Society in India for thousands of years has been subject to, in the words of Dr. BabasahebAmbedkar, a deeply graded inequality as a direct manifestation of the caste system. Further, within the framework of caste, the perpetuation of inequality based on gender, ethnicity, religion, and other socio-economic vulnerabilities have made the narratives of oppression even more complex. Rising socio-economic inequality, denial of equal opportunities and the appropriation of resources by the ruling classes are manifestations of structural inequality, which deny a majority of the population the right to equality, liberty and dignity. Structural exclusion also hinders the process of capacity building of aspiring lawyers who are denied mentorship and resources essential for the practice social justice lawyering.
For social justice lawyers this raises a fresh set of challenges to analyse and approach changes in the legal environment from the perspective of social justice; to respond to these changes through appropriate legal response mechanisms; and to find new avenues for making duty bearers accountable especially through the mechanism of the lower judiciary.
Thus social justice lawyering is necessarily an activist lawyering which transforms the power relations and thus facilitates the assertion of rights and entitlements of the marginalized through legal processes. Traditional legal aid is directed towards the protection of individuals in specific cases. It is intended to defend the marginalized but no effort is made to encourage the formulation and effective enforcement for the laws for the poor. In contrast, social justice lawyering goes much beyond the traditional legal assistance and looks towards becoming an effective resource in the empowerment of the marginalised. It focuses on social transformation through use of law.
Ultimately it forces a lawyer to reflect and act on some questions crucial for changing status quo: How does one understand social justice in a space of graded inequality from the prism of marginalisation? How and where is power concentrated, distributed and preserved in society? How is privilege exercised to appropriate resources and deny the marginalised equal access to opportunity and ownership? How can the law be used to challenge these power differentials which result in injustice and discrimination?