This lecture makes an attempt to capture the essence and importance of directive principles enshrined in Indian Constitution and their umbilical link with the constitutional values in the preamble. The concept of welfare State and social economic justice has been suitably explained in context of directive principles of State policy.
36. In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires,
“the State” has the same meaning as in Part III.
37. The provisions contained in this Part shall not be
enforceable by any court, but the principles therein laid
down are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of
the country and it shall be the duty of the State to apply
these principles in making laws.
38. 1
[(1)] The State shall strive to promote the welfare
of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as
it may a social order in which justice, social, economic
and political, shall inform all the institutions of the
national life.
2
[(2) The State shall, in particular, strive to minimise
the inequalities in income, and endeavour to eliminate
inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities, not
only amongst individuals but also amongst groups of
people residing in different areas or engaged in different
vocations.]
39. The State shall, in particular, direct its policy
towards securing-
(a) that the citizens, men and women equally, have
the right to an adequate means of livelihood;
(b) that the ownership and control of the material
resources of the community are so distributed as best
to subserve the common good;
(c) that the operation of the economic system does
not result in the concentration of wealth and means
of production to the common detriment;
(d) that there is equal pay for equal work for both
men and women;
(e) that the health and strength of workers, men
and women, and the tender age of children are not
abused and that citizens are not forced by economic
necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or
strength;
1
[(f) that children are given opportunities and
facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in
conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood
and youth are protected against exploitation and
against moral and material abandonment.]
2
[39A. The State shall secure that the operation of the
legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal
opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal
aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other
way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are
not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other
disabilities.]
40. The State shall take steps to organise village
panchayats and endow them with such powers and
authority as may be necessary to enable them to function
as units of self-government.
41. The State shall, within the limits of its economic
capacity and development, make effective provision for
securing the right to work, to education and to public
assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness
and disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want.
42. The State shall make provision for securing just
and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.
43. The State shall endeavour to secure, by suitable
legislation or economic organisation or in any other way,
to all workers, agricultural, industrial or otherwise, work,
a living wage, conditions of work ensuring a decent
standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social
and cultural opportunities and, in particular, the State
shall endeavour to promote cottage industries on an
individual or co-operative basis in rural areas.
[43A. The State shall take steps, by suitable legislation
or in any other way, to secure the participation of workers
in the management of undertakings, establishments or
other organisations engaged in any industry.]
44. The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens
a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.
46. The State shall promote with special care the
educational and economic interests of the weaker sections
of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes
and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from
social injustice and all forms of exploitation.