Sunday, November 7, 2010

HUMAN SECURITY

Human security--we must have an idea of what exactly is meant by social security---
what kinds of services are provided, who are the beneficiaries, which are the institutions through which they are provided, and so on. Also and this is very important--why social security measures need to the provided.
                       These measures include maternity leave provident fund and gratuity, and so on. But in recent times it has been felt that since a small proportion of workers in developing nations are in the organised sector, and since the poor and marginal vulnerability regarding income and consumption opportunities, it is pertinent to expand the scope of the concept of social security .For a large number of people in developing nations, particularly for those in the rural areas and thiose who are poor, deprivation and vulnerability are unpleasant facts of life.
                      In developed countries, certain instruments have been found to be important, like unemployment insurance, old age pensions and invalidity benefits. This approach may not be altogther useful and appropriate when we study developing countries. Instead of  approaching the definition in terms of means, we could define social security in terms of objectives of removing deprivation and recluding vulnerability. It includes actions by the public for itself. During disasters, but also otherwise, the actions of NGOS, charitable and religious institutions must be mentioned here. In many traditional societies in India, the family too has acted as a provider of social security. Sometimes it can be taken to mean the checks and the pressures that, say, the print media keeps on the government. Involvement and activism by the public is necessary. Government can adopt two broad approaches to social security measures. The first way is to promote general economic growth and use the general benefits according from growth to help vulnerable sections of the population. The second approach is to take public action measures directly in terms of social sectors such as education and health and also promote better income distribution patterns, and generate employment.
               The first approach seems to have worked very well for east Asian countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and South Koria, as also countries like Kuwait united Arab Emirates. Cuba is a classic example of the second approach, as in China. In fact some observers argue that in China, when liberalisation led to very high growth rates in the eighties and nineties, social indicators like the in fact mortality rate actually rose.
              India is a case in point. In the 1950 India choose a path of development that emphasised economic growth butrelied on the public sectors as the engine of growth and let this sector occupy the 'commanding heights' of the economy.

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