IEWG study favours ‘Social Justice 2.0’, a paradigm of targeted social policy

The Independent Expert Working Group that analysed the structural and rigorous caste census, the first of its kind conducted by the Telangana Government, has opined that the time is ripe to move to a social justice paradigm of “share of proportional backwardness”.

Social justice is about neutralising the curse of a “bad birth lottery”, according to the expert group’s report. It is best done through a new Social Justice 2.0 paradigm of targeted social policy. “If we are able to identify caste groups in order of backwardness with reasonable accuracy and without share of population being a consideration, it must also be possible to develop a social justice governance framework that uplifts those castes that are truly backward,” the group said in its report.