Recently, the International Labour Organization (ILO) released its flagship report titled “The State of Social Justice: A Work in Progress (2025)”.

Historical Background of the ILO Report-The State of Social Justice: A Work in Progress (2025)

• 1995 World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen):
  • Global Assembly: Leaders from 186 countries gathered for the first World Summit for Social Development, the largest such gathering at the time.
  • Focus on Employment: Recognized full and productive employment as central to human development and its link to poverty eradication and social inclusion.
• People-Centred Development: Aimed to create a framework prioritizing human needs amid rising unemployment, unmet basic needs, and social exclusion.
• 2025 Context: Renewed Global Assessment
  • ILO Review: Ahead of the Second World Summit in Qatar (November 2025), the ILO released “The State of Social Justice: A Work in Progress (2025)”, assessing three decades of progress.
  • Moral and Functional Imperative: Reaffirmed that social justice is essential for peace, trust, institutional legitimacy, and unlocking human potential, enabling inclusive and sustainable societies.

Four Pillars for Advancing Social Justice

• The ILO’s vision for advancing social justice rests on four pillars:
  • Fundamental Human Rights and Capabilities: Ensure basic freedoms and essential entitlements as the foundation of social justice.
  • Equal Access to Opportunities: Remove barriers to education, training, and employment, enabling all to earn a decent living.
  • Fair Distribution: Guarantee a just share of economic growth, with special focus on the most disadvantaged.
  • Fair Transitions: Adapt and strengthen institutions to manage environmental, digital, and demographic shifts, ensuring no one is left behind.

Crucial Insights on the ILO Report (2025)

• Global Progress:
  • Child Labour: Declined from 20.6% in 1995 to 7.8% in 2024, while secondary school completion rose by 22 percentage points since 2000.
  • Poverty Reduction: Extreme poverty fell from 4 in 10 people (1995) to 1 in 10 (2023); working poverty declined from 27.9% (2000) to 6.9% (2024).
  • Labour Productivity: Global labour productivity per worker increased by 78%, with a 215% rise in upper-middle-income countries; between-country productivity inequality fell by 40%.
  • Coordinated Policy Impact: Demonstrates the potential of collective policy action in advancing well-being and reducing inequalities.
• Persistent Challenges:
  • Far from Eradicating Poverty: About 800 million people still live on less than US$3/day, and one in four lacks access to safe drinking water.
  • Stark Inequalities: The top 1% holds 20% of income and 38% of wealth globally.
  • Gender Gaps and Informality: Women earn only 78% of men’s wages, the labour force participation gap has narrowed by just 3 percentage points since 1995, and 58% of workers remain in informal employment.
  • Erosion of Rights: Collective bargaining and freedom of association compliance is deteriorating, with continued denial of rights to specific worker groups.
  • Social Protection Deficit: Only half of the global population enjoys social protection coverage.
  • Technological and Climate Risks: Around 71% of the workforce faces climate-related disruptions, and automation threatens one-fourth of existing jobs.
  • Erosion of Trust: Citizens increasingly feel unrewarded and perceive society as unfair, weakening trust in governments, unions, and businesses.
• Recommendations for Fair Transitions:
• • Managing Societal Shifts: Climate, technological, and demographic transitions must be managed justly, with fairness in impact distribution.
  • Institutional Strategy:
    • Apply existing labour institutions to current challenges.
    • Adapt institutions to address specific transition risks.
    • Amplify institutions to integrate policies across domains, ensuring labour and social justice are central in societal transitions.

About Social Justice

• Definition: Social Justice is the fair and equitable distribution of resources, opportunities, and rights, ensuring that every individual — regardless of caste, gender, religion, class, or region — enjoys dignity, freedom, and access to growth opportunities.
• Purpose: It aims to eliminate systemic discrimination and create conditions for substantive equality, going beyond mere formal equality.
• Core Dimensions:
  • Distributive Justice: Equitable access to resources and wealth.
  • Procedural Justice: Fairness in laws, institutions, and decision-making.
  • Restorative Justice: Correcting historical and structural disadvantages.

Social Justice and Its Provisions in the Indian Constitution

• Preamble: Envisions Justice – social, economic, and political as a cornerstone of the Indian Republic.
• Fundamental Rights: 
  • Article 14: Equality before law.
  • Article 15: Prohibition of discrimination based on religion, caste, gender, or place of birth.
  • Article 16: Equality of opportunity in public employment.
  • Article 17: Abolition of untouchability.
• Directive Principles of State Policy:
  • Article 38: Promote welfare through a social order based on justice.
  • Article 39: Ensure equal pay for equal work and protection of workers and children.
  • Article 46: Promote educational and economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and weaker sections.
• Fundamental Duties (Article 51A): Urges citizens to renounce practices derogatory to women and promote harmony.

Global Initiatives for Social Justice

• ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization (2008): Defines four interlinked pillars — employment creation, social protection, social dialogue, and rights at work.
• United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Links social justice with Sustainable Development Goals such as SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).
• World Social Protection Floor Initiative: Promotes universal access to basic social security for all individuals.
• Global Coalition for Social Justice (2024): A new international partnership to strengthen policy coordination for fairness in global labour transitions.

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India’s Initiatives for Promoting Social Justice

• Constitutional and Legal Measures:
  • Reservations in education, employment, and legislatures for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes.
  • Legislations such as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 strengthen equality in law and practice.
• Welfare and Social Security Schemes:
  • Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY): Provides health insurance to poor and vulnerable families.
  • Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN): Offers direct income support to small and marginal farmers.
  • Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY): Provides maternity benefits to working women.
  • National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP): Ensures pensions for the elderly, widows, and persons with disabilities.
  • E-Shram Portal: Registers informal and gig workers to extend social protection benefits.
• Gender Empowerment:
  • Beti Bachao Beti Padhao promotes female education and combats gender bias.
  • Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (2023) reserves 33% of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, reinforcing political empowerment.
• Education and Skill Development:
  • National Education Policy (NEP 2020) focuses on inclusive education and critical skill-building.
  • Skill India Mission and Digital India Initiatives aim to enhance employability and bridge the digital divide.
  • Right to Education (RTE): The RTE Act (2009) makes education a fundamental right under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. It ensures free and compulsory education for all children aged 6 to 14 years in government and aided schools.
• Inclusive Data and Evidence-Based Policy:
  • The decision to conduct Caste Enumeration in the next Census will provide accurate data for targeted affirmative action.
  • Expansion of social audits and real-time dashboards improves transparency in welfare delivery.

Significance of Social Justice

• Ethical Foundation of Democracy: Ensures equality of dignity, rights, and participation, strengthening the moral fabric of democracy.
• Inclusive and Sustainable Growth: Provides equitable access to opportunities, enhancing productivity, innovation, and economic resilience.
• Social Cohesion and Peace: Reduces alienation, builds mutual trust, and fosters national harmony.
• Essential for Demographic Dividend Maximisation: For a young nation like India, equitable access to skilling and employment is crucial to harness the demographic dividend, and social justice, especially gender and regional equity, ensures the dividend does not become a demographic liability.
• Alignment with Global Goals: Supports India’s commitment to SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work), and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).
• Institutional Legitimacy: Fair and just societies enjoy greater stability, citizen trust, and effective governance, reinforcing the credibility of institutions.

Challenges in Achieving Social Justice

• Deep and Persistent Inequality: Income and wealth concentration remain excessively high across regions, castes, and classes, reinforcing structural disparities. 
  • Regional imbalances intensify poverty in rural and remote areas due to poor access to education, healthcare, infrastructure, and employment, keeping social mobility low.
  • India’s Gini coefficient fell from 0.288 (2011–12) to 0.255 (2022–23), placing it among the world’s least unequal major economies.
• Informal and Precarious Labour Market: Over 80% of India’s workforce operates in the informal sector, lacking job security, social protection, and decent working conditions. 
  • The twin pressures of automation and climate change further threaten unskilled workers, widening the gap between formal and informal economies.
  • The ILO estimates that around 92% of India’s workforce is employed informally, without formal contracts or limited job security.
• Gender and Caste-Based Discrimination: Patriarchal norms limit women’s autonomy, perpetuate wage gaps, and foster workplace harassment, keeping female labour force participation low. 
  • Simultaneously, caste and ethnicity-based hierarchies continue to restrict access to education, land, and leadership, while intersectional discrimination magnifies disadvantages for Dalit, tribal, and minority women.
  • India Justice Report 2025 reveals deep‐seated caste and gender disparities in access to justice across states. 
• Poverty and Economic Vulnerability: Extreme wealth concentration and multidimensional poverty coexist, with large sections dependent on low-paying informal work. 
  • Economic insecurity and absence of robust social safety nets trap millions in cycles of deprivation despite economic growth.
  • According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2024 (World Economic Forum), India ranks 129th out of 146 countries, closing 64.1% of its overall gender gap, with particularly low parity in Economic Participation (39.8%) and Political Empowerment (28.8%).
• Policy and Implementation Gaps: While India has progressive legal frameworks —anti-discrimination laws, reservations, and welfare schemes—their enforcement suffers from bureaucratic inertia, corruption, and weak accountability. 
  • Marginalized groups often lack legal literacy and access to justice, preventing them from realizing constitutional entitlements.
• Inadequate Public and Digital Infrastructure: Inequality in access to quality education, healthcare, and digital connectivity perpetuates exclusion. 
  • Rural areas face severe teacher shortages, health facility gaps, and limited digital access, worsening disparities in employment and service delivery in an increasingly technology-driven world.
• Governance and Trust Deficit: Crony capitalism, politicization of affirmative action, and diversion of welfare funds dilute social justice objectives. 
  • Growing public disillusionment with institutions and poor service delivery erode citizens’ trust in fairness, governance, and the social contract itself.
  • The India Justice Report 2025 highlights low institutional accountability, especially in police, prisons, and legal aid systems, undermining citizen confidence in justice delivery.

Way Forward

• Equitable Resource Redistribution: Implement progressive taxation, expand universal healthcare and social security to bridge wealth divides. 
  • A national minimum wage indexed to inflation and targeted fiscal transfers can ensure that economic growth translates into shared prosperity across regions and communities.
• Inclusive and Secure Employment: Promote labour formalization, enforce fair wages, and extend social protection to informal and gig workers. 
  • Reskilling, green job creation, and adaptive labour policies must prepare the workforce for transitions driven by automation and climate change.
• Gender and Caste Equity: Strengthen equal pay, workplace safety, and political representation for women. 
  • Parallelly, implement land reforms, enhance education access, and provide entrepreneurship support to empower Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and minorities, breaking intergenerational exclusion.
• Universal Access to Public Services: Invest in quality education, primary healthcare, and affordable housing for marginalized populations. 
  • Reducing rural–urban gaps through digital inclusion, infrastructure development, and culturally responsive education can enhance opportunity and social mobility.
• Strengthened Legal and Institutional Mechanisms: Enact comprehensive anti-discrimination laws, promote smart decarceration, and strengthen legal aid for weaker sections. 
  • Ensure transparent governance, social audits, and digital monitoring to enhance accountability in welfare delivery.
• Community and Grassroots Empowerment: Encourage civic participation, local dialogue, and community-led development. 
  • Grassroots mobilization ensures that social justice policies reflect ground realities and rebuild trust between citizens and the State.
• Cultural and Ethical Transformation: Foster self-reflection, empathy, and diversity in personal and professional spaces. 
  • Promote inclusive leadership, representation of marginalized voices, and ethical citizenship to strengthen the moral foundation of social justice.

Conclusion

The State of Social Justice 2025 reveals progress with paradox — growth amid inequality and eroding trust. For India, social justice is the soul of the Constitution and the core of democracy. The task is to turn welfare into empowerment, growth into inclusion, and policy into reality, building a just, equitable, and inclusive India where peace and prosperity rest on social justice.

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