Download Core issues-Poverty and Overpopulation

Core Issues: Poverty, Illiteracy,
Overpopulation and Disadvantages of
Sustainable Development
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The damaging lack of material benefits considered to be
basic necessities in a society.
Deprivation is a result of socioeconomic disparity which
leads to:
Unequal opportunities
 Unequal rewards
 Unequal social positions
 Unequal distribution of resources
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These inequalities create a division between the
people of a society as:
Privileged Groups
 Under privileged Groups
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Overpopulation occurs when number of living
being exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat.
“Carrying capacity” refers to the maximum
number of individuals that can exist in a habitat
indefinitely without threatening other species in
that habitat.
Overpopulation results into scarcity of natural
resources, poverty, environmental damage, lack of
bargaining capacity, lack of awareness of policy
perspectives of a state by majority of population
and ethical and cultural conflicts.
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Deprivation of reproductive rights
Effect on economic rights: Overpopulation
results into more demand. When demand
supply equation is disturbed, prices are
affected.
Effect on resources:
Food
 Water
 Oil and gas
 Other fuels
 Forests
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Effect on environment
Pollution
 Effect on ozone layer
 Ecological balance
 Global warming
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Deprivation of right to adequate living conditions
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Overcrowding
Conflicts and wars
Health
Cost of living
Adequate Shelter
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Affect on other rights
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Right to qualitative life
Active participation in politico, socio, economic and
cultural aspects of the country
Employment and Education
Increasing child mortality rates due to poor health care
and malnutrition
Child labour
Low wages
Pollution
Right to health
Social security
Environmental degradation
Severe crunch on resources
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Poverty is a human condition characterised by the sustained
or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices,
security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an
adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural,
economic, political and social rights.
Rights of people living in poverty are threatened by:
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Lack of food
Risk of diseases
Hazardous work
Lack of education
Precarious living conditions
Violence
Discrimination
Harassment and humiliation
Threats of death
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Violations of human rights can be cause, consequence
or constitutive element of poverty:
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Cause: Some say that poverty causes human rights violations.
Those who are living in extreme poverty, are not treated as
human beings worthy of human rights and are discriminated,
exploited, treated insignificant, disgraced, disapproved and
denied access to rights and resources.
Consequence: Some suggest that poverty is a consequence of
human rights violations. This means human rights violations
cause poverty, e.g. forced eviction from homes or land, or the
destruction or denial of access to productive resources can
clearly cause poverty.
Constitutive: Some suggests that poverty is in itself a negation
of human dignity and so it is a denial of human rights.
According to this view point, government should not let any
human being live in conditions of poverty, degradation or
deprivation.
Human
Rights
NonEnjoyment
(Deprivation)
Violation
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To determine a violation, we first have to
identify a specific human right, identify the
duties imposed by that right on governments
or other actors and then identify whether there
has been a breach in meeting those duties.
Obligation of
State
Duty to respect
Violation
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Duty to protect
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Duty to fulfil
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Duty of nondiscrimination
State actions that cause poverty or affect the poor
most severely:
Eviction of people from their homes/ lands
Deliberate exclusion from access to productive
resources
State actions that fail to protect individuals from
actions of non-state actors that cause poverty. E.g.:
Failures to hold corporations to account
Lack of an adequate regulatory framework
State actions that fail to alleviate poverty. E.g.:
Absence or inadequacy of policies and programmes
Lack of appropriate government expenditure
Actions that have discriminatory effects or fail to
prevent discrimination and therefore cause poverty.
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Respect: It means not harming the enjoyment
of human rights.
Protect: It means ensuring that third parties
(non-state actors) do not infringe the enjoyment
of human rights.
Fulfil: It means taking positive steps to
progressively realize human rights.
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Non-enjoyment is different from violation of
rights. It is the inability of government rather
than unwillingness to provide certain rights.
E.g. people who cannot afford access to
medical care are deprived of enjoying their
right to health, but we cannot state that they
have suffered from a violation of those rights,
unless we have identified a breach of human
rights obligations.
So, poverty is related to both non-enjoyment of
rights and violation of rights.
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“the inability to read or write”
Two types of illiteracy:
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Complete or absolute illiteracy: It is defined as the
lack of the most basic reading and writing skills.
Functional Illiteracy: Individual may have basic
reading, writing and numerical skills but cannot
apply them to accomplish tasks that are necessary to
participate fully in everyday life.
Illiteracy
Complete
Illiteracy
Functional
Illiteracy
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Illiteracy and Educational Rights
Lack of awareness about their rights and duties
 They accept insecure, low quality employment contract. It would
deprive them from the right to job security.
 Illiterate parents put work before education.
 Children of illiterate parents display behavioural problems, have
poor grades, repeat school years and even discontinue their
formal education because of non-involvement of their parents.
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Illiteracy and Economic Rights:
Illiterate people are not able to obtain good jobs. Also, the kind of
jobs they get, have low salaries or wages, which are not sufficient
to live with adequate standard of living.
 They become deprived of rights of adequate standard of living,
right to employment and equal opportunity of livelihood.
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Illiteracy and Health Rights: Illiteracy creates
unawareness regarding knowledge and practices for
self-care (health and hygiene).
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Household health
Occupational Health: Illiteracy makes the people deprived
of right to safe and healthy environment and sometimes
even right to life.
Illiteracy and Social Rights:
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They suffer from low self-esteem, less autonomy and low
status in the society. This makes them deprived of right to
life with dignity.
Illiterate persons are neither acquainted with nor make use
of the human rights to which they are entitled by law. So,
sometimes they become victims of deception.
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Illiteracy and Political Rights:
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If the population is not aware of its political rights, is not
able to organize itself in political parties, unions or other
civic organizations; it is impossible for government to
develop adequate public policies for the benefit of
population as a whole.
They are even not aware of the significance of their voting
rights and so they are less willing to vote or participate in
elections and local associations.
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Unsustainable development occurs when
present progress is at the expense of future
generations.
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Population Growth:
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Energy Consumption
Resource Consumption
Waste Production (due to industrialization)
High Profit Orientation
Consumerism: Increased advertising leads to
increased buying of products. People sometimes
buy those products which are actually not
required.
Policy Failures (No policies for controlling
unsustainable development)
Lack of sustainable urban planning
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Climate Change
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Around 3,00,000 deaths annually are caused by climate
change.
Agriculture is affected due to climate change (unexpected
seasonal changes, less or more rains than required)
Climate change results in heat waves, floods, storms,
tsunamis and forest fires etc. Such natural calamities
results into displacement of population.
Depletion of ozone layer has increased exposure to ultra
violet rays, which are very harmful for the health.
Deforestation for developmental purposes has further
increased the problem of environmental imbalance.
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Affect on economic development
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People in developing and developed countries have high
living standards and abundant goods from around the
world.
Whereas, the under developed countries are still facing
poverty due to inequitable economic development.
Some countries are exploiting resources in are getting
richer day by day.
Whereas the poor, who constitute 40% of the world's
population, accounts for only 5% of total global income.
So, the unsustainable development in developing or
developed countries is adversely affecting the economic
development in under developed countries.
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Environmental Degradation
Pollution
 Loss of Green Space
 Ecological Imbalance
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Affect on human health
Climate change, environmental degradation and poverty,
all have a negative impact on human health.
 Environmental degradation and climate change is
responsible for loss of lives, serious diseases and poor
health of individuals.
 Poverty is also responsible for malnutrition, hunger
related diseases and deaths.
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Right to life, right to health, right to healthy
environment, right to equal distribution of
resources, right to equal opportunity of
employment, right to equal distribution of
economic resources etc. are affected due to
unsustainable development.
Copehagen conference of 1995 proposed right to
development
to
fight
against
poverty,
malnutrition,
famine,
housing,
unsafe
environment,
unemployment,
illiteracy,
imbalanced development and ill health.
Concept of sustainable development was coined
during the conference.
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Human rights were integrated with sustainable
development,
as
the
idea
behind
its
implementation was to provide:
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Quality of life to every citizen
Atmosphere of education
Healthy environment
Secured employment
Adequate wages
Good working conditions
Sufficient leisure and recreation
Health and Sanitation
Welfare of children, women, disabled and elderly people