Summary
of Social exclusion and Sen's understanding:
(Please
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Definitions:
1) René
Lenoir is given credit of authorship of the expression. He used this
term in the context of a section of the French population which included
mentally and physically handicapped, suicidal people, aged invalids,abused
children, substance abusers, delinquents, single parents,
multi-problem households, marginal, asocial persons, and other social
‘misfits’.
2) Silver points
out a few things people may be excluded from which must include
the following:
a
livelihood; secure, permanent employment; earnings; property, credit, or
land; housing; minimal or prevailing consumption levels; education, skills, and
cultural capital; the welfare state; citizenship and legal equality;
democratic participation; public goods; the nation or the dominant race; family
and sociability; humanity, respect, fulfillment and understanding.
3) According
to Dr K F Jalal, social exclusion should be focused on processes
through which deprivation occurs—processes “through which individuals or
groups are wholly or partially excluded from full participation in the
society in which they live.”
According
to Sen, Social exclusion addresses two central issues -
a)
Epistemology - how to get a better understanding of the diverse phenomena
of deprivation and poverty
b) Policy implications of that understanding -
how to improve policymaking
Sen
discusses social exclusion as capability deprivation.
[Can
also be used for short note on poverty as capability deprivation]
Characterization
of poverty:
1) shortage
of income: Classicaly, poverty has been seen in terms of shortage
of income. Income determines the standards of living in a big way.
However, Sen uses poverty as not shortage of income, but in a broader
context of capability deprivation.Income is just one of the means to
understand poverty, and cannot be the sole criteria.
2) poor
living: In this Aristotelian perspective, an impoverished life
is one without the freedom to undertake important activities that a person
has reason to choose. Adam Smith calls it the ability to appear in public
without shame. Thus, poverty is seen as the lack of capability to live a
minimally decent life.
Coming
back to social exclusion:
1)
According to the Aristotelian understanding. the individual lives an
inescapably “social” life. Thus the inability to interact freely with
others is an important deprivation itself as it deprives one from fully
participating in community life.
2) Being
excluded from social relations can lead to other deprivations as well,
thereby further limiting our living opportunities. Social exclusion
can, thus, be a part of capability deprivation as well as a cause of
diverse capability failures.
The idea
of social exclusion is also present in Adam Smith's The Wealth
of Nations where he analyses the effects of particular types of exclusion.
For example people being kept out of markets (through legislation) or out
of education (through lack of private means and public support). He
investigated the characteristics of social exclusion within a broader
concept of deprivation in the form of inability to do things that one has
reason to want to do.
Active
and passive exclusion:
Active:
deliberate exclusion, say of a particular community in a nation
Passive:
non-deliberate exclusion, say due to high inflation in India, the poor
are deprived from food and hence excluded from enjoying a minimal life
Indian
constitution and Social exclusion
Preamble
says that we must secure to all our citizens
1) "equality" of
status and opportunity - It is not difficult to see that social exclusion
deprives certain communities from both status and opportunity.
2) "fraternity" -
dignity of an individual and unity and integrity of the nation.Fraternity
demands avoiding social exclusion as exclusion clearly fails to honor the
dignity of one set of people as against another and this leaves a
fragmented nation against the promise of unity and integrity.
Some of
the dimensions of exclusion important from policy perspective are
-
1)
Inequality of status - SC/STs, manual scavengers etc
2)
Inequality of opportunities - SC/STs, disabled etc
3)
Gender related exclusions
4)
Poverty related exclusions - malnutrition, education, health care
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