Some Social Problems
Outline:
1. Introduction: Social problems are interlinked.
2. Main social problems are:
(i) Illiteracy;
(ii) Prevalence of superstitions;
(Hi) poverty;
(iv) Population growth;
(v) Unemployment especially among the educated class;
(vi) Lack of inequality between the rural and urban areas in terms of socio- economic opportunities; (vii) declining morality.
3. Remedial measures.
4. Conclusion: Social arrangements should be made for all humans.
It may remarked that social problems have interlinks. They are seen having roots in a number of social disciplines at a time. Social problems cannot be treated and considered in isolation of economic, political, sociological ones. One thus is required to look into the social problems in a broader perspective. It is appropriate to discuss these problems in a causal manner so as to establish their linkages.
Literacy is a basic learning toot, towards basic education. It means equipping the people with the skills to learn, protect and empower themselves in society and effectively contribute to decision-making at various levels. In an illiterate society, the aforesaid traits remain unmet. What to talk of decision-making, illiterate cannot ' understand their socio-economic environments. They know nothing of national international problems. The illiterate are thus steeped into ignorance, having no knowledge of their environments.
Illiteracy breeds superstitions among the illiterate. The illiterate cannot take a rational view of things. They develop various kinds of superstitions which largely shape their thinking and behavior. They run after charms to cure diseases without seeking medical aid. The religious orthodox element exploits the ignorance of the illiterate much to its advantage. Superstitions make people unconscious of the importance of human effort, which is needed to deal with complex problems of life. Superstitions are characteristic of a traditional society. When a society undergoes socio-economic transition, superstitions tend to be dissolved gradually with the passage of time.
Health coverage suffers from inadequacies and deficiencies namely unhealthy environment, insufficient resources, ignorance, lack of awareness and inaccessibility to health services. Improving health requires addressing poverty, illiteracy, lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and limited access to health care. Diseases show a close relationship between health and poverty. Most pre-mature deaths among the poor segments of society and vulnerable groups are on account of poverty-related communicable, diseases such as childhood illness and malnutrition. This poses a threat to poverty-reduction and high growth.
There is high population growth (3.1%), leading to low life expectancy (64.0), high infant mortality rate (82/1000) and child mortality under 5 (105/1000) etc. This is due to the shortage of health care personnel, uneven distribution of health facilities in the country, lack of medicines, regional disparities in the health care services and scarcity of administrative health care capabilities. Increasing population in a poor country creates many economic problems. Only a small segment of the population is economically productive. It is capable of earning money to add something to GDP in a country. Rapid growth of population thus increases the dependency ratio in a developing country like Pakistan.
Rapidly growing population creates the demand for social services, like education, health, housing, which, cannot be provided owing to the lack of economic resources. Improved transport facilities are to be provided to the people and it necessitates the import of heavy buses, wagons, cars, etc. A poor country like Pakistan suffers from the scarcity of foreign exchange. Hence it becomes a problem for the Pakistan government to cater to the transport needs of the growing population. Apart from that housing facilities, particularly to the lower strata of population can't be provided by the state. The result often leads to the appearance of slums on tries available state land. It becomes at a later stage a problem to seek evacuation of the land occupied by the extreme poverty-ridden groups; Population thus is a major social problem for Pakistan to tackle with. Population growth must be reduced, through a number of ways like Population Welfare Program and economic development.
Poverty is the mother of many social, economic problems in poor countries including Pakistan. Poverty has many dimensions. The poor have very low incomes which prevent them from having an access to the basic needs like education, health, clean drinking water and proper sanitation. Lack of access to these facilities keeps them in a perpetual state of under nourishment. It tells upon their capabilities and limits the opportunities for them to secure employment. It is estimated that 40 percent population lives below the poverty line in Pakistan. The adults on the poverty line get Rs. 748.56 per month. The income level is insufficient to meet the food and non-food requirements. The poverty needs to be reduced.
There is migration from rural to urban areas in developing countries including Pakistan. The migration is due to a lack of balance in the provision of services between urban and rural area. Urban areas are economically developed which offer better improved social services to people. All the technical colleges, professional colleges, hospitals equipped with the modern health facilities are located in big cities / towns in Pakistan. Cities being the industrial centers provide employment to rural labor, which migrates to cities, towns in search of employment. That increases the population pressure in cities. It often leads to the construction of slums in cities at certain areas, where even minimum sanitation facilities are not available to the dwellers. Life thus decays in slums. The remedy to the problem lies in increasing the pace of industrial development in rural areas.
Social demonstration is another evil which tempts people of average means to copy the consumption living pattern of the rich elite class. The people with low incomes thus are encouraged to supplement their resources through illegal ways to maintain a higher living standard. Corruption, bribery and sense of competition spread lowering down standards of morality. Consumption is increased and savings are not available for investment. Many problems arise due to the operation of the social demonstration effect in a developing country like Pakistan.
Dowry is another social problem in our society, which appears to .have assumed alarming proportions. The daughters of the poor, howsoever talented and educated, remain unmarried because their parents cannot give fat dowry on demand. Suitable matches often end in smoke because of the incompetence of the poor parents to comply with demands of dowry. The rat race of wealth thus has demoralized the society. The rich celebrate the marriages of their sons / daughters in a grand luxurious style and set a precedent for the average to follow it. It can be concluded that social arrangements should be made where all human beings must be able to live in complete harmony.
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