The much hailed demonetization step of present government has recently been under scathing criticism on account of frequent changes made in policy by Govt and RBI with people still lining in long queues to withdraw cash. Do you agree that this situation violates the principle of social justice and could have been avoided if proper planning would have been done? Provide feasible solutions to the current problem.

John Rawls has given the idea of social justice commonly referred to as “justice as fairness.”
According to him, social justice is accomplished when in a democratic society fair system of social cooperation between citizens and government is maintained.
There is equal access to liberties, rights, and opportunities, as well as taking care of the least advantaged members of society.
Further, Rawls’ conception of social justice is developed around the idea of a social contract, whereby people freely enter into an agreement to follow certain rules for the betterment of everyone, without considering the implications of these rules for their own selfish gain.
When social justice is applied to demonetisation, it is criticised that social justice is not adhered to. In a democracy, people have the free will to live and there is betterment guaranteed. But the demonetization move has had a bad move. People queuing up and people dying due to it are rising. This has led to questioning of the move.
Therefore, respecting the idea of social justice and its importance to people, proper planning was needed so that the move would not effect any individual negatively. 
Some feasible solutions to tackle the issue are-

• Expedite the use of Kisan Credit Card.
• Mobile ATMs in rural areas.
• In the case of marriages, cash withdrawal limit can be allowed to increase further on the basis of  adequate proofs.
• Increase the number of ATMs so that there is a reduction in the number of people queuing up.
• Ramps at the ATMs for the elderly. 

Topics: GS-III: Indian Economy Issues Relating to Planning