Citizenship and social justice, the two essential ideas today, have never been more significant as social transformation rates and human rights protection have increased. Both of these pillars dictate the architecture of our societies and determine the lives of people. With the world still facing numerous and current injustices in the distribution of rights for people, it is essential to unravel the meaning of citizenship rights in providing social justice. Unfortunately, millions cannot access the full opportunities to live an everyday life without barriers.
In the super complex world of today’s governance, it is essential not to forget the fact that citizenship is not only a legal construct – it is a tool. These include civil rights, political rights, voting rights, education rights, and other liberties attached to someone’s citizenship, which comprise the basics of belonging and participation. However, these rights are unequal, so the oppressed groups struggle to make themselves heard. Thus, the classification of citizenship rights and social justice allows for considering the functioning of the inequality system and the actions required to create equal societies.
CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS
Citizenship is not only a rights and duties construct, but rather, it is the foundation of a person’s legal personality in the state. Citizenship is a status that gives an individual some privileges and obligations expected by their state. They are frequently the rights of citizens, such as the right to vote, the right to work, the right to education, and the right to receive state protection. In democratic countries, the concept of citizenship also allows individuals to vote; this means they have a say in matters that, in one way or another, affect them.
However, I agree that citizenship is NOT always universal, let alone equal. The regimes like apartheid in South Africa and racial segregation in the United States of America provided a historical analysis of how the citizenship rights of a people could have been violently withdrawn based on race, ethnicity or social stratum. Nevertheless, the social categorisation of the people as inferior and the bureaucratic barriers of diverse systems of governance, even in today’s globalised societies, result in the exclusion of oppressed people from absolute citizenship rights in many countries.
SOCIAL JUSTICE: A STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY
Social justice can be defined as the rights where wealth, incidence and privileges are all fairly established in the society. It stresses the importance of promoting a culture that fosters diverse, improved capacity characteristics that fertilise capability for all people. Liberation should be pursued towards removing structures that reduce equality, including racism, poverty, women’s subjugation and the unfair treatment of members of the LGBT community.
In its simplest terms, it means that every person is to have an equal chance at success, not just on paper, but in real life. However, it is depressing that all societies have endogenous social injustices that significantly affect susceptible populations. For instance, women are paid less than men in most countries today; people of Colour or Indigenous origin have few rights to education, health care, or shelter.
THE INTERSECTION OF CITIZENSHIP AND SOCIAL RIGHTS
Therefore, there is a clear link between citizenship and social justice. Although citizenship provides certain legal personalities within a given population some rights, social justice seeks to protect and ensure those rights are accorded to and properly esteemed within different population segments. When some people are barred or given restricted status in exercising their political rights, there are social injustices.
Focusing on the matter of voting rights, as for many other democratic countries, voting is one of the cornerstones of the rights of a citizen.
Nonetheless, eradicating their right to vote through legislation that does not allow any prisoner, released or still in prison, to vote or through the inability of the polling station to be reached by vulnerable groups has kept the minority silent. In such cases, citizenship is not fully delivered, and social justice is not served to their deserving.
Like education and healthcare, these are also both components of being a citizen and a component of social justice. A country striving to support the principle of citizenship parity must ensure that every citizen, regardless of socioeconomic status, gains quality education and healthcare services. However, in many developed and developing nations, poor populations or deprived ethnicities tend to get worse access to these essential services, which in turn amplifies inequality and poverty cycles.
INEQUALITIES IN CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS
The virtual distance between classically defined concepts of citizenship and the daily experiences of many people continues to be significant. Several forms of inequities continue to hinder true equality:
- Economic Inequities: Economic inequalities are typically tied to the inequalities regarding citizens’ rights. In most of the so-called third-world countries, poverty denies people the opportunity to have education and health – civil liberties. As a result of poor education, people cannot find their way out of the poverty trap.
- Racial and Ethnic Inequities: In many countries of the world, first and second-generation ethnic and racial minorities continue to suffer discrimination, which in practice curtails their citizenship rights. It reduces social justice by denying all citizens equal treatment, whether it be through laws that are designed to punish certain racial groups or institutionalised racism.
- Gender Inequities: In most societies, women are politically innately inferior to men and are not given equal citizenship. Gender equality is a condition that must be met for the world to move closer to a state where citizenship rights for all will be real.
4.LGBTQ+ Inequities: Although some steps towards that have been made in the last couple of years, people in the LGBTQ+ still experience problems in exercising their citizenship rights fully. It is still high in employment and healthcare, and the law does not even recognise their existence in many places.
ADDRESSING THESE INEQUITIES
Thus, where do we start to redress these societal disparities? First and foremost, it means governments and civil society institutions support people’s demand for change. Here are some critical steps that can help bridge the gap between citizenship rights and social justice:
- Policy Reforms: States must ensure and apply policies that may prevent discrimination and ensure the rights of those vulnerable sections of society. These areas may include voting rights, employment rights, and anti-discrimination legislation. That is why a shift in policy approaches is essential for dealing with the causes of injustice.
- Education and Awareness: Outright informing people of their rights and creating awareness on social justice issues can enable the oppressed group, due to their disability or any other reason, to fight for themselves. Civic education should be integral in each curriculum so that people can be in a position to understand what their rights are and how they can demand them.
- Grassroots Movements: This paper explores the importance of social movements over time in espousing the cause of citizenship rights and social justice. From the battle of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States to more recent protests for racial equality and gender rights worldwide, people can take the lead to bring positive change through the organisation.
- Inclusive Institutions: Governments and organisations, therefore, have to ensure that institutions in the country are democratic and responsive to the people. This entails encouraging equal representation in leaders within the organisations and putting in place ways through which the minority groups can have their say.
- International Cooperation: Cohesion participation is required to complement the society’s fight against social injustice due to its prevalence. Global institutions like the United Nations enable human rights and need to guarantee citizenship rights across the globe.
CONCLUSION: A PATH FORWARD
It is important to note that the terms ‘Citizenship and social justice are not frozen in time while society has a dynamic need. However, social equality, which was assumed to be achieved, remains a mirage to most people. While certain sections of people still live in(cells) submission to enjoy full citizenship, social justice will remain a struggle.
In this manner, we dismantle dual citizenship and make social contacts more equal, thus raising the general standard of people in society, regardless of race, colour, gender, origin or means. That’s a very long process; however, people can work to shift culture in a more positive direction through collective action.
Author(s) Name: Shatakshi Dwivedi (Symbiosis International University- Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA)
