Population Pressure And Living Environment Within Slums Sociology Essay

Population Pressure And Living Environment Within Slums Sociology Essay In this context the present paper tries to analyse the variation in composition and distribution of slum population as well as the population pressure and living environment therein. Utilising data from census of India and NSSO 49th, 58th and 65th rounds, the variations in composition and distribution of slum population along with the living environment therein has been analysed. The study shows that the increase in number of urban poor has led to increase in number of slums and this has very adversely affected the living conditions in slums and has resulted in the further deterioration of many essential facilities. In major developed states there has been further deterioration of living conditions in the slums and the most basic necessities have become scarcer. At the district level, higher concentration of slums can be found in northern, north-eastern and western states while dispersed slums can be seen in central and southern states. The problem of slums has turned to be more gig antic than earlier and thus requires immediate actions for checking the further growth of slums and improvement in the living conditions as well. Keywords Slums, population composition, infrastructure, Spatio-temporal pattern. Introduction The mountain of trash seemed to stretch very far, then gradually without perceptible demarcation of boundary it became something else. But what? A jumbled and pathless collection of structures, cardboard cartoons, plywood and rotting bottles, the rusting and glassless shells of cars, had been thrown together to form habitation. Michael Thelwell (Adapted from Mike Davis, 2004) The earth has urbanized even faster than originally predicted by the club of Rome in its popular report limits to growth and this has resulted in the rise of gigantic hyper cities. The megacities have come up as the brightest stars in the urban firmament, but at the same time three quarters of the burden of population growth is borne by faintly visible second tier-cities and smaller urban areas where there is little or no planning to accommodate these people or provide them with services. Urbanization, thus, must be conceptualized as structural transformation along, and intensified interaction between every point of an urban-rural continuum. But the price of new urban order has been increasing inequality within and between cities of different sizes of specializations. Urbanization at many places has been radically decoupled from industrialization, even from development per se. More sinister has been the urbanization-without-growth. The urban population growth in spite of stagnant or negative urban economic growth is the extreme face of what researchers have labelled as over-urbanization. It is just one of the several unexpected tracks down which a neo-liberal world order has shunted millennial urbanization. In spite of the drastically weakened pull of the city by debt and depression, the rapid urban growth in the context of structural adjustment has been an inevitable recipe for the mass production of slums (Davis, 2004). The UN-Habitat report in 2003, titled The Challenge of the Slums stands out to be the first truly global audit of urban poverty. It has established that the primary direction of both national and international interventions during the last twenty years has actually increased urban poverty and slums, increased exclusion and inequality and weakened urban elites in their efforts to use cities as engines of growth. But all other things remaining aside, slums remain an invaluable expose that amplifies urgent research findings with the institutional authority of the United Nations. If the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change represent an unprecedented scientific consensus on the dangers of global warming, then slums sounds an equally authoritative warning about the global catastrophe of the urban poverty. In fact slums are basically the urbanization of poverty. When human beings were able to produce more than they consumed and had found ways of storing the surplus to provide for a large number of people, living away from the field, they settled on such areas which provided good environment, climate and soil favourable to plant and animal life, an adequate water supply, ready materials for providing shelter and easy access to other peoples. Concentration of population grew at the intersections of trade routes, at harbours and at the mouths of rivers with easy access to the sea. Athens, Rome was located near the sea. Mecca, Damascus and Samarkand were island cities located on caravan routes. In India all big cities were located near the banks of rivers, ports, etc. Varanasi is one of the ancient and famous cities located on the bank of river Ganges. The officials and priests lived in the main hub whereas lower classes craft persons, artisans and labourers lived around the city republics. Gradually people from fields and small settlements sta rted moving to city republics because of lack of farm work all time of the year and safety in cities. These city republics became powerful and tapped the surpluses and other resources. In 1800 only 2% of world population lived in towns of more than 5000 inhabitants. No more than 45 cities had population over 100,000. The 19th and 20th Century saw enormous growth of urban population. In fact the 20th century was a time of great change, and the greatest of those changes was in the numbers of people on the globe and where they lived. Since 1950, mankind has endured its most rapid expansion, from 2.5 billion to 6 billion people. As a result of this rapid increase of population, the cities were not able to sustain the pressure of increased population and could not provide good environment and basic services to new entrants as they were unable to afford reasonable shelter within their means. They were therefore forced to live in slums. Sixty per cent of this gain has been in urban areas, particularly in the urban areas of the developing world, where the urban population has increased more than six fold in only 50 years. Humanity is only about half way through this great transformation to urban living. During the next 30 years, the global urban population will increase by more than 2 billion while rural populations will be almost static. The greatest impact will be felt in the developing world and nowhere more so than throughout South and South-eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. During the next 15 years, many large cities in Asia and Africa will nearly double their population. The huge increase in urban populations amounts to a crisis of unprecedented magnitude in urban shelter provision. Every year, the worlds urban population is increasing by about 70 million, equivalent to seven new megacities. These people all need to be provided with shelter, with employment and with urban services. The stretched capacity of most urban economies in developing countries is unable to meet more than a fraction of these needs, so that the informal sector is providing most of the new employment and housing in environments that have come to be known as informal settlements or slums, where more than half of the population in many cities and towns of developing countries are currently living and working. The evolution of the new urban poverty has been a non- linear historical process. The slow accretion of shanty towns to the shell of the city is punctuated by storms of poverty and sudden explosions of slum building. In this context the present paper tries to analyse the variation in composition and distribution of slum population as well as the population pressure and living environment therein. Utilising data from census of India and NSSO 49th, 58th and 65th rounds, the variations in composition and distribution of slum population along with the living environment therein has been analysed. Apart from this some secondary data published in different books and articles have also formed a part of the analysis. Under the methodological section, firstly on the basis of the literature review, two objectives have been determined for this paper. For the fulfillment of these objectives statistical tools have been widely used to analyse the raw data. Graphical presentation and cartographical tools (maps and diagrams) too have been utilized to extend the level of analysis and explanation. Needs and Approaches to the Study of Slums Slums are consolidated and compact physical, social, cultural and economic units with distinct neighbourhood system within the greater environment of cities. These are patronised by the local political organizations which strengthen their existence on those very locations. The growth and development of slums have never become phenomena of few days or months; a sufficient number of years have been passed to reach the full growth and vigour when it has come to the notice of urban planners, administrators and municipal authorities that slums have become problems and threats to health city life. The growth of slums is a manifestation of urban poverty as the majority of urban poor lives in slums. On one hand the government documents tries to establish a fall in the levels of poverty but on the other hand the consistent rise in slums population and deteriorating living conditions depicts some different story. The provision of lifeline infrastructure lags far behind the pace of urbanization and peri-urban slum areas often have no formal utilities or sanitation provision whatsoever. The urban poor are forced to settle on hazardous and otherwise unbuildable terrains over-steep hill slopes, river banks and flood plains. Likewise they squat in the deadly shadows of refineries, chemical factories, and toxic dumps or in the margins of railroads and highways. Poverty has created an urban disaster problem of unprecedented frequency and scope. The interest and need for the study of slums has stemmed from two basic causes a) An urge to bring about social reform and b) An effort to reach an understanding of the process of urbanization. The studies which have an element of reform interest are preoccupied with poverty and related problems and focus extensively on the working class standards of living. However they have little to speak upon the social life of the slum dwellers. On the other side of the coin lie the urbanization studies that provide a closer approach to the analysis of social behaviour in this area (Whyte, 1943). However off the two reasons the latter claims more attention and validity than the former. Even the global report on slums published by the United Nations Habitat more or less recognises slums as the face of urban poverty in the new millennium. The Slums of the World Report has appeared at a time of growing awareness of the red flags raised by the urbanization process, particularly because of an increasing number and proportion of city residents who live in poverty in precarious settlements in the core historic part of cities and in the peri-urban areas. For the first time in history, rapid population growth and its concentration in cities around the world constitute a crucial element affecting the long-term outlook for humanity. Despite standing out as centres of civilization and economic activity for eight millennia, cities never attracted more than ten per cent of the global population until the second half of the 19th century. Now, systems of cities have become the worlds social , economic, cultural and political matrix. One-third of the worlds urban population lives in slums, and four out of ten inhabitants in the developing world are informal settlers. The report accepts that the number of issues relevant to urban poverty and slums is practically infinite and it requires an in-depth analysis and comprehensive effort to deal with the worsening situations. Understanding the notion of slums The first step in solving a problem is to define it correctly. Therefore a clear understanding of the notion of slums is indispensible. Since its first appearance in Veuxs Flash Dictionary during the 1820s as part of the London cant, the term slum was used to identify the poorest quality housing and the most unsanitary conditions; a refuge for marginal activities including crime, vice and drug abuse; and a likely source for many epidemics that ravaged urban areas a place apart from all that was decent and wholesome. The word slum was derived from slumber which means a sleepy unknown back alley. Slum meant `wet mire where working class housing was built during British Industrial revolution in order to be near the factories. These were uncontrolled settlements and lacked basic services and only poor people lived there. During the major part of the 19th century, the word appeared in the written language in quotation marks mostly as back-slum(s). At the end of the 19th century, slum mea nt a street, alley, court, situated in a crowded district of a town or city and inhabited by people of a low class or by the very poor; a number of these streets or courts forming a thickly populated neighbourhood or district where the houses and the conditions of life are of a squalid and wretched character (oxford dictionary)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. a foul back street of a city, especially one filled with a poor, dirty, degraded and often vicious population; any low neighbourhood or dark retreat usually in the plural, as Westminster slums are haunts for thieves (The Challenge of Slums: Global Report on Human Settlements, 2003) The housing reform movement in England during the 1880s changed a popular word that once described an awkward phenomenon to a general operational concept as a house materially unfit for human habitation, and made possible the delimitation of slum areas on city maps for planning purposes. It became a common word in the Anglophone world, used, for example, in India in order to designate without distinction the bustees, chawls or cheris of Mumbai, Delhi or Chennai. The 20th century made the word obsolete in contexts requiring more precise and rigorous terms, such as tenement house, tenement district and deteriorated neighbourhood, because of legislation from the 1890s and 1930s authorizing the eradication of the so-called slums, and imposing technical and legal definitions and standards for such actions. At the same time, the social movement generated new words, such as neighbourhoods or communities, to qualify the designated slums in order to rename the socially stigmatized slum areas. As with most euphemisms, alternative terms were eventually subsumed into the argot and served to maintain rather than counteract the negative prejudices against slum dwellers. The polite neighbourhood has become shortened to hood, a badge of youthful attitude in Los Angeles. Today, the catch-all term slum is loose and deprecatory. It has many connotations and meanings and is banned from many of the more sensitive, politically correct and academically rigorous lexicons. It can also vary considerably in what it describes in different parts of the world, or even in different parts of the same city. In developing countries, the term slum, if it is used, mostly lacks the pejorative and divisive original connotation, and simply refers to lower-quality or informal housing. Large, visible tracts of squatter or informal housing have become intimately connected with perceptions of poverty, lack of access to basic services and insecurity. Terms such as slum, shanty, squatter settlement, informal housing and low-income community are used somewhat interchangeably by agencies and authorities. The coverage of settlement types is even more complex when one considers the variety of equivalent words in other languages and geographical regions. Slums are today known by dif ferent names throughout the world: Barrio or tugurio (Latin America), Basti (Bangladesh), Bidonville (France/Africa), Favela (Brazil), Ghetto, Kampung (Indonesia), Katchi abadi (Pakistan), Masseque (Angola), Shantytown, Skid row, Squatter cities . However at this point a note on the current distinction between slums and shanties is essential. While slums describe old residential buildings which have deteriorated and lack essential services (but in most cases do not lack security in terms of tenure), shanties refer to spontaneous settlements which have developed in outskirts and unbuilt areas of the city. At the FirstWorld Urban Forum, a position paper elaborated by UN-HABITAT on Cities Without Slums used the term slum to describe, a wide range of low-income settlements and/or poor human living conditions and note that these inadequate housing conditions exemplify the variety of manifestations of poverty as defined in the Programme of Action adopted at the World Summit for Social Development. The term slum includes the traditional meaning that is, housing areas that were once respectable or even desirable, but which have since deteriorated, as the original dwellers have moved to new and better areas of cities. The condition of the old houses has then declined, and the units have been progressively subdivided and rented out to lower-income groups. A typical example is the innercity slums of many historical towns and cities in both the industrial and the developing countries. The term slum has, however, come to include also the vast informal settlements that are quickly becoming the most visual expression of urban poverty. The quality of dwellings in such settlements varies from the simplest shack to permanent st ructures, while access to water, electricity, sanitation and other basic services and infrastructure tends to be limited. Such settlements are referred to by a wide range of names and include a variety of tenurial arrangements. Slums: a point of discord The entire scholar community has failed to converge on a single definition of slum. As a result the buzzword has been defined differently for different regions and contexts. The difference in the definitions is primarily the result of discrepancies in the parameters adopted for the purposed of identifying the slums. Even amidst the web of definitions, the basic features rather the elements of the slums remain similar. Slum, at its simplest, is a heavily populated urban area characterized by substandard housing and squalor. This definition encapsulates the essential characteristics of slums: high densities and low standards of housing (structure and services), and squalor. The first two criteria are physical and spatial, while the third is social and behavioural. This spread of associations is typical, not just for the definition of slums but also of our perceptions of them. Dwellings in such settlements vary from simple shacks to more permanent structures, and access to basic service s and infrastructure tends to be limited or badly deteriorated. Slums and urban poverty are not just a manifestation of a population explosion and demographic change, or even of the vast impersonal forces of globalization. Slums must be seen as the result of a failure of housing policies, laws and delivery systems, as well as of national and urban policies. The definition of the term slum includes the traditional meaning that is, housing areas that were once respectable or even desirable, but which have since deteriorated as the original dwellers have moved to new and better areas of the cities. The condition of the old houses has then declined, and the units have been progressively subdivided and rented out to lower-income groups. Typical examples are the inner-city slums of many towns and cities in both the developed and the developing regions. Slums have, however, also come to include the vast informal settlements that are quickly becoming the most visible expression of urban poverty in developing regions cities, including squatter settlement s and illegal subdivisions. The quality of dwellings in such settlements varies from the simplest shack to permanent structures, while access to water, electricity, sanitation and other basic services and infrastructure is usually limited. Such settlements are referred to by a wide range of names and include a variety of tenure arrangements. The problem with measuring slums starts with the lack of an agreed definition. As a result, enumeration of slums has not yet been incorporated within mainstream monitoring instruments, such as national population censuses, demographic and health surveys, and global surveys. Some surveys provide proxies or related variables, such as proportion of unauthorized housing or proportion of squatters. Participatory poverty assessments in many least developed countries (LDCs) generally provide only qualitative information on urban poverty. The generic definition suggests that a slum is a contiguous settlement where the inhabitants are characterized as having inadequate housing and basic services. A slum is often not recognized and addressed by the public authorities as an integral or equal part of the city. According to another definition given by the Cities Alliance Action Plan: Slums are neglected parts of cities where housing and living conditions are appallingly poor. Slums range from high-density, squalid central city tenements to spontaneous squatter settlements without legal recognition or rights, sprawling at the edge of cities. Slums have various names, favelas, kampungs, bidonvilles, tugurios, yet share the same miserable living conditions. The Encyclopaedia Britannica on the other hand defines slums as: residential areas that are physically and socially deteriorated and in which satisfactory family life is impossible. Bad housing is a major index of slum conditions. By bad housing is meant dwellings that have inadequate light, air, toilet and bathing facilities; that are in bad repair, dump and improperly heated; that do not afford opportunity for family privacy; that are subject to fire hazard and that overcrowd the land, leaving no space for recreational use. In India also there is no agreed upon definition of slums and there is no unanimity in the identification criteria used at the various level of governance as well as research. In the year 1993 attempts were made to define the slums on the basis of housing conditions and availability of facilities. However the most accepted definition of slums in the country has been given by the Registrar General of India for the purpose of Census of India. It defines the slums as: All specified areas in a town or city notified as Slum by State/Local Government and UT Administration under any Act including a Slum Act. All areas recognized as Slum by State/Local Government and UT Administration. Housing and Slum Boards, which may have not been formally notified as slum under any act. A compact area of at least 300 populations or above 60-70 households of poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities. The level of disagreement upon this matter has gone beyond the national level and in an entirely surprising scenario the different states too have set up different landmarks for the identification of slums for their respective territories. The definition of slum area adopted by the Stare Governments is based on slum Acts of the respective States i.e. based on legal stipulations unlike the definitions adopted by RGI and NSSO. The concept, Perception and definition of slums vary across the states, depending on their socio-economic conditions bur their physical characteristics are almost similar. There are discrepancies between the Parameters adopted by State Governments, RGI and NSSO. Thus there exits divergent opinions at the different levels in the country as to what constitutes the key determinants of slums. In fact Slums are too complex to define according to one single parameter. They are a relative concept and what is considered as a slum in one city will be regarded as adequate in another city. Local variations among slums are too wide to define universally applicable criteria and this has been the prominent cause for existence of different definitions of slums. Slums change too fast to render any criterion valid for a reasonably long period of time. The spatial nature of slums means that the size of particular slum areas is vulnerable to changes in jurisdiction or spatial aggregation posing further difficulties in providing any stable definitional criteria for them. Thus what is agreed is that slums, like poverty and secures tenure, is multidimensional in nature. Some of the characteristics of slums, such as access to physical services or density, can be clearly defined, and others, such as social capital, cannot. Even with well-defined indicators, measurement can be very problematic, and acceptable benchmarks are not easy to establish. Even though the identification and differentiation of slums is a difficult nut to crack, Slums has been divided into two broad classes (Davis, 2004): 1. Slums of hope: These are progressing settlements, which are characterized by new, normally self built structures, usually illegal (e.g. squatters) that are in, or have recently been through, a process of development, consolidation and improvement; and 2. Slums of despair: These are declining neighbourhoods, in which environmental conditions and domestic services are undergoing a process of degeneration. Slums of hope may all too easily yield to despair. Thus a review of the definitions used by national and local governments, statistical offices, institutions involved in slum issues and public perceptions reveals the following attributes of slums in the country: lack of basic services, substandard housing or illegal and inadequate building structures, overcrowding and high density, unhealthy living conditions and hazardous locations, insecure tenure; irregular or informal settlements, poverty and social exclusion, and minimum settlement size. Distribution and compositions of slums in India: The Variations The most important characteristics of a population in addition to its size and the rate at which it is expanding or contracting are the ways in which its members are distributed according to age, sex, ethnic or racial category, and residential status. The analysis of distributional and compositional characteristics of slums is requisite for the effective management of problems related with them. In fact the lack of information regarding the dynamism of extent of distribution of the urban poor is one of the main factors which prohibit the extension of vital facilities to them. The figures available till date shows a highest concentration of slum population in two southern states of India Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh respectively. But the district level analysis shows a clearer picture of the concentration of slum population and its alignment with the urban centres. One of the peculiar aspects which emerges out of the distribution of slums is that in states of north, east and north east India, the slums are concentrated in few districts such as in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa etc. while in states of western and Southern India, the slum population is spread in almost all the districts which is an indicator of the level and process of urbanization in the different states. The sex ratio among the slum populations shows very interesting trends. The major proportion of urban poor is considered to be composed of the male population that migrates from rural areas to cities primarily for work. But contrary to this, both the state and district level analysis shows high sex ratio for the four major states of South India Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. More surprisingly the distribution of child population in slums shows just the opposite scenario. In this case, parts of central India, Rajasthan, U.P and Bihar are the leading areas both at state and district level. In Southern India, the population in the 0-6 age group is relatively less which indicates towards the changing population dynamics of the slums. The distribution of scheduled caste population shows some other drastic changes with respect to the slum population. In the hierarchy of status in Indian society the scheduled castes have been regarded at the bottom line and thus are associated with the relatively unclean jobs. The analysis here shows some surprising trends where the proportion of scheduled caste population in the total slum dwellers is less and very few districts shows relatively a higher presence of scheduled caste population. In North, West and North East India their presence is further low. Population pressure and living conditions in slums The increasing pace of urbanization and resultant increase in slum population is a matter of deep concern for sustainable living. A continuous rise in the slum population in India and their increasing concentration in fewer cities is posing a threat to urban healthy life and management of city affairs. Any further deterioration in the quality of life in slums directly affects the environment and is dangerous for the ecological sustainability. The assessment of living conditions with respect to population pressure in slums has been one of the most contested issues. Some of the robust indicators of living conditions can be taken as Structure of housing, Electricity Connection, Roads, Water logging conditions, Status of Latrine facility and type of drainage. The household density among slums shows a higher density in parts of Rajasthan and U.P which indicates that even though the slum population is highest in Maharashtra, the congestion is higher in slums of U.P and Rajasthan. The same is true for the slums in Jammu and Kashmir where the slum population is mainly concentrated in two districts. While for the other parts of the country an average density can be seen. There has been a noticeable change in respect to the type of structure of houses in the slums during the period between 2002 and 2008-09. All the three different categories of housing structure i.e. Pucca; Semi-kutcha and kutcha have undergone considerable change over the quin-quinnial period. The most drastic change has been the increase semi-kutcha and kutcha housing structures under both notified and non-notified category of slums. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa, Delhi, Karnataka are the states experiencing major changes under the two above mentioned categories. Also there has been decrease in the percentage of pucca slums under both notified and non-notified category of slums. The downfall under this category has been high mainly for Delhi, U.P, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. All such changes signifies the rapid increase in the population of urban poor as well as the deterioration in the quality of living conditions in the slums. The condition of electricity in slums is also not satisfactory among the slums. U.P, Rajasthan, Bihar, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir are among the major victims where the percentage of slums having no electricity is highest mainly for the non-notified slums. Also there has been a decrease in the number of slums under notified category where electricity is being provided for both households and streets. The condition of street lighting is very poor throughout the slums in the entire northern Indian belt. However none of the slums exists with any electricity under the notified category of slums which is an indication that the major hindrance in the extension of infrastructural facilities to the slums is lack of notification. One of the most drastic deterioration in the electricity facility to the slums have occurred in Karnataka state where almost 100% slums under non-notified category received electricity for both households and streets in 2002; but in 2008-09 this percentage reduced to almost 50%. Another very important infrastruc

What Is Fascism And Why Does It Emerge? :: essays research papers

What is Fascism and Why does it Emerge? The purpose of this essay is to explain what fascism is and why it emerges. Fascism is a political ideology that consists of an all powering totalitarian government, which has total control of the people, the nation and the economy. The fascist economic system creates an upper class for the owning/ruling class and leaves the working class in a lower state who in turn produce for the elite. To justify themselves as beneficial to the oppressed lower class, the fascist installs an extreme sense of Nationalisms and organicism. If these method do not work then force is used. Fascism emerges out of economic crisis, a revolutionary promise and reaction to capitalism. It is often allowed to emerge because it is usually easy to get support from the upper class. The fascist political structure consists of a totalitarian government with an extreme sense of absolutism. Absolutism is the principle of a absolute power in control with power that transcends even the laws itself, under the control of one main dictator who carries traits of of a geniuses or of a hero. This way the masses can be drawn into him through emotion and appeal. With the totalitarian government the fascist has total control of the nation and the people. Along with the fascist total ruling over the people and nation came its total ruling over the economy. Although different fascist have had different economic structures, all regimes more or less, have had the same model. The main defining character of the fascist economy is the principle of goverment-buisness relationship. Like the first fascist regime in Italy, its leader created a system where private ownership was allowed but state intervention was issued on management and labour. He did this by creating grouped established syndicates, such as â€Å"The National Confederation of Commerce† or the â€Å"The National Federation of Credit and Insurgence†. The government then controlled these under managing agencies called â€Å"Corporations† which in turn would regulate issues and guidelines such as supply and demand, labour disputes or what interest the business is to aim at. Although the system is supposed to function as a partnership, the government is always in control and dominate. Although the fascists claim this system is in the interest of the nation, it is only in the interest of more empowerment for the government. Due to this system both the states interest and the interest of the owning class are integrated which creates an elite. Therefore the development and technology only serves the interest of the elite and not the working class which is to be

Position Paper

Security Council Child Soldiers United States King High School Background Thousands of children are serving as soldiers in armed conflicts around the world. Boys and girls serve in government forces and armed opposition groups. They may fight as front-line combatants, suicide bombers, mine sweepers, sex slaves, and spies. Many are abducted or recruited by force, while others join voluntarily, believing that armed groups offer their best chance for survival.We are working to prevent the use of child soldiers and to hold accountable the people who send children to fight. It threatens the core of the United Nations, and the heart of our world's future: Children. The US Child Soldiers Prevention Act prohibits the US government from providing US foreign military financing, military training, and several other categories of US military assistance to governments using child soldiers. Actions National Actions Child soldiers are not an issue in the United States. The U. S. overnment currently provides military assistance to five of the six governments implicated in child soldier usage. From 2001 the USA contributed $34 million to support programs to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers and to demobilize and reintegrate child combatants, including $10 million through the US Agency for International Development and $24 million through the US Department of Labor. In 2008, Senators Richard Durbin and Sam Brownback introduced the Child Soldier Prevention Act, which is a bill to curtail U. S. ilitary assistance to governments that fail to take steps to demobilize and stop recruiting children into the armed forces or government-supported militias. Under this bill, countries that take steps to demobilize child soldiers are eligible for certain forms of assistance to help professionalize their forces and ensure that U. S. taxpayer dollars are not used to finance the exploitation of children in armed conflict. International Actions The United States has done many int ernational actions to prevent encouraging the use of children being used as soldiers.In April 2007 the Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007 was introduced into Congress. It would restrict US military assistance to governments involved in the recruitment or use of child soldiers. In April 2007 the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law held a hearing to consider the Child Soldier Prevention Act, obstacles facing former child soldiers seeking asylum in the USA, and ways for the USA to address child recruiters from other countries who came to the USA. In October 2007 the Child Soldier Accountability Act was introduced into Congress.It would amend the US criminal code to allow the prosecution of individuals who have recruited or used child soldiers, whether in the United States or elsewhere. â€Å"The Child Soldiers Prevention Act can put real pressure on governments to stop using child soldiers,† Joe Becker said. â€Å"Obama needs to give fewer waivers to cou ntries abusing their children this way. † On October 4, 2011, the Obama administration announced waivers to the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, allowing military assistance to Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Yemen despite the continued use of children in their armed forces.The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty that establishes the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of children. It also defines children as being under the age of 18. The United States is the only country in the world, with the exception of Somalia, that has not ratified it. In 2002, however, the U. S. ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which prevents the recruitment of military personnel under the age of 18.Much work remains to be done by the U. S. government on the rights of the child, particularly on the protection of children in armed conflicts. There was a resolution adopted by the General Assembly in 1999 on November 11 titled â€Å"Resolution on the Use of Children as Soldiers. † Recommendation for Action Citizens for Global Solutions are committed to achieving greater engagement by the U. S. government to take the lead of international endeavors to protect future generations.Also, Child Soldiers International‘s website has a place for donation to end the recruitment of children as child soldiers. There is background information and everything about the issue to educate the donators and viewers viewing the website. The Obama administration decided to exempt Yemen and three other countries that use child soldiers from U. S. penalties under the 2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act. The Invisible Children was founded to stop Joseph Kony called Kony 2012 and the United States was involved in it too. President Obama issued a bill to help stop Joseph Kony for justice. Position paper The government of Nigeria believes in the protection of the interest of the children. Unfortunately, one can notice the use of child soldiers in Nigeria. Why there is the problem of child soldiers in Nigeria? During the 19th century and 20th century there have been interstate conflicts in the African continent. This led to the use of children as the soldiers in the warfare. There are many reasons for the wars fought between different states of Africa. Two important causes of the wars are poverty and orphan rates. (Reich and Acharina, 2005) In fact, the study of UNICEF data reveals that in Africa there is the maximum use of child soldiers in the wars.It is known that 40 percent of the world child soldiers are found in the African continent. All the countries of the African continent particularly the third world countries are severely affected by the child soldier problem which is found in a poor country like Nigeria. Recently, international community has responded to this emerging pro blem. Great powers such as USA and UK have opposed the use of child soldiers in wars. In fact, international community has been shocked by the extent of the use of children as soldiers which has affected the future of the children of Nigeria.UNO has taken this problem seriously which is proved by the fact that UNO has constituted committees to monitor the extent of the use of the child soldiers in the wars particularly in the African continent. The use of child soldiers can be seen in the African countries such as Nigeria, Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Uganda.   The Nigerian government is also aware of the fact that there is need to guarantee the rights of the children. However due to economic backwardness, there has been growth in the use of the children as soldiers. Obviously, this led to loss of life of many children. However, it is found that due to food shortage and lack of productive resources, the parents are forced to send their childr en to help the military of their nation. Hence, poverty of the third world nations is the main cause of the participation of children in wars.(Reich and Acharina, 2005)UNO and the various agencies of UNO such as UNICEF have taken this problem of child soldiers seriously. UNO was initially involved in this problem in an attempt to resolve the interstate conflicts in Africa. However, later it was known to the UNO members regarding the impact of the use of children on the children of Africa and the international community. In order to counter this problem, UNO has expressed its displeasure through the various conferences and by publishing reports concerning the efforts of the individual nations to curb the root cause of the children’s participation in the wars.In 1999, the coalition forces decided to publish a worldwide report regarding the plight of the children as soldiers.   In fact, UNO has urged all the member nations to protect the rights of the children. Recently, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General has urged the Security Council to impose sanctions on the nations indulging in the use of child soldiers in the wars leading to the violation of the international law. The coalition forces have decided to prohibit the use of children as soldiers. The UNO noted that more than 250000 children are used as soldiers. The suggested sanctions include ban on the sale of armaments, sanctions on financial assistance, and so on.The UNO has also urged the NGOs participating in this anti-child soldier policy to implement the policy decisions on the UNO which has been discussed in the various conferences and UNO publications. The UNO committees on the children issues have submitted their reports regarding the position of the children in the underdeveloped countries. The imposition of sanctions is expected to curb the number of the child soldiers in the countries such as Nigeria. However, the UN report noted that there has been decline in the number of child soldier s worldwide. The UNO also decided to give financial and other kinds of support to the poor countries to help curb poverty so that there would be decrease in the number of children used in the warfare. The UN Under-Secretary Olara Otunnu also believed that children should be protected from military conscription. (Africa Renewal, 2005) In fact, the UNO members have urged the different nations to increase the minimum recruitment age to 18 years. (Maslen, 2002)The UNO suggestions regarding the protection of the children’s rights have been implemented by most of the African countries including Nigeria. In fact, legislations have been passed by Nigeria to curb the incidence of the use of the child soldiers in the wars. Although, till 2002 Nigeria did not sign ‘the African charter on the rights and welfare of child’, the government has supported the voluntary recruitment of the soldiers as there is no conscription in Nigeria. Minimum age for the recruitment of the volun tary soldiers is 18 years. The Nigerian youth have participated in the ethnic conflict in the region. This conflict involves the various political and economic issues. However, Nigeria has participated in the several conferences organized by the UNO to oppose the violation of the children’s rights.For instance, in the year 1999, the African countries including Nigeria attended the African Conference on the Use of Children as Soldiers. In the conference the various facts concerning the child soldiers was discussed. In 2001 Nigeria attended the United Nations conference on the illicit trade which also discussed the issue of the child soldiers. Nigeria became the party to the resolution of this conference. The members understood the impact of the use of arms on the children and it was resolved to protect the rights of the children. The Nigerian government has realized that the main reason for the use of the child soldiers is the existence of poverty in Nigeria. Due to food short age and productive resources, children have been sent to the battle field.In order to curb the incidence of the use of children as soldiers, the Nigerian government has devised plans to improve the economic conditions of the families. The Nigerian government urges the international communities including UNO to understand the causes of the phenomenon of the child soldiers in Nigeria. Hence, international organizations should provide more economic support to bring the economic advancement of the region which will reduce the incidence of the use of children as soldiers. The government of Nigeria believes that necessary actions should be taken to ensure the protection of the children’s rights.It is understood that involvement of children in wars negatively affects the relation between Nigeria and international community. However, in order to introduce these measures, the international community, through the organizations such as UNICEF, should strengthen the polity and economy of Nigeria. Nevertheless, in the name of the protection of the children’s rights the integrity of the nations should not be threatened. Therefore, this is to request the organizations such as UNO to provide the positive support to Nigeria to prevent the incidence of the use of the child soldiers in the wars. The Nigerian government plans to introduce and implement legislations and programs to reduce the use of children as soldiers in the wars. (Maslen, 2002)BibliographyMaslen, Stuart (2002). â€Å"The Use of Children as Soldiers in Africa A country analysis of child recruitment and participation in armed conflict†, retrieved online on 30-10-2005 from Reich, Simon F (2005). â€Å"Why do Children â€Å"Fight†? Explaining Child Soldier Ratios in African Intra-State Conflicts†, retrieved online on 30-10-2005 from (2005). â€Å"Africa Briefs†, Africa Renewal, 19:1, April, retrieved online on 30-10-2005 from Position Paper Security Council Child Soldiers United States King High School Background Thousands of children are serving as soldiers in armed conflicts around the world. Boys and girls serve in government forces and armed opposition groups. They may fight as front-line combatants, suicide bombers, mine sweepers, sex slaves, and spies. Many are abducted or recruited by force, while others join voluntarily, believing that armed groups offer their best chance for survival.We are working to prevent the use of child soldiers and to hold accountable the people who send children to fight. It threatens the core of the United Nations, and the heart of our world's future: Children. The US Child Soldiers Prevention Act prohibits the US government from providing US foreign military financing, military training, and several other categories of US military assistance to governments using child soldiers. Actions National Actions Child soldiers are not an issue in the United States. The U. S. overnment currently provides military assistance to five of the six governments implicated in child soldier usage. From 2001 the USA contributed $34 million to support programs to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers and to demobilize and reintegrate child combatants, including $10 million through the US Agency for International Development and $24 million through the US Department of Labor. In 2008, Senators Richard Durbin and Sam Brownback introduced the Child Soldier Prevention Act, which is a bill to curtail U. S. ilitary assistance to governments that fail to take steps to demobilize and stop recruiting children into the armed forces or government-supported militias. Under this bill, countries that take steps to demobilize child soldiers are eligible for certain forms of assistance to help professionalize their forces and ensure that U. S. taxpayer dollars are not used to finance the exploitation of children in armed conflict. International Actions The United States has done many int ernational actions to prevent encouraging the use of children being used as soldiers.In April 2007 the Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007 was introduced into Congress. It would restrict US military assistance to governments involved in the recruitment or use of child soldiers. In April 2007 the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law held a hearing to consider the Child Soldier Prevention Act, obstacles facing former child soldiers seeking asylum in the USA, and ways for the USA to address child recruiters from other countries who came to the USA. In October 2007 the Child Soldier Accountability Act was introduced into Congress.It would amend the US criminal code to allow the prosecution of individuals who have recruited or used child soldiers, whether in the United States or elsewhere. â€Å"The Child Soldiers Prevention Act can put real pressure on governments to stop using child soldiers,† Joe Becker said. â€Å"Obama needs to give fewer waivers to cou ntries abusing their children this way. † On October 4, 2011, the Obama administration announced waivers to the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, allowing military assistance to Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Yemen despite the continued use of children in their armed forces.The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty that establishes the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of children. It also defines children as being under the age of 18. The United States is the only country in the world, with the exception of Somalia, that has not ratified it. In 2002, however, the U. S. ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which prevents the recruitment of military personnel under the age of 18.Much work remains to be done by the U. S. government on the rights of the child, particularly on the protection of children in armed conflicts. There was a resolution adopted by the General Assembly in 1999 on November 11 titled â€Å"Resolution on the Use of Children as Soldiers. † Recommendation for Action Citizens for Global Solutions are committed to achieving greater engagement by the U. S. government to take the lead of international endeavors to protect future generations.Also, Child Soldiers International‘s website has a place for donation to end the recruitment of children as child soldiers. There is background information and everything about the issue to educate the donators and viewers viewing the website. The Obama administration decided to exempt Yemen and three other countries that use child soldiers from U. S. penalties under the 2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act. The Invisible Children was founded to stop Joseph Kony called Kony 2012 and the United States was involved in it too. President Obama issued a bill to help stop Joseph Kony for justice.

How Cultures of Surveillance Are Created in Everyday Life Free Essay Example, 1500 words

Despite the fact that surveillance plays an essential role in enhancing security, ethical issues have emerged on the violations associated with surveillance. This stems from the fact that surveillance interferes with the privacy of individuals. However, the basis of a society of surveillance can be traced to the information that people give out voluntarily, for example, interactions and transactions with government, corporations, and peers. The press, politicians, and policymakers view the use of CCTV as effective and encourage criminologists to use surveillance (Monahan 2010, p. 5). On the other hand, professionals who concentrate on civil liberties criticize surveillance because of the danger it causes. Critics perceive surveillance as the trade-off between the civil liberties of individuals and control of crimes (Stephen 2011, p. 44). Traditionally, governments had limited resources and could not manage to survey the entire population at once. As such, there was a heavy reliance on watching with the aim of controlling the population. With the advent of modern technology, it has become possible to observe many people at once and no one can observe the one who observes them. We will write a custom essay sample on How Cultures of Surveillance Are Created in Everyday Life or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The cultures of surveillance have enhanced efficiency in observing the behavior of the masses. This is unlike the traditional ways of surveillance and observing that needed the presence of the person observing (Stephen 2011, p. 47). The United Kingdom can be regarded as the nation, which has embraced the use of CCTV surveillance more than any other nation in the world. There are around 4.2 million CCTV cameras spread all over Great Britain. The cameras monitor and record the actions and behavior of people who pass in front of them (Stephen 2011, p. 53). For example, the cameras monitor the movements of people who may spend time or linger outside jewelry shops, or people whose movements can be regarded as suspicious. Moreover, some cameras focus on facial recognition of persons who may be viewed as criminals or suspects who may be planning to conduct acts of theft.