Indian Constitution, Social Justice, Human Rights and Social Work Practice I: The Constitution's Characteristics, Preamble, Directive Principles and Key Articles; Social Justice, its Concept, History, Dimensions and Place as a Core Value of Social Work; Social Justice and Leadership; and the Instruments of Social Justice

Fundamental rights are justiciable: a person can move the Supreme Court under Article 32, which Ambedkar called the heart and soul of the Constitution, or a High Court under Article 226. Directive principles are not enforceable in court but are "fundamental in the governance of the country" (Article 37), and the courts have read many of them into Article 21's right to life and personal liberty, which now includes the rights to livelihood (Olga Tellis, 1985), to live with dignity, to health, to shelter, to a clean environment, to privacy (Puttaswamy, 2017) and to legal aid. The table lists the articles most used in social work.

Social justice concerns the fair distribution of the benefits and burdens of social life, and the fair treatment and equal standing of all persons and groups. Aristotle distinguished distributive justice (allocating goods in proportion to merit) from corrective justice (restoring a balance after a wrong). The modern idea grew with the industrial revolution, socialism and the welfare state. John Rawls (A Theory of Justice, 1971) defined justice as fairness: people choosing principles behind a "veil of ignorance", not knowing their own place in society, would choose, first, equal basic liberties for all and, second, that social and economic inequalities be attached to positions open to all under fair equality of opportunity and be to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged (the difference principle). Robert Nozick (Anarchy, State, and Utopia, 1974) replied with an entitlement theory that treats any distribution arising from just acquisition and transfer as just. Amartya Sen (The Idea of Justice, 2009) distinguished niti, rules and institutions, from nyaya, the lives people are actually able to lead. Nancy Fraser argued that justice requires both redistribution of resources and recognition of devalued identities, later adding political representation.

In India the idea of social justice has been shaped by the anti-caste movements and by Ambedkar, who insisted that political democracy would not last without social democracy, "a way of life which recognises liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life", and by Gandhi's antyodaya. Its manifestations are the Constitution's protective discrimination, land reform, legal aid, public interest litigation, welfare legislation for workers, women, children and persons with disabilities, and the reservation policy upheld with a 50 per cent ceiling and the exclusion of the "creamy layer" in Indra Sawhney v Union of India (1992). Its dimensions are social (dignity and equal status), economic (fair distribution and livelihood), political (equal participation and representation), legal (equal protection and access to justice), gender and environmental. Social justice is a core value of social work: it is one of the six values of the NASW Code, a principle of the IFSW–IASSW Statement of Ethical Principles (2018), and central to the Global Definition of 2014. It asks the social worker to pursue change with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed people, not only to help them cope.

The syllabus groups a set of ideas under social justice and leadership. Community building develops the relationships, organisations and shared identity through which a community acts for itself. Personal and community empowerment, in Barbara Solomon's sense, reduces powerlessness at both levels: a person's sense of efficacy and a community's collective capacity. Social justice and technology raises new questions: the digital divide by income, caste, gender, region and disability; exclusion when welfare depends on biometric authentication or online applications; algorithmic bias in automated decisions; and the potential of technology for transparency, grievance redress and organising. Promoting a plan and vision for change means articulating a clear picture of a just alternative and a strategy to reach it. Reflection and connection refer to the practitioner's critical reflection on their own position and assumptions, and to building alliances across groups.

Social reconstruction is the rebuilding of social relations and institutions on just foundations, as after conflict or displacement, or in the transformation of caste and gender relations. Paradigms, policies and privileges ask the practitioner to examine the frameworks through which problems are defined, the policies that follow, and the unearned advantages that some groups enjoy; Peggy McIntosh's essay on "white privilege" (1988) popularised the analysis of privilege as the invisible counterpart of discrimination, and in India the same analysis applies to caste, class, gender and able-bodiedness. The implications of social justice for policy formulation are that policies should be judged by their effect on the least advantaged, should involve affected groups in their design, should address recognition as well as redistribution, and should be monitored with data disaggregated by caste, gender, disability and region.

The constitutional base comprises the fundamental rights, the directive principles, the special provisions for disadvantaged groups and the remedies of Articles 32 and 226. The Indian legal system gives effect to them through the courts, which from the late 1970s opened public interest litigation by relaxing the rules of standing, so that any public-spirited person could approach the court for those unable to do so, even by letter (S. P. Gupta, 1981; Bandhua Mukti Morcha, 1984, on bonded labour). Free legal aid under Article 39A is provided through the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987, which set up the National Legal Services Authority and state and district authorities and gave statutory status to Lok Adalats. Legal advocacy uses litigation and legal aid; public advocacy uses research, media, campaigns and lobbying to change policy and opinion.

Civil society acts as a pressure group through voluntary organisations, movements, trade unions, professional associations and the media, bringing issues onto the agenda, monitoring the state and drafting alternative policies, as the campaigns for the right to information and the right to food did. Statutory bodies provide institutional channels: the National Human Rights Commission and State commissions under the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993; the National Commission for Women under the National Commission for Women Act 1990; the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act 2005; the National Commission for Minorities under the Act of 1992; the constitutional commissions for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes; the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016; and the information commissions under the Right to Information Act 2005. A social worker helps clients use these channels and supplies them with evidence from the field.