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Introduction

In a remote village of Bihar, young Anand Kumar once dreamt of becoming a mathematician. Born to a postal clerk, Anand had the brilliance but not the means. His family couldn’t afford coaching or foreign education. He was once even selected for Cambridge University, but financial constraints and lack of connections held him back. However, instead of letting the door close behind him, Anand turned his struggle into a mission. He founded Super 30, a free coaching initiative for underprivileged students, preparing them for the elite IIT entrance exams. Many of his students, from the poorest and most marginalised backgrounds, cracked one of the toughest exams in India. These were children who once polished shoes or worked in fields. Justice for them began not with sympathy, but with access, with the opportunity that was no longer a privilege of the rich. Their success is not just personal, it is a testament to the fact that justice is served only when barriers to opportunity are broken.

Understanding the Essence

Justice is more than the absence of crime or the fair application of laws, it is the foundation of a society where every individual has the chance to flourish. It begins not merely with punishing wrongdoing but with preventing wrongs rooted in inequality. When opportunity is hoarded by a few, because of wealth, race, caste, or geography, then society is not truly just, no matter how advanced its legal system may be.

Opportunity, on the other hand, refers to access to quality education, healthcare, employment, housing, political participation, and cultural freedom. When these are limited to a privileged few, justice remains an illusion.

Opportunity as Privilege: The Historical Injustice

Throughout history, access to opportunity has often been defined by accident of birth.  

‘The chains of heredity are the heaviest shackles, for they bind not just the body but the destiny of generations’. 

In feudal societies, serfs had no path to education or mobility. In colonial systems, native populations were systematically denied upward mobility. In apartheid-era South Africa, legal segregation ensured that people of color were excluded from quality education, property ownership, and jobs. Similarly, the caste system in India confined Dalits and lower castes to the margins for centuries, barring them from learning, owning land, or participating in governance. 

Even in modern democracies, structural privileges, often inherited across generations, mean that wealth, education, and social capital remain within select groups. In the United States, for instance, the concept of the “American Dream” suggests that anyone can succeed through hard work and perseverance. However, studies show that opportunities for upward mobility are often dictated by the wealth and social status into which one is born. These inherited advantages violate the very spirit of justice, which demands fairness as its cornerstone. It is therefore natural in every society, that there exists an undeniable correlation between justice and opportunity. The transformative impact of access to opportunity is what allows individuals to rise above their circumstances and become agents of change for others, catalysing justice.  

Education: The First Gate to Justice

The most potent form of opportunity is education, and it is often the most unequal. Justice begins when a child in rural Kenya has the same chance of learning as a child in urban Tokyo. Unfortunately, access to quality schooling continues to be a global privilege. In many developing countries, girls still face early dropout due to lack of sanitation, distance to schools, or societal norms. 

Malala Yousafzai’s story of being shot for demanding education underlines how opportunity is not yet a right for all. On the other hand, examples like India’s Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 or Ghana’s Free Senior High School policy show how states can move toward making education a right and not a privilege. Justice, in its truest sense, begins when education is not a ticket bought by the wealthy but a ladder available to every child. 

Economic Opportunity and Inequality

Similarly, a job is more than a paycheck. It is a route to dignity, agency, and freedom. Yet, many are locked out of the job market because of discriminatory practices, lack of training, or inaccessible infrastructure. Gender-based pay gaps, caste-based hiring bias, and systemic racism are all signs that opportunity is still guarded by invisible gates.

The rise of gig economies and automation has also created a class of workers with no social security or upward mobility. Economic justice, therefore, demands not just job creation but decent work and pay parity. Programs like Germany’s dual vocational training system or India’s MGNREGA offer examples of efforts to democratize access to livelihood. However, justice is only realized when individuals can access and choose from diverse opportunities, regardless of who they are or where they come from. 

Political Participation and Representation

Democracy is often seen as the ultimate form of justice, but it cannot be truly just when opportunity to influence policy is skewed in favor of elites. Around the world, political parties are often dominated by dynasties, upper castes, or wealthy individuals. This perpetuates a cycle where those in power legislate in favor of their own class. 

Justice requires that the marginalized not only vote but also lead. The rise of women leaders in countries like Rwanda, where quotas ensure female representation, or the growing political participation of marginalized groups in India’s Panchayati Raj system, shows that power too can be democratized. But much remains to be done. Justice begins when those historically excluded are not only heard but also placed at the center of decision-making. 

Justice and the Digital Divide

However, in an age where opportunity increasingly resides online, be it education, healthcare access, or job listings, the digital divide threatens to create a new class of the excluded. According to the United Nations, nearly 2.6 billion people remain offline. The pandemic (COVID 19) widened this gap as children without internet access were cut off from learning. 

Efforts like Kenya’s solar-powered digital classrooms or India’s DIKSHA and SWAYAM platforms for rural learners demonstrate how policy can bridge this gap. But until every citizen has meaningful digital access, justice remains incomplete in the modern world. 

Gender and Opportunity: A Global Gap

Justice is incomplete when half the population is systematically denied opportunity. Women still face barriers to education, employment, and political participation. Cultural norms, legal restrictions, and unpaid care work limit their choices. From the glass ceiling in boardrooms to the child marriage in villages, opportunity remains gendered. 

Measures like Iceland’s equal pay legislation or India’s Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao initiative reflect attempts to break these barriers. Real justice begins when a girl in a patriarchal community can dream as freely as her male counterpart and has the means to realize that dream. 

Health and the Right to Thrive

Health is another foundational pillar of opportunity. A sick child cannot study and a sick adult cannot work. Yet, millions lack access to basic healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed such deep yet significant inequities like vaccine nationalism, medical infrastructure collapse, and unequal care access. 

Universal healthcare systems like the UK’s National Health Service or Thailand’s health card scheme are examples of justice manifesting through access. Here, injustice thrives where life-saving care depends on income or insurance. Justice begins when survival and well-being are no longer privileges. 

Climate Justice and Intergenerational Opportunity

Furthermore, the climate crisis has highlighted a new dimension of injustice, that is both intergenerational and geographical. Those who pollute least suffer most, be it Pacific islanders facing rising seas or farmers in Africa battling erratic rains. Meanwhile, developed countries with carbon-heavy lifestyles continue elsewhere with impunity. 

Justice in the 21st century must therefore include climate justice: equitable access to clean air, water, and a sustainable future. Shared prosperity cannot be built on environmental degradation that deprives others of basic security. 

Realizing Just Opportunity: The Way Forward

Realizing justice in opportunity demands deliberate and sustained efforts across institutions, policies, and cultures. It requires transforming opportunity from a privilege enjoyed by a few into a fundamental right accessible to all. This transformation begins with equitable investments in education, ensuring that quality schooling, inclusive pedagogy, and digital learning tools reach underserved and marginalized communities. For instance, Brazil’s Bolsa Família cash transfer program, which incentivizes school attendance among poor families, illustrates how policy can bridge access gaps early in life. 

Secondly, affirmative action remains necessary in contexts where historic and structural exclusion has hindered equality. Reservations in education or employment, as seen in India, serve as mechanisms to level the playing field. It is not to grant undue advantage, but to restore fairness. 

Universal healthcare is another cornerstone. When quality healthcare is free or affordable, individuals are more capable of pursuing education and work without the burden of medical debt or poor health. Thailand’s 30 Baht Health Scheme stands as a powerful model of inclusive health reform. 

To avoid the entrenchment of new forms of exclusion, governments must bridge the digital divide. This entails investing in digital infrastructure, providing affordable devices, and training communities to use digital tools. This ensures technology becomes a pathway to empowerment rather than a new barrier. 

Simultaneously, progressive taxation and robust social security systems are vital. Redistributive policies such as basic income, child support schemes, or elderly pensions help mitigate inherited disadvantage and enable people to pursue their potential with dignity. 

Legal frameworks must also evolve to prohibit all forms of discrimination, whether based on gender, caste, race, disability, or ethnicity. However, laws alone are not enough. Communities must be empowered through decentralization, participatory budgeting, and local decision-making, so that solutions reflect lived realities and local aspirations.

Ultimately, justice in opportunity is not a one-time fix but a continuous commitment. It is a practice renewed in every policy choice, budget allocation, and social interaction. To move from privilege to principle, societies must actively build systems where everyone, regardless of their starting point, can thrive. 

Balancing Individual Merit and Systemic Fairness

Although, few argue that equal opportunity undermines meritocracy. However, a closer look shows that true merit cannot be identified without a level playing field. A student scoring high on an exam after studying in air-conditioned coaching centers does not prove more “meritorious” than one who overcame hunger and poor schooling to achieve half the score. The point is not to punish excellence but to ensure that excellence is accessible to all. Justice requires recognizing both individual effort and systemic barriers.

Conclusion: From Privilege to Promise

Addressing this imbalance means, justice begins not with grand declarations but with everyday access: with the ability of a girl in a conflict zone to read, or a poor farmer to access credit. As long as opportunity is inherited more than it is earned, as long as it is guarded by geography, money, or identity, the world will be more inclined towards falling short of its potential. To build a just world, we must ensure that no dream is too expensive, no chance too distant, and no voice too small to be heard. Opportunity must therefore cease to be a privilege, it must become the fabric of citizenship itself. Only then can we move toward a society where justice is not an ideal, but a reality for all. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” and it is only through the equitable distribution of opportunities that we can hope to achieve justice for all.

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