Capability approach

Topic: Equality and Social Justice · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The capability approach says we should judge a person's well-being, and how just a society is, by their real freedoms (capabilities). These are the things a person is actually able to be and do, such as being healthy, being educated and taking part in community life. Income alone is not the test.

It matters because it changed how the world and India measure poverty and progress. It moved the focus from "how much money?" to "what can this person actually do with their life?" This idea sits behind the Human Development Index (HDI) and the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

Explanation

The core idea: income is a means, freedom is the goal

• Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (1999):
• Income matters only because it helps people live the lives they value.

• So development should be judged by how much real freedom people gain, not by income growth alone.

• Capabilities are a person's real chances to reach valued states (being well fed, healthy, educated, safe).

• A right written on paper is not enough. The person must be actually able to use it.

Why income alone misleads

• Same income, different lives:
• Two people can earn the same and still have very different freedoms.

• A disabled person, for example, needs more resources to have the same freedoms as others.

• Basic needs come first:

• A starving or homeless person cannot compete on equal terms.

• So equal opportunity means little unless basic needs are met first.

• The approach therefore links basic minimum needs (food, housing, clean water, education, a minimum wage) with fair equal opportunity.

Nussbaum's list: ten central capabilities

• Martha Nussbaum (2000) named ten central capabilities that every person should have: 1. Life 2. Bodily health 3. Bodily integrity (safety of one's body) 4. Senses, imagination and thought 5. Emotions 6. Practical reason (planning one's own life) 7. Affiliation (living with and caring for others) 8. Other species (living with nature and animals) 9. Play 10. Control over one's environment

• Sen vs Nussbaum: Sen gave the general framework. Nussbaum turned it into a fixed list of capabilities.

Effect on measurement and its limits

• Human Development Index (HDI), 1990: combines health, education and income into one measure.
• Global MPI, 2010: counts the different deprivations a person faces at the same time.
• India's national MPI follows the same logic [5].
• Limits:
• Heavy budget burden: NCERT warns that meeting everyone's basic needs costs a lot in a poor country with a large population.
• Capabilities are harder to count than income, and people can disagree about which ones matter most.

In the Constitution and practice

• Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSPs) (Part IV goals that guide the state; courts cannot enforce them directly) reflect capability thinking:
• Art. 38: the state must secure a social order based on social, economic and political justice, and reduce inequalities in income, status, facilities and opportunities.
• Art. 39: adequate means of livelihood for all, and equal pay for equal work (Art. 39(d)).
• Art. 41: right to work, to education and to public help in unemployment, old age, sickness and disability, "within the limits of economic capacity". This matches NCERT's point about the fiscal burden.
• Art. 43: a living wage (enough for a decent life, not just survival).

• Art. 47: raise nutrition levels and the standard of living, and improve public health.

• Rights-based laws (they turn a welfare benefit into a legal right that people can claim) build capabilities:

• Being educated: RTE Act, 2009 gives free and compulsory schooling to children aged 6–14. It gives effect to Art. 21A.
• Being nourished: NFSA, 2013 gives a legal right to subsidised grain. Under PMGKAY, grain is free for about 81.35 crore beneficiaries for five years from 1 January 2024 [3].
• Being able to work: the VB-G RAM G Act, 2025 guarantees at least 125 days of wage work per rural household per year (MGNREGA gave 100 days) [1][2].

• Being healthy: Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY (2018) gives cover of ₹5 lakh per family per year. Since September 2024 it covers everyone aged 70 and above, whatever their income [6].

• Measuring poverty in India:

• India moved from income poverty lines (Tendulkar, 2009; Rangarajan, 2014) to NITI Aayog's National MPI.
• The MPI uses 12 indicators under health, education and standard of living [4][5].
• Multidimensional poverty fell from 29.17% (2013-14) to 11.28% (2022-23), and about 24.82 crore people escaped it [4][5].

Don't confuse with

• Income poverty line (Tendulkar 2009, Rangarajan 2014): these measure only income or spending. The capability approach, and the MPI built on it, look at many deprivations together.
• HDI and MPI: these are measures built on the capability approach. They are not the approach itself. HDI (1990) averages health, education and income. The Global MPI (2010) counts overlapping deprivations a person faces.
• Rawls' difference principle: Rawls (A Theory of Justice, 1971) says inequality is fair only if it helps the least advantaged, and he judges this by how resources are shared. Sen judges by what people can actually do and be with those resources.
• Charity or pity: under the capability approach, help for the poor is a matter of right and equal opportunity, not a gift.

Prelims Hooks

• Development as Freedom (1999): Amartya Sen. Ten central capabilities (2000): Martha Nussbaum.
• HDI: 1990. Global MPI: 2010. Both rest on the capability approach, not on income alone.
• NITI's National MPI: 12 indicators across health, education and standard of living. It fell from 29.17% (2013-14) to 11.28% (2022-23) [4][5].
• Trap: the Tendulkar line (2009) and the Rangarajan line (2014) are income-based. Neither is NITI's MPI.
• Art. 41: work, education and public help "within the limits of economic capacity". Art. 43: living wage. Art. 47: nutrition and public health.
• RTE Act, 2009 gives effect to Art. 21A, which turns the capability of "being educated" into a legal right.

Mains Points

• Measuring justice beyond income:
• India's shift from income poverty lines to the multidimensional MPI reflects Sen's idea.
• The fall in MPI from 29.17% to 11.28% shows progress [4].

• But income inequality and the quality of schools and hospitals still need attention, because poor services do not build real capability.

• Freebies vs welfare through the capability lens:

• Food (PMGKAY), health (PM-JAY), education (RTE) and work (VB-G RAM G) build health, learning and earning power. So they are investments in capability, not freebies.
• The trade-off is the fiscal burden: about ₹11.80 lakh crore on PMGKAY over five years [3], and states paying 40% of costs under VB-G RAM G [1].

• Argue for fiscal-responsibility rules and transparency, not for courts deciding what counts as a "freebie".

• State vs market in building capabilities:

• Private firms avoid remote, unprofitable areas, and good private services cost too much for the poor (NCERT).
• So the state must guarantee the basic minimum. It can do this through public provision where markets fail, and through regulated private provision (insurance, vouchers, DBT) where markets work.

Related concepts

• Social justice
• Basic minimum needs
• Free market
• Minimal state
• Modern liberalism
• Neo-liberalism

Read more

• Pursuing social justice: basic needs, free markets and the state