Resource Making Characteristics of Population

Posted on February 23, 2008 by Rashid Faridi

The phenomenon of social well-being, though subjective, can be measured by studying several indirect indicators. Among them the demographic structure of human resource, socio-cultural and economic indicators are important. The resource making characteristics of human population include density of population, level of literacy, proportion of working population , proportion of females and dependents , proportion of urban population and proportion of houses to households. These aspects of population reflect to a greater extent the territorial inequalities in the levels of well-being.

Basically, social well-being has a cumulative effect on an individual’s aspirations, needs, achievements and feeling of satisfaction. Quite often these aspects are well-reflected in the visual and factual circumstances of an individual or a group of individuals.

Density of Population

The density of population is one of the important indicators of geographical synthesis and economic activities. The density of population is a better surrogate for carrying capacity of the land in rural areas. Thus, indirectly it brings out the productivity of land. In urban areas, the high density of population reflects, among other things, the accessibility to various social amenities (school, office, market, hospital, post and telegraph, bus and railway station, parks, playgrounds etc.).

Number of Post Boxes

The greater the number of post offices, post boxes, and the better the accessibility to them the higher the degree of communication are as important as personal communication between the settlements. The means of communication are as important as personal communication in strengthening social relations and harmonious living. The effective communication through modern means has strengthened better social well-being.

Slow Social Change

The degree of urbanization is positively associated with the quality of living. The urban areas, by and large, are better served with social amenities compared to the rural areas. Marked rural-urban contrast in terms of quality of environment, socio-economic inputs and the level of living influence the pattern of well-being. Social well-being of any society over the world has cultural and technological overtones. The advanced societies with their high level of technology are ahead in terms of material well-being. The early and rapid urbanization and industrialization have brought in changes in social values. But the process of social change is rather slow and selective in a majority of the third world countries on account of limited urbanization and industrialization.

Literacy

The proportion of literate population is considered to be one of the important territorial indicators for measuring the level of community living or social well-being. It is believed that literacy in general brings about much desired public awareness especially by way of their effective participation in the developmental activities. However, the percentage of literacy alone as an indicator of social progress and well-being need not always show an encouraging pattern of well-being. The other factors such as level of education, diversification and specialization of education significantly contribute to the well-being of society. On account of educational facilities, communication media network, cosmopolitan social structure and selective but effective interaction in urban areas, the proportion of the literates and the educated may be more in urban areas.

Labour Force in Formal Sectors

Human resource is the basic requirement for attaining desired economic objectives. The proportion of labour force in different sectors of economy determines the level of economic development as well as material well-being.

Housing

The dwelling unit is one of the basic needs of human beings.

Housing facility is one of the vital aspects of civilized life. It is not only an indicator of social welfare but also of cultural and economic well-being. Census statistics on housing in India does not differentiate between the houses used for residential purpose and non-residential purpose.

Electric Power Supply

The well-being of an individual or a community as a whole depends largely on the availability of electric power. The modern living whether in rural areas or in urban areas heavily depends on new technology which is power based. Similarly the innovations in various economic sectors use power to a great extent. Most of the modern sources of comforts

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Social Indicators

Posted on February 22, 2008 by Rashid Faridi

Summarising from the experience of social indicators application in the United States, Cobb and Rixford listed 12 lessons for the current development of social indicators that will make an impact to the society:

q Obtaining a figure does not equate to establishing a good indicator. This is because quantities should reveal qualities, but qualities are “ always ambiguous and that any statements about them are provisional rather than final.”

q Effective indicators require a clear conceptual basis. Ideally, concepts should be defined before data is collected, but in practice that is not easy. On the other hand, “although measurement can help clarify a concept, the concept itself will not simply emerge from data.”

q No indicators are free from values, because “ all serious indicators work is political”. Value judgements prevail from selecting indicators to the formulation of survey questions.

q Comprehensiveness may tamper with effectiveness, because historically the most effective indicators tended to focus on one single issue, by guiding people to consider deeper questions. In additions, interpreting indicators is more important than simply describing them. Indicators covering a small area for specific audiences tend to be more effective.

q The symbolic value of an indicator may outweigh its value as a literal measure, especially the fact that indicators serve as metaphors, not statistics.

q Indicators must not be confused with reality, because “even the best indicator is only a fractional measurement of the underlying reality”. Multiple indicators measuring the same social phenomenon may overcome this problem.

q Democratic establishment of indicators requires more than good public participation processes, the result of emphasis on procedural justice. This practice will effectively suffocate changes to status quo, and perhaps substantive justice, such as equal opportunities, should be emphasised instead.

q Measurement does not necessary include appropriate action.

q Better information lead to better decisions and improved outcomes, but this is not easy. This is because indicators only have indirect effects to policy making, and behaviour plays a larger part.

q Innovative thinking on causes of a particular social problem is often required to resolve this problem, because indicators have a function of enlightenment, which are supposed to lead people to reconsider the common understanding of the problem.

q Indicators that reveal causes, not symptoms, of a particular social problem should be searched in order to take action. Mere description of indicators without providing insight to trends is more unlikely to lead to remedial action.

q Indicators provide the basis for setting outcomes as long as one has control over resources, that is if developers of indicators “ have a connection to those with the power to make substantive changes.” This brings us to determine who actually has the power to take action.

The application of social indicators also brings forth the issues of public management and governance, such as the management structure required to manage programmes that are jointly implemented across government departments, the capacity building of the members of the public in reading and interpreting the published indicators so that correct conclusions can be drawn. Indicators contain “a normative element” meaning that they cannot be used as the only basis for resource allocation. Other political constraints must be taken into account. The values of policy makers decide the criteria for success and values of delivery of government programmes, and they are subjective by every means. It is possible to resolve this constraint by employing the same technique used in the selection of social indicators, known as “values inquiry” but in turn this is constrained by the need to determine the priorities between different types of needs in the society, which is again a subjective exercise.

For more information on indicators see BEN WARNER’S BLOG.

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Urban Population

Posted on February 22, 2008 by Rashid Faridi

The world’s urban population increased from about 200 million (15% of world population) in 1900 to 2.9 billion (50% of world population) in 2000, and the number of cities with populations in excess of 1 million increased from 17 in 1900 to 388 in 2000. As people are increasingly living in cities, and as cities act as both human ecosystem habitats and drivers of ecosystem change, it will become increasingly important to foster urban systems that contribute to human well-being and reduce ecosystem service burdens at all scales

 Urbanization is not in itself inherently bad for ecosystems. Many ecosystems in and around urban areas are more biodiverse than rural monocultures are, and they can also provide food, water services, comfort, amenities, cultural values, and so on, particularly if they are well managed. Urban Biodiversity is gaining more and more importance and Urban Rainforests are being created in many cities of the world. Fostering Moreover, urban areas currently only account for about 2.8% of the total land area of Earth, despite containing about half the world’s population.

Creating and fostering Urban Wetlands is a good step in making our cities more resilient and sustainable.

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Urban Poverty

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Rashid Faridi

Increasing poverty is biggest challenge to the metropolitan economies. The urban poor who were 16 million in 1971-73 have increased to 8.3 million in 1987-88. There is a slight increase in the incidence of poverty between 1973-74 and 1977-78 followed by a sizeable fall between 1977-78 and 1983. However, the absolute number of the urban poor was higher in 1983. They live in jhuggi-jhopris forming part of slums, located on the urban fringe, open space and government land within the cities and even on pavement of roads in Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta, According to an estimate, living in slums are as high as 50 percent in the large metropolitan cities. As per government estimate, out of the total urban population of 200 million, more than 40 million were urban poor on the basis of poverty line, which is fixed in relation to the minimum calorie intake.

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