The India Justice Report, first published in 2019 with the support of the Tata Trusts, is a first-of-its-kind national periodic reporting that ranks states' capacity to deliver justice.

Through the filters of human resources, infrastructure, budgets, workload and diversity, it assesses the capacity of four core pillars of the justice system to deliver to mandate: police, prisons, judiciary, legal aid and Human Rights Commissions. Importantly, by comparing data over five years, the IJR assesses efforts governments make year on year to improve the administration of justice. This trend analysis helps discern each state’s intention to improve the delivery of justice and match it with the needs on the ground. To its assessment of police, prisons, legal aid, judiciary, and state human rights commissions, this edition of the IJR draws attention to forensics, mediation, and disabilities.

By bringing previously siloed data all in one place, the IJR provides policymakers with an easy but comprehensive tool. On the one hand, having the data all in one place provides a jumping-off point on which to base holistic policy frameworks while, on the other hand, the itemisation of the data into budgets, human resources, infrastructure, workload and diversity helps to pinpoint low-hanging fruit, which, if tackled early on, can set up a chain reaction reformative of the whole.

The findings of the report are important for donors, civil society and the business community as well because it provides important stakeholders within influential circles with objective data around which to fashion their own recommendations. It allows for participatory dialogues between governments and active citizens of disparate ideologies to be underpinned by objective facts rather than premised in opinion. This enhances the chances for reforms through consensus building.

After all, justice is the business of us all.