All citizens may be granted equal rights but all may not be able to equally exercise them. Explain.

The issue of whether full and equal membership means that all citizens, rich or poor, should be granted certain basic rights and a minimum standard of living by the state. Because if all citizens may be granted equal rights but all of them may not be able to equally exercise them due to their poverty, illiteracy, socio–economic conditions, etc,

(i)We can take one set of people, that is the urban poor. Dealing with the problem of the poor in towns is one of the urgent problems facing the government today. There is a large population of slum–dwellers and squatters in every city in India. Although they may do necessary and useful work, often at low wages, thus are generally viewed as unwelcome visitors by the rest of the town population. 

(ii)The conditions in slums are generally very shocking. The city probably spends relatively I little on providing slum dwellers with services I such as sanitation or water supply. Awareness | about the conditions of the urban poor is growing |among governments. N.G.Os and other agencies, and among the slum dwellers themselves. For example, a national policy on urban street vendors was framed in January 2004. There are  lakhs of street vendors in big cities and they often face harasment from the police and town authorities.

(iii)Slum dwellers also are becoming aware of their rights and are beginning to organise to demand them. They have sometimes even approached the courts. Even a basic political right like the right to vote may be difficult for them to exercise because to be included in the list of voters a fixed address in required and squatters and pavement dwellers may find it difficult to provide this.

(iv)Among other groups of people who are becoming marginalised in our society are the tribal people and forest-dwellers. These people are dependent on access to forests and other natural resources to maintain their way of life. Many of them face threats to their way of life and livelihood because of the pressure of increasing populations and the search for land and resources to maintain them.

(v)Pressures from commercial interests wanting to mine the resources which may exist in forests or coast poses another threat to the way of life and livelihood of forest–dwellers and tribal peoples, as does the tourist industry. Governments are struggling with the problem of how to protest these people and their habitat without at the same time endangering development of the country. This is an issue that affects all citizens, not just tribal people.

(vi)To try and ensure equal rights and opport unities for all citizens cannot be a simple matter for any government. Different groups of people may have different needs and problems and the rights for citizens need not mean that uniform policies have to be applied to all people since different groups of people may have different needs. If the purpose is not just to make policies which would apply in the same way to all people, but to make people more equal, the different needs and claims of people would have to be taken into account when framing policies.