Family and Society · Sub-pillar 7.3
Social fairness
Equal opportunity regardless of caste, religion, community, region, disability, tribal identity, sexual orientation or gender identity; harmony between communities; and the ability to move up in life.
What is social fairness?
Social fairness is sub-pillar 7.3 of the 47 BH framework for a developed Bharat by 2047, the third of six sub-pillars under the Family and Society pillar. It asks whether every Indian has an equal chance regardless of caste, religion, community, region, disability, tribal identity, sexual orientation or gender identity, whether communities live in harmony, and whether people can move up in life from where they were born.
Why it matters for 2047
A developed country is one where birth does not decide destiny. The test is not whether India has equality on paper, which it has had since 1950, but whether a child born to a Dalit farm labourer, a tribal family in a forest district or a Muslim artisan has the same chance of finishing school, finding good work and being treated with respect as any other child. Where that chance is unequal, talent is wasted and resentment grows.
Harmony between communities is the other half. India's diversity is its oldest fact and its hardest achievement; the country has held together through a plurality of faiths, castes, languages and regions that has broken other nations. Whether that holds through 2047 depends on how communities treat one another day to day, and whether the state treats them alike.
Mobility is the measure that ties it together. If children routinely do better than their parents whatever their group, fairness is improving even where gaps remain. If some groups rise while others stay where they were, the country is growing apart. 47 BH keeps this sub-pillar strictly to evidence and away from the politics that surround it.
Where India stands
- Flat
is how the leading academic study describes upward mobility in India: the expected education rank of children born to parents in the bottom half has been constant and low since before 1991. Mobility has risen for Scheduled Caste sons, which the authors link to reservation, and fallen for Muslim sons; daughters' mobility is lower than sons' across all groups.[1]
- 55,698
crimes against Scheduled Castes and 9,966 against Scheduled Tribes were registered in 2024, down 3.6% and 23.1% respectively on 2023, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.[2]
- 2,908
cases of communal or religious rioting were registered between 2017 and 2021, from a high of 857 in 2020 to 378 in 2021, according to National Crime Records Bureau data given to the Rajya Sabha in December 2022; no later official count was available when this page was written.[3]
- 53%
of Indian adults said the country's religious diversity benefits India in Pew Research Center's 2019-20 survey of 29,999 adults; majorities in every major religious group said respecting all religions is very important to being truly Indian, while most also said their close friends come mainly from their own religion.[4]
The architecture of fairness is in place and has worked where it has been used. Reservation in education and public employment has measurably raised the mobility of Scheduled Caste men, registered crimes against Scheduled Castes and Tribes fell in 2024, and most Indians of every faith say they are free to practise their religion and that respecting all religions is part of being Indian. [1][2][4]
The underlying picture is of a society that has grown without becoming more mobile. Children from the bottom half of families are no more likely to rise than they were before liberalisation, Muslim sons have lost ground, and daughters of every group lag sons. [1] Communities are tolerant in principle and separate in practice, and more than fifty thousand crimes against Dalits are still registered a year. [2][4]
A note on the numbers: there is no official measure of mobility or of equal opportunity across groups, so the mobility finding is from a peer-reviewed academic study using survey data; crimes against Scheduled Castes and Tribes and communal riots are police registrations, which depend on reporting and classification and understate the harm; the communal figures stop at 2021 because NCRB stopped publishing the series separately and 47 BH could not find a later official count; Pew's survey is from 2019-20. Measures for disability, tribal identity and sexual and gender minorities will be added when 47 BH finds credible national data.
On the 47 BH report card
Every 15 August, 47 BH reports how far India has come on each sub-pillar. For this sub-pillar, the headline indicators are:
- Intergenerational mobility in education, by social group and sex (academic studies on IHDS and NSS data).
- Gaps in earnings, education and representation across caste, religion and region (PLFS; AISHE; research studies).
- Crimes against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and communal incidents (NCRB; Ministry of Home Affairs).
- Share who say religious diversity benefits India and who have friends outside their group (Pew Research Center or a comparable survey).
Two lenses on social fairness
City and village
47 BH asks whether the anonymity of the city dissolves caste and community as its defenders claim, or hides them in who gets a flat, a job interview or a seat at the table. Villages are where identity is most visible and most enforced; cities are where it is most deniable and most quietly practised. Both are tests of fairness.
Learn, avoid, protect
- Learn
- What can India learn from countries that measured discrimination directly and acted on what they found, that made opportunity for minorities a matter of national pride rather than grievance, and that built shared institutions, schools, sports and civic life, where communities meet as equals?
- Avoid
- Which mistakes should it avoid, such as letting fairness become a contest of grievances, measuring harmony only by the absence of riots, or assuming that growth alone will dissolve the disadvantages that birth still carries?
- Protect
- What of its own should it protect, such as the constitutional promise of equality and the reservation system that has delivered real mobility, the everyday coexistence of faiths in markets, neighbourhoods and festivals, and the composite culture that every community has shaped?
What this sub-pillar does not cover
Each topic has one home in the framework. These related topics sit elsewhere:
- Women's participation and safety: Family and Society: Women's participation and safety
- Income inequality and poverty: Economy: Poverty and inequality
- Equal treatment before the law: Governance: Rule of law
- The civility of public debate and polarisation: Values: Public discourse
- Regional gaps in development between states: Economy: Cities, towns and villages
Questions about social fairness
Can Indians move up from where they were born?
Not much more than before. The leading study, published in the American Economic Journal in 2024, finds upward mobility in education for children from the bottom half of families has been constant and low since before liberalisation; it has improved for Scheduled Caste sons, which the authors attribute to reservation, and worsened for Muslim sons, and daughters lag sons in every group. [1]
How many crimes against Dalits and Adivasis are registered?
55,698 against Scheduled Castes and 9,966 against Scheduled Tribes in 2024, down 3.6% and 23.1% on 2023, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. [2]
How many communal riots does India have?
2,908 cases were registered between 2017 and 2021, ranging from 378 in 2021 to 857 in 2020, according to NCRB data given to the Rajya Sabha in December 2022. 47 BH could not find a later official national count and will add one when published. [3]
Do Indians value their diversity?
53% say religious diversity benefits the country and majorities in every major religion say respecting all religions is very important to being truly Indian, according to Pew's 2019-20 survey; most also keep their close friendships within their own religion. [4]
Why is social fairness a development question?
Because a country that wastes the talent of those born into the wrong caste, faith or region cannot reach its potential, and a country whose communities fear one another cannot stay whole. Fairness is both the moral test of development and a condition for it.
Sources
- Sam Asher, Paul Novosad and Charlie Rafkin, "Intergenerational Mobility in India: New Measures and Estimates across Time and Social Groups", American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, vol. 16, no. 2, April 2024. https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210686
- National Crime Records Bureau, "Crime in India 2024", 2026; figures on crimes against Scheduled Castes and Tribes as summarised by Khan Global Studies. Report: ncrb.gov.in/crime-in-india.html. https://currentaffairs.khanglobalstudies.com/crime-in-india-2024-report/
- Ministry of Home Affairs, written reply in the Rajya Sabha on communal violence 2017-2021 (NCRB data), 7 December 2022, as reported by The Morung Express (IANS). https://mail.morungexpress.com/more-than-2900-cases-of-communal-violence-reported-in-five-years-nityanand-rai
- Pew Research Center, "Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation", 29 June 2021; face-to-face survey of 29,999 adults, November 2019 to March 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/06/29/religion-in-india-tolerance-and-segregation/
47 BH cites every figure so that it can be checked. If you find an error, it will be corrected openly and the date below will change.