Justice does not require absolute equality and sameness in the way in which people live.

(i)A just society should provide people with the basic minimum conditions to enable them to live healthy and secure lives and develop their talents as well as equal opportunities to pursue their chosen goals on society.

(ii)The World Health Organisation (WHO) in general agreed that the basic amount of nourishment is required to remain healthy. Housing supply of clean drinking water, education and minimum wages would constitute an important part of these basic conditions. Providing people with their basic needs is considered to be one of the responsibilities of a democratic government.

(iii)However, providing such basic conditions of life to all citizens may pose a heavy burden on governments, particularly in countries like, India, which have a large number of poor people.

(iv)Even if we all agree that states should try and help the most disadvantaged members of the society to enjoy some degree of equality with others, disagreements could still arise regarding the best methods achieving this goal.

(v)A debate is currently going on in our society, as well as in other parts of the world about whether promoting open competition through free markets would be the best way of helping the disadvantage without knowing the better off member of a society or whether the government should take on the responsibility of providing a basic minimum to the poor if necessary even through a redistribution of resources.

(vi)In India different approaches are being suggested by different political groups who debate the relative merits of different schemes for helping marginalised sections of the population such as the rural or urban poor.