Article 38

Background and evolution

The Directive Principles were inspired by the Irish Constitution of 1937, which itself drew on Catholic social teaching about the common good. The Constituent Assembly saw them as instructions to future governments to build a welfare state. B. R. Ambedkar described them as an "instrument of instructions" similar to those issued to colonial governors under the Government of India Act, 1935, but now directed at the elected governments of free India.

Article 38 is the general statement of the welfare goal from which more specific directives, such as Articles 39, 41, 43 and 46, follow. In its original form it had a single clause. The 44th Amendment of 1978, enacted after the Emergency by the Janata government, added clause (2) on minimising inequalities, reflecting a concern with economic equality as well as social justice.

Key features and provisions

• Clause (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 national life.
• Clause (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.
• Regional and occupational inequality: clause (2) expressly covers inequalities between regions and occupations, not just individuals.
• Non-justiciable: under Article 37, it cannot be enforced by courts, but the State must apply it in making laws.