NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 12 Right to equality (Fig. 5.3) — LET’S EXPLORE
Book page 148 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
What do you observe in the illustrations above?
Answer
Two pictures of the same three people — a tall man, a middle-sized boy in yellow and a small girl in pink — trying to watch a cricket match over a tall wooden fence.
Panel
What is given
What actually happens
EQUALITY “Everyone receives the exact same support.”
One identical box each — three people, three boxes
The tall man sees over easily, the boy only just manages, and the smallest girl still cannot see the match at all
EQUITY “Everyone gets the support they need, fairly.”
The man stands on the ground with no box, the boy has one box, the girl has two
All three can now see the match
A schematic of Fig. 5.3. The fence is the same in both panels; only the way the boxes are shared out changes.
Why it happens: the three people do not start from the same place. Identical support therefore does not produce identical benefit. The book puts it exactly so — “sometimes providing the same thing to every individual does not provide the same benefits on account of differences among them. These differences can be due to inequality and discrimination which may have been carried historically too.”
That is why the chapter introduces equity: “the quality of being fair and just, especially in a way that takes account of and seeks to address existing inequalities.” Equality asks “is everyone getting the same?”; equity asks “is everyone getting to the same place?”
Tip: equality is about the input, equity is about the outcome. Both matter — Article 14 guarantees equality before the law for all persons, and equity is how that promise is made to work for people who begin further back.
Q2.
Can you think of other such examples?
Answer
Yes. An equity example has a recognisable shape: some group is falling behind for a reason that is not their fault, and extra or different support is given only to them so that they can use a right everyone already has on paper. The chapter’s own example is Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, which built awareness in society as well as providing support to girls’ education.
Sample answer: other examples from this chapter and from everyday life —
A tactile map in a school for the blind (Fig. 5.4). The right to education is the same for every child; a printed map is useless to a blind child, so the map is made touchable. The right is not changed — the support is.
Ramps at public buildings. Gaganjit, who used a wheelchair, could not enter the exhibition hall because there was no ramp. Once the ramp was built, he could enter like everyone else.
Braille books and classroom support for children with special needs, which the chapter lists as ways of removing barriers to participation.
Books in the regional language in the school library. When Smt. Amita added them, the reading club stopped being only for confident readers of English and its membership grew.
Free and compulsory education for ages 6–14 (Article 21A). Every child has the right to education, but a family that cannot pay fees cannot use it — so the fee itself is removed.
Childline 1098 — a free helpline, easy to remember by counting backwards from 10, for children who cannot reach a lawyer or a police station on their own.
Check it yourself: before calling something an equity measure, ask two questions — who is falling behind, and why? and does this support close that particular gap? If the answer to the second is no, it is a kindness but not equity.