Securing the highest possible development of the capabilities of all members of the society may be called social justice. Professor Amartya Sen is the leading proponent of the “Rights Based Approach” and the “Capabilities Approach”.
The Capability Approach is defined by its choice of focus upon the moral significance of individuals’ capability of achieving the kind of lives they have reason to value. This distinguishes it from more established approaches to ethical evaluation, such as utilitarianism or resourcism, which focus exclusively on subjective well-being or the availability of means to the good life, respectively. A person’s capability to live a good life is defined in terms of the set of valuable ‘beings and doings’ like being in good health or having loving relationships with others to which they have real access.
It is from this that the Human Development Index has been developed by taking various important measures like Health, Education, Income etc.