of women, lack of resources, ownership of land, and lack of education pushes them farther from the social security system.
3. One of the most prominent challenges regarding the social security policy in India that got revealed during the Covid-19 is that it is largely exclusionary in nature which keeps a considerable section of the needy population out of its purview.
4. The lack of adequate documentation of the people who were entitled to the social welfare benefits made it largely exclusionary and inadvertently selective in nature. The victims of such exclusionary approaches are marginalised sections such as women, migrant workers, tribals and old age, etc.
5. Lack of retirement planning: In India, people do not plan their old age. There is a very negligible investment for the old-age pension and insurance, etc. It creates challenges for the implementation of social security schemes.

Way Forward

1. There are various schemes and programmes to provide social security to various sections of the society, covering the various aspects of health and income securities, such as Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), Pradhan Mantri Kisan Mandhan Yojana and Ayushman Bharat Yojana, etc.
2. The government has moved forward to providing nutrition and employment support with a legal guarantee through the MGNREGA.
3. Economists Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze distinguish two aspects of social security that are “protection” and “promotion.” While the former denotes protection against a fall in living standards and living conditions through ill health, accidents, the latter focuses on enhanced living conditions, helping everyone overcome persistent capabilities deprivation.
4. Therefore, merely formulating policies and schemes will not suffice, we must break the vicious cycle of poverty by eliminating social and economic deprivations along with strengthening political equalities.
5. Social Security is seen as an integral part of the development process. India must implement a universal social security programme for the country instead of exclusionary schemes.