A Preview of "India Economic and Social Justice Report – 2025" by Prof K S Chalam
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In an era defined by indices and indicators measuring everything from economic growth to cultural well-being, a dedicated report on economic and social justice is not merely useful — it is essential. India's political class has lately been consumed by the rhetoric of a "Caste Census," yet the caste question remains perpetually sidetracked, invoked only when it poses no real threat to the existing social and political order. For decades, experts have argued either that India's problems are purely social or purely economic, as if the two could be neatly separated. This false dichotomy has served mainly to inflame rival constituencies while obscuring the truth: that socio-economic and cultural injustices are deeply interdependent and cannot be understood in isolation.It is against this backdrop that India "Economic and Social Justice Report – 2025", authored by Prof K S Chalam — former Vice Chancellor of Dravida University, Andhra Pradesh, former Member of the Union Public Service Commission, and Chairman of the Institute for Economic and Social Justice, Visakhapatnam — stands as a significant and overdue contribution. The report analyzes the historical, constitutional, and socio-economic landscape of justice in India, with a specific focus on marginalized communities. It is the first study of its kind to measure and indicate where Indian governments — at both the Centre and the states — stand in delivering on the constitutional guarantees of economic and social justice.
The Index and Its Construction
Inspired by the UNDP's Human Development Index, the report examines several indicators to arrive at an Economic and Social Justice Index (ESJI), built around three dimensions:
- Monthly Per Capita Expenditure (MPCE) of Scheduled Caste households, as a measure of economic justice. (Data for Scheduled Tribes is not separately produced, as it reflects similar trends.)
- Atrocities committed on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, as recorded by the NCRB.
- Human rights violations as recorded by the NHRC.
Following a statistical methodology modelled on the HDI, the report presents data for two periods — 2011 and 2023. ESJI values range from zero (indicating absolute justice) to one (indicating absolute deprivation). A striking finding is that states which are economically more dynamic are often socially regressive in protecting SC and ST populations, dragging down their overall ESJI rankings over time.
Constitutional Foundations and the Theory of Justice
The report opens with a discussion of the concept of "Justice" in the Indian Constitution, noting that it was heavily shaped by Dr B R Ambedkar, Chairman of the Drafting Committee. Ambedkar argued in the Constituent Assembly that genuine social and economic justice required a socialistic economy, including the nationalization of land and industry. The Preamble's placement of "Justice — social, economic, and political" as its very first element was no accident; it signals justice as the republic's ultimate purpose.
The report also draws a sharp contrast between Western theories of justice and Indian social reality. It discusses John Rawls's "Justice as Fairness" and Amartya Sen's critique, which draws on the Indian concepts of niti (organizational propriety) and nyaya (realized justice). The report argues that Western libertarian and liberal frameworks fail to account for India's "caste mode of production" and its embedded systems of discrimination — what the author terms the "Composite Index of Discrimination" (CID). Democracy in India, the report suggests, remains a "top dressing on an undemocratic soil," and constitutional morality must be actively cultivated to overcome centuries of structural inequality.
Historical Wealth Extraction and Present Landlessness
One of the report's most provocative contributions is its attempt to quantify the historical wealth stolen from Dalits and lower-caste communities. Drawing on Angus Maddison's data on world GDP and India's share published by the OECD, the report estimates that lower-caste communities — who were the primary producers of India's historical wealth — contributed approximately one-quarter of global GDP. That wealth, the report argues, was systematically appropriated by non-productive upper-caste groups. Citing the Oxfam India Report 2025, it draws a pointed parallel: the total wealth extracted from Dalits and Bahujans by upper castes is roughly equivalent to the total colonial plunder by the British. This claim is likely to spark significant debate in activist and academic circles.
The consequences of this dispossession persist today. As of 2015–16, the average land holding of Scheduled Caste households had fallen to just 0.78 hectares, with roughly 58% remaining entirely landless. The report introduces the concept of "Caste-Based Cronyism," arguing that economic liberalization has primarily benefited upper-caste groups through what it calls Multi-Caste Corporations (MCCs), effectively recreating Varnashrama Dharma in a modern economic form.
Atrocities, the Judiciary, and Institutional Failure
Social injustice is measured through NCRB atrocity data for SC and ST communities. Despite Article 17 of the Constitution abolishing untouchability, recorded atrocities against Dalits rose sharply from 17,667 in 1990 to 53,886 in 2020 — more than a threefold increase over three decades. The judiciary comes in for pointed criticism. Drawing on the work of Prof Mark Galanter, the report argues that courts remain dominated by a small number of elite families, which has contributed to high acquittal rates in atrocity cases and a failure to reduce the intensity of caste-based violence.
The report also acknowledges the "Founding Mothers" of the Constitution — figures such as Sarojini Naidu and Amrit Kaur — who fought for women's rights and the Hindu Code Bill in the face of entrenched sexism in the Constituent Assembly.
Key Findings: State-by-State Performance
The national ESJI rose from 0.212 in 2011 to 0.305 in 2023, meaning that deprivation in economic and social justice has nearly doubled over twelve years.
Among the worst-performing states in 2023 are several that have otherwise been celebrated for economic progress. Rajasthan (0.480) and Uttar Pradesh (0.470) occupy the most deprived positions. Madhya Pradesh (0.412) and Telangana (0.380) also rank poorly. In contrast, the better-performing states in 2023 include Assam (0.077), West Bengal (0.110), Chhattisgarh (0.112), Punjab (0.162), and Jharkhand (0.167) — the last being notable as a predominantly tribal state that has improved its standing significantly since 2011.
Among southern states, Andhra Pradesh improved its rank between 2011 and 2023, while Kerala and Telangana remain in the lower tier of performers.
Conclusion
The report is candid about the limitations of its data sources, acknowledging the inadequacies of government reporting systems for a comprehensive national study of this nature. That said, the ESJI represents a first-of-its-kind academic effort to quantify India's performance against its own constitutional commitments — and the findings are sobering.
Prof Chalam's work is not a detached statistical exercise. The analysis is animated by the moral weight of a 75-year-old promise of justice that has yet to be kept for a vast majority of India's people. The report makes an urgent case that NITI Aayog and state-level institutions should engage with credible independent bodies to produce such indices annually, enabling policymakers to track and respond to ground realities.
"India Economic and Social Justice Report – 2025" is essential reading for scholars, policymakers, and anyone seriously concerned with the future of constitutional democracy in India.
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Book Details
Author: Prof K S Chalam
Publisher: Institute for Economic and Social Justice, Visakhapatnam
Price: ₹500 | Pages: 180 (A4 size)
Pre-launch orders before May 31, 2026: ₹400 per copy (including postage); bulk orders of 100 copies at ₹30,000.
Contact: WhatsApp 9441022200 | Email: Chalamks@hotmail.com
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*Human rights defender
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