IWD 2026: Justice, Rights, and the Unequal World We Inhabit

Posted on by Reena Saxena

March 8 is approaching once again, and with it comes a renewed conversation about justice.

The theme of social justice takes me back three years, when the International Women’s Day campaign was anchored around #EmbraceEquity. Posts across the internet highlighted a crucial distinction: equity is not the same as equality. It was a timely reminder. Treating a woman juggling multiple family and social roles exactly the same as a man in the workplace isn’t fairness. It is indifference dressed up as neutrality. Women don’t ask for concessions; they ask for an appropriate platform.

The IWD 2026 theme — Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls — brings the word “justice” back to the fore. This time, it is explicit in the context of protection against violence. It’s a powerful call. But it also invites a broader reflection: what does justice really look like in an unequal world?

Social Justice: Who Gets to Define It?

Seekers of justice are those who feel deprived of their rightful place. They are also those who empathize with the less privileged. The struggle intensifies precisely because those who hold privilege rarely relinquish it willingly. They believe they are entitled to what they have. And so the battle lines are drawn.

In India, this tension plays out in a very specific way. Certain communities are officially designated as backward or underprivileged. Justice is dispensed through reservations. These include quotas in educational institutions and government jobs. The primary parameter for these reservations is caste, an accident of birth.

There are additional inclusion criteria — people with disabilities, economically disadvantaged groups — but caste remains the dominant lens. Herein lies the conflict. Certain sections within these favored segments have prospered over generations. They no longer qualify as disadvantaged by any practical measure. Yet they continue to benefit from reservations through caste certificates. Meanwhile, capable candidates from the General Category are left out — a source of deep and legitimate grievance.

The situation has also prompted other communities to fight for inclusion in reserved categories. Politicians, ever attentive to their vote banks, are not immune to granting those favors. In the ultimate analysis, capability takes a back seat to political arithmetic. Those who know how to play the game win. Many others become a burden on a system that promised them opportunity.

The Limited Pie

These battles grow fiercer against the backdrop of a burgeoning young population and a limited set of opportunities. The government continues to dispense benefits aligned with electoral interests rather than long-term economic development. When the pie doesn’t grow fast enough, the fight over who gets which slice becomes inevitable — and increasingly bitter.

Capitalism and the Shifting Rules of Wealth

Ayn Rand emerged from the struggles of communist Russia. She looked to America as proof that talent and hard work can generate wealth. No one had the right to take this wealth away. Her novels were essential reading during my student days, sparking passionate debate about individual freedom and collective responsibility.

But the world she celebrated has shifted considerably. Today, wealth is not often a product of talent. More frequently, it is a product of the ability to manipulate systems, markets, and people. Malevolence is no longer considered a crime when it comes packaged in the language of disruption or shareholder value. The new gods are those who have cracked the code of extraction — not creation.

The Core of Freedom: Decision-Making

At the heart of this entire conversation, I believe, lies a single question: who holds decision-making power?

The ownership privileges of one group inevitably become the story of deprivation for another. Social justice, in its truest sense, calls for the end of subjugation by privileged classes. It seeks this not through punishment. Instead, it aims for the genuine redistribution of opportunity and agency. The ability to make choices about one’s own life remains the most fundamental freedom of all.

Has the World Ever Been Equal?

No, and it is unlikely to become so in the near future.

Technology holds remarkable potential as a leveler. Access to education, financial tools, and global markets through a smartphone can genuinely transform lives. But technology is also a tool of surveillance, manipulation, and deeper entrenchment of existing power. Who builds it, who owns it, and who regulates it will decide which direction it pulls.

That is a conversation for another post.

Friday Faithfuls at MLMM

14 thoughts on “IWD 2026: Justice, Rights, and the Unequal World We Inhabit”

  2. This is precisely why I will not vote for Republicans.

    Neither will I vote for the Democrats after they spent 4 yrs under Biden trying to force American’s to accept as normal a “SEXUAL PERVERSION” that goes against nature itself.

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  3. Great post, Reena as I really enjoyed reading this.  Social justice is a dynamic field shaped by who builds, owns, and regulates it, with different actors pushing it in directions ranging from institutional equity to radical restructuring.  Throughout human history, individuals have fought for justice, fairness, and equality, most often in the context of overwhelming competing factors.  The formation of social hierarchies and cultural institutions has enabled societies to produce great achievements of human ingenuity, creativity, and technological innovations.  However, these achievements have also created power structures, designed to enable only a small portion of the population to enjoy many of societies’ achievements. 

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    1. When FDR became president after the Great Depession caused by the Republicans Economic Policies throughout the 1920’s.

      The Democrats instituted the changes that led to the creation of the American Middle Class and the Prosperity of the Working Class.

      Ever since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 Republicans have steadily worked to overturn those polices.

      So that now we are seeing the return of the very same conditions that have been instituted throughout history. That allows a small group of people to dominate and exploit the larger population.

      Being once again instituted today in the form of Neo-Feudalism.

      Which has always been the norm while the American Middle Class and Prosperity of the Working Class were and are the exception.

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  4. Women demanded “EQUALITY” even though what they really wanted was the PRIVILEGE – men were required to earn – without ACCOUNTABILITY nor the RESPONSIBILITY that came with it.

    Its too late now to turn back the clock now that women are being given EQUALITY IN SPADES.

    Now it’s today’s women’s turn to prove THAT THEY CAN DO EVERYTHING A MAN CAN DO ONLY BETTER as so many of them falsely claim.

    Just like men they’ll just have to grin and bare it by sleeping in the bed they made for themselves.

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      1. I did.

        BTW Ayn Rand was so against Socialism and Communism that she didn’t hesitate to sign up for social security when she became eligible for it. Even though she argued against it labeling it as “legalized plunder” and immoral.

        One of her disciples was Allen Greenspan – who as the Federal Reserve Chairman 1987 – 2006, was one of the main Architects whose economic polices crashed the economy in 2008.

        Indeed many of the Republicans who have conspired with the “Ultra Wealthy” to rig the economy in their favor are disciples of Ayn Rand.

        The main reason wages are so low today is because women were lured enmass to abandon their responsibilities to their families and children for a paycheck.

        As a result of flooding the workforce with too many workers men’s wages fell while women’s wages rose just enough to the same amount of pay.

        Economics 101:

        Scarcity causes prices to rise while overabundance causes prices to fall.

        As a result today we live in an economy where today’s families and those just entering the workforce cannot afford a home nor the rent on an apartment on their own.

        My niece who graduated two years ago and makes 50 grand a year as a teacher, has to live with her parents because she cannot afford to buy or rent.

        And every single “Social Pathology” our society suffers from today are the direct result of Feminism and the Women’s Movement.

        Add in abortion and child abuse – both of which are forms of domestic violence that are ignored as such – women commit more crimes of domestic violence hands down.

        Since the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade – between 1973 and 2022 more than 63 million children in America alone have been slaughtered by abortion.

        Now compare that to the estimated total of 60 to 80 million world wide deaths as a direct result of World War Two.

        How do I know this?

        I spent the last three decades researching these issues and observing them develope in real time.

        And finally:

        The National Organization of Women – NOW – was on the verge of bankruptcy. When as Senator Joe Biden authored VAWA – the Violence Against Women’s Act.

        That gave Feminists direct access to taxpayer funds which they used to propagate their lies and propaganda regarding Domestic Violence to Law Enforcment Agencies and Judges.

        Doing away with the Due Process Rights of men falsely accused of domestic violence, leading directly to the “Me Too” movement, forcing men to take defensive actions that are today labeled as “Discrimination Against Women”.

        At the time Law Enforcement had just started to arrest women on Domestic Violence charges. Only to institute Manatory Arrest Policies requiring the arrest of the male partner, even when the evidence clearly pointed to his female partner as the aggressor.

        This is why my advice to today’s women or should I write – Wannabe Lads – is to suck It up and deal with it, because what they are experiencing today is what REAL EQUALITY LOOKS LIKE.

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  5. Women have more rights than they ever did, but that depends on where you are in the world. In America, there are states which have banned abortions. I personally wouldn’t have one, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand the women, who feel like there is no choice to do so. They shouldn’t, in 2026, be worried about breaking the law. Even in the UK, women do not earn the same amount of money for the same job. It is mostly when you climb further up into management. When I went to school, there were limited jobs available to girls, now we are educated into believing we can be just as successful as men.

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  6. This is a deeply thoughtful and compelling reflection. What stands out most is the way you navigate a complex and often polarizing subject with nuance, clarity, and intellectual honesty. You don’t reduce social justice to slogans or sentiment—you examine its tensions, contradictions, and real-world implications. That takes both courage and insight.

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