RAS question
Article 38 of the Indian Constitution directs the State to:
Correct answer: (B) Secure a social order for the promotion of welfare of the people and minimize inequalities.
Article 38 directs the State to secure and protect a social order that promotes the people's welfare and to minimise inequalities in income, status, facilities and opportunities.
Explanation
Article 38 is a Directive Principle of State Policy framed around the welfare role of the State. Clause (1) requires the State to strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting a social order in which social, economic and political justice informs all institutions of national life. Clause (2), added by the 44th Amendment, sharpens that duty by directing the State to minimise inequalities in income and to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities among individuals and groups. That is why option B is the only choice that captures both halves of Article 38.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Separating the judiciary from the executive is not the subject of Article 38, which is about welfare, justice in national institutions and reducing inequalities.
- (C) Organising village panchayats as units of self-government does not match Article 38's text on a welfare-oriented social order and equality of income, status, facilities and opportunities.
- (D) Providing free legal aid to all citizens is narrower than Article 38, which sets the broader Directive Principle of welfare, justice and minimisation of inequalities.
Concept
This tests the Directive Principles of State Policy, especially the ability to match each constitutional article with its policy objective. Article 38 recurs because it is the broad welfare-and-inequality directive and is easy to confuse with other social-justice options.