Human Deprivation and Distress

The phenomenon of human deprivation and distress is found to be widespread in all the countries even though these are at different levels of socio-economic development. While millions of people in economically backward countries are deprived of basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, clean drinking water, sanitation and other amenities necessary for a decent living, a large number of people in advanced countries are distressed as a result of several problems which are essentially a by-product of industrialization, secular stagnation of mature economies, recurring recessions and rapid economic and social change in the post-development phase. These seem to result in unemployment, high crime rates, high divorce rates, drugs, drunkenness and new diseases. Table 8.1 demonstrates the nature and the extent of some of these phenomena which are significant causes of human distress. In spite of considerable success in augmenting economic opportunities, unemployment rates are observed to be very high both in the developed market economies and in the formerly planned economies. As seen in Table 8.1, the range is as high as 7 to 15 per cent in 1993. However, for some countries (for example Japan and the Russian Federation), unemployment was as low as 2.5 and 0.8 per cent, respectively, though this figure conceals a good deal of under-employment.