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UNIT: 18 GENDER, MARGINALIZATION AND EXCLUSION

Structure
18.1 Introduction
18.2 Definition of the Concept Social Exclusion
18.3 The „Social Exclusion‟ Problematic: Multiple and Overlapping Disadvantage
18.4 Mechanisms of Social Exclusion
18.5 Socially Excluded Groups and Categories
18.6 Social Exclusion and the MDGs: Some Empirical Findings
18.7 Social Exclusion and the Incidence of Poverty
18.8 Social Exclusion and Health Outcomes
18.9 Social Exclusion and Educational Outcomes
18.10 Responding To Social Exclusion
18.11 Let Us Sum Up
18.12 Glossary
18.13 Answers to Check Your Progress
18.14 References
18.15 Unit End Questions
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18.1 INTRODUCTION

The concept of „social exclusion‟ is of relatively recent origin. It gained currency in the
European context in response to rising unemployment and income inequalities which
characterized the closing decades of the 20th century, a period of considerable economic and
social dislocation as countries sought to deal with the challenges of globalization on their labour
markets, welfare states and prevailing ideas about citizenship. We can see „Social exclusion‟
from the definition offered by the European Foundation to represent the other end of the
spectrum to „full participation‟
This unit argues that the primary value-added of a social exclusion perspective for development
policy lies not so much in the „naming‟ of a new problem, as it appears to have done in northern
social policy studies, but in offering an integrated way of looking at different forms of
disadvantage which have tended to be dealt separately in the development studies literature. In
particular, it captures the experience of the certain groups and categories in a society of being
somehow „set apart‟ from others, of being „locked-out‟ or „left behind‟ in a way that the existing
frameworks for poverty analysis had failed to capture. Consequently, it has insights to offer such
analysis beyond those offered by these frameworks. It also allows a bridge between the concept
of poverty, which focuses on absolute levels of deprivation, and that of inequality, which is
concerned with distributional issues. Social exclusion helps to highlight inequalities in the
distribution of deprivation of the poor.

This unit has three parts: a conceptualization of social exclusion, the empirical exploration of its
relevance to the key MDGS related to poverty, health, education, the policy implications for
linking poverty reduction strategies to the challenge of building more inclusive societies and the
conclusion.
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18.2 DEFINITION OF THE CONCEPT SOCIAL EXCLUSION

“[Social exclusion is] the process through which individuals or groups are wholly or partially
excluded from full participation in the society in which they live.” Since the Social Summit in
1994, there has been increasing attention paid to the usefulness of the concept to concerns with
poverty, inequality and social justice in the developing country context. Institutions are also used
the concept of social exclusion are Institute of International Labour Studies, the Asian
Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.

However, the transferability to the different, and increasingly differentiated, context of

developing countries was not immediately clear. There were question marks about the relevance
of a concept formulated to describe the persistence of poverty in contexts characterized by
general prosperity to contexts where the majority or significant minorities were poor. There were
also concerns that the concept would be imported thoughtlessly to simply re-label long-standing,
locally developed approaches to social problem.
Consequently, the value-added of the concept of social exclusion had to be demonstrated before
it was incorporated into the lexicon of development policy. What would it add to the
understanding of poverty, given that the characterization of poverty had progressed considerably
from earlier income-based approaches to a greater recognition of its multidimensionality? How
would it contribute to the analysis of inequality, now increasingly recognized as a critical factor
in the translation of economic growth into poverty reduction? And if the poverty-reduction
agenda was concerned with meeting basic needs, and the inequality agenda with the distribution
of the means to meet basic needs, did they not suffice to ensure a concern with social justice?
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18.3 THE ‘SOCIAL EXCLUSION’ PROBLEMATIC: MULTIPLE AND OVERLAPPING
DISADVANTAGE

A useful starting point for the conceptualization of „social exclusion‟ is to consider the different
ways in which „disadvantage‟ operates to limit the opportunities and life chances of individuals
and groups in a given society. Economic theories have focused primarily on resource-based
paradigms of disadvantage, generally taking the individual, or the individual household, as their
unit of analysis. This, for instance, was the approach which influenced earlier conceptualizations
of poverty within development studies which equated it with income or expenditure shortfalls.
Even now, when poverty has come to be increasingly recognized to be a multi-dimensional
phenomenon, encompassing income, assets, education, health, dignity and voice, yet continues to
be causally understood in economic terms. The poor within this paradigm are believed to have
little or no voice in determining resource allocations and institutional arrangements within a
society because they are poor; they are rarely seen to be poor because they have little or no voice
in determining resource allocations and social arrangements.
As Stewart points out, this has given rise to a „vertical‟ model of inequality which ranks
individuals or households by their income or assets and measures the inequality across this
hierarchy. The Gini co-efficient is an example of widely used measure of inequality, primarily in
relation to income distribution, but also to measure the distribution of individual education or
health outcomes.
Sociologists, on the other hand, have paid greater attention to identity-based forms of
disadvantage, disadvantage which reflects the cultural devaluation of groups and categories of
people in a society by virtue of who they are, or rather, who they are perceived to be. The
identity in question may relate to distinct and bounded groups of people who are defined by their
distinct cultural practices and shared way of life. Caste, ethnicity and religion are examples of
such group identities. Alternatively, it may relate to an unbounded category of people who are
defined by a single shared characteristic (e.g. gender, disability or HIV-positive status). Members
of such categories may share very little in common, aside from the discrimination they face.

Processes of cultural devaluation occur through the construction of the members of these groups
or categories by dominant sections of society as persons of lesser worth through beliefs, values,
attitudes and behaviour which belittle, stigmatise, stereotype, invisibilise and discriminate. These
processes are effective because they draw on discourses which have legitimacy within a society
(such as religion or „tradition‟) or which speak to its fears (of „the other‟ or of „the unknown‟).
They can have deep effects on the sense of selfhood and social identity of those who are defined
in this way, on their capacity for agency and on the terms on which they are permitted to exercise
this agency.

Group-based disadvantages give rise to what Francis Stewart calls a „horizontal‟ model of
inequality where the inequalities in question cut across economically defined strata and
differentiate the ability of different groups and categories within society to access valued
resources and opportunities.
The two paradigms thus focus on quite distinct understandings of disadvantage: one relating to
lack of resources („what you have‟) and the other to identity-based discrimination („who you
are‟). It is possible to be poor without facing cultural devaluation („the deserving poor‟) just as it
is possible to be discriminated against without being poor (most women face gender-based
discrimination without necessarily being poor). A „social exclusion‟ perspective draws attention
to the overlap between these different experiences of disadvantage, in other words, to the
experience of those individuals and groups who, in addition to their poverty, face discrimination
by virtue of their identity, undermining their capacity to participate in the economic, social and
political functionings of their society on equal terms.
There is one other dimension to social exclusion which may not be fully captured by the
interplay between economic deprivation and social discrimination, which is the spatial one
(where you are) Spatial disadvantage may lie in the remoteness and isolation of a location which
makes it physically difficult for its inhabitants to participate in broader socio-economic processes
or it may operate through the segregation of urban environments and the „subcultures‟ of
violence, criminality, drug dependence and squalor which often characterize the territorially
excluded neighbourhoods.

The spatial dimension of exclusion is not entirely divorced from its resource and identity
dimensions since it is usually culturally devalued and economically impoverished groups that
inhabit physically deprived spaces. Consequently, in certain contexts, it may be possible to
capture the causes and consequences of social exclusion through a two-dimensional model of
social exclusion based on the intersection of deprivation and discrimination. In others, we may
need a three dimensional model because location exercises an independent effect, over and
above, those associated with economic or cultural disadvantage.

The analytical „value-added‟ of this approach to social exclusion is that it allows insights from
the literature on group identity, cultural devaluation and social discrimination to be applied to the
analysis of economic deprivation. Thus we find that in many contexts, the extreme or the chronic
poor are not „just like‟ the rest of the poor, only poorer or poor for longer, but are additionally
disadvantaged by „who they are‟, aspects of their identity which set them apart from the rest of
the poor. It also helps to make sense of why some sections of the poor find it harder than others
to transform the resources at their disposal, including their labour, into the satisfaction of basic
needs. While this „transformation problem‟ may sometimes reflect differences in individual
efficiency, when it is systematically experienced by distinct groups in a society, and when these
groups occupy a distinctly disadvantaged position within the social hierarchy, it is likely to be a
consequence of their socially excluded status.
Check Your Progress Exercise 1

1. Define social exclusion

2. Identify poor in your area and interact with them. List the disadvantages they are facing
and its dimensions. Find out what are the types of exclusion are they facing?
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18.4 MECHANISMS OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION

The explanation of social exclusion cannot therefore be reduced to the idiosyncratic preferences
or abberational behaviour on the part of some individuals towards others. It has to be seen as an
institutionalized form of inequality, the failure of a society to extend to all sections of its
population the economic resources and social recognition which they need in order to participate
fully in the collective life of the community. The analysis of social exclusion is thus concerned
with institutional rules, relationships and processes through which resources are distributed and
value is assigned in a society, focusing particularly on the mechanisms by which „access‟ and
recognition is granted or denied. In this section we consider some of the ways in which this
works.
Economic theory suggests the important distinction between „open‟ and „closed‟ groups as one
way of understanding access and exclusion. Open groups (such as political parties, social
movements) are those which achieve their objectives by expanding their membership because the
benefits they seek increase with increased membership and outweigh the recruiting bringing new
members. Closed groups (trade unions, cartels, professional associations), on the other hand,
achieve their objectives by restricting their membership on the basis of some agreed set of rules.
Olsen‟s work on „distributional coalitions‟, for instance, draws attention to the use of restricted
membership as a means by which certain groups seek to capture the „rents‟ arising out of their
agreement to simultaneously restrain competition between themselves while excluding non-
members from the benefits. Buchanan‟s work on „clubs‟ suggests that exclusionary mechanisms
can come into play with any good whose value depends on combining non-rivalrous use among
members with restriction on membership at the point where increased access to the good would
diminish its value to the existing membership.
The use of membership rules to limit access to valued goods in a society is clearly likely to be an
important mechanism in determining the distribution of advantage and disadvantage in a society.
However, economic theories provide a largely individualistic and voluntaristic explanation of
such group formation. They do not address group inequalities which are not necessarily
generated by the conscious cost-benefit calculus of individuals but by forces beyond their
control. Structuralist approaches, on the other hand, highlight the systemic nature of the
processes which classify people into groups, categories and networks, privileging some at the
expense of others. While such classifications may promote the material interests of those who are
thus privileged, sociological analysis draws attention to power of social identity, of shared
perceptions of „us‟ and „them‟, in helping to draw up and legitimate these classifications and to
reproduce them over time. Indeed, identities based on such social affiliations may override
considerations of economic interest.

Folbre‟s distinction between „given‟ and „chosen‟ groups is one way to disaggregate the
distinction between open and closed groups in order to incorporate a more structuralist analysis
of the processes of closure. While chosen groups are obviously ones which individuals join of
their own accord, and which they are also able to exit of their own accord, they are not all
equally „open‟. For instance, while the associational life of civil society is largely made up of
„chosen‟ forms of membership, a consideration of some concrete examples of such associations -
such as OXFAM, the Self Employed Women‟s Association, the International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions, the Freemasons and the Klu Klax Klan - suffice to show that they vary
considerably in how open they are and to whom.
„Given‟ groups, on the other hand, are by definition closed groups with the additional feature that
they are less easy to join and less easy to abandon. The socially ascribed character of certain
group identities and memberships, which given them the appearance of being „given‟ and
unchangeable, reminds us that there are group-based constraints on individual choice and that not
all such constraints are economic in nature. People are not always in a position to choose who
they are, where they belong and how they wish to be perceived for reasons which have little to
do with what they own or earn.
At the same time, however, it should be borne in mind that the boundaries between „chosen‟ and
„given‟ are not always clear-cut nor are they always necessarily stable. A „given‟ racial identity
which is stigmatized by society may be embraced by members of that racial group over time and
transformed into a source of pride. There are also „conjunctural‟ forms of social exclusion which
occur because of changes in the actual or perceived situation of individual member in the course
of their life time.

Box1: Example for ‘conjunctural’ forms of social exclusion:

As Harris-White points out in her study of destitute groups in India, changes to the body as result
of addiction, illness or disability often acts as a trigger for the exclusion of the individual from
familial and community networks as does transgression of certain norms of inclusion – „of pure
clean practices, healthy states, normal sexuality and compliant behaviour‟.

Conjunctural‟ forms of social exclusion also occur in times of crisis. When families start to slide
into greater poverty, cultural rules and categorisations come into play to determine who will be
expelled from its support system. Certain categories of members - women, the elderly, the very
young, the disabled – face socially-enforced restrictions into the range and types of economic
activities they are able to do, rendering them dependent to a greater degree on other more
advantaged members. These categories are most likely to become socially excluded when the
family economy starts to deteriorate. Furthermore, because of restrictions on their ability to
provide for themselves, the loss through death, desertion and abandonment of those who were
meant to provide for them, can act as a mechanism for social exclusion.
The existence of conjunctural forms of social exclusion suggests that the relationship between
identity and exclusion is not necessarily defined over the lifetime of the individual but may occur
as the result of particular events. The distinction suggested by Ashwani Saithii between
„mutable‟ and „immutable‟ identities reminds us that some forms of identity are harder to shed
than others. „Mutable‟ forms of social exclusion relate to temporary phenomenon such as the
situation faced by migrants spending a limited period of time in an alien environment or to
identities which can be transformed with relative ease, for instance, through religious conversion
or acquiring formal citizenship. „Immutable‟ identities, by contrast, refer to identities and
affiliations which have evolved over an extended period of time, appear almost primordial in
nature and do not lend themselves easily to change. They tend to be associated with enduring
forms of social exclusion, lasting over the life time of an individual or over several generations.
The ease with which individuals are able to opt into or out of, group membership, the
„switchability‟ of certain kinds of group identity (Stewart) has an important influence in
determining the experience of group membership for its members. In particular, the possibility of
movement out of devalued group status or up the social ladder will help to determine the extent
to which different groups in a society „think‟ and „act‟ like citizens with a collective faith in the
justice of its institutional arrangements and a collective stake in its future.
To sum up therefore, social exclusion as it has been conceptualized in this unit does not entail a
binary model distinguishing between those who are „in‟ and those who are „out‟, but refers
instead to the disadvantaged terms on which socially excluded groups and categories participate
in the economic, social and political functionings of their society. Such disadvantage is
manifested in a myriad different ways and in all arenas of life. For instance, it may operate
through:
 High levels of exploitation so that socially excluded groups are to be found working in
the worst paid jobs in the harshest working conditions and in the most insecure margins
of the informal economy
 Asymmetrical patron-client relationships in which members of excluded groups exchange
their labour, loyalty and independence in return for protection and security from more
powerful sections of society
 Resort to criminal, illegal or stigmatised activities in the face of the barriers faced by
excluded groups in accessing socially recognized forms of livelihood.
 hard-core forms of social exclusion produced by the”destructive synergies” between the
extreme versions of disadvantage. Harriss-White‟s analysis of destitution in the Indian
context found that, along with poverty and assetlessness, the destitute were characterized
by „stigmatised‟ identities (mentally ill, leprosy or AIDS-affected, addicts of various
kinds, orphaned and abused children, the abandoned elderly and disabled), by the
precariousness of their place in the community (many were homeless and lived on the
streets) and by the demeaning nature of their livelihood activities which entailed either
extreme levels of exploitation by others (as in bonded labour), extreme forms of self-
 exploitation (the marketing of the body, as in sex work, or sale of body parts) or uncertain
forms of charity (begging is commonly associated with destitution),
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18.5 SOCIALLY EXCLUDED GROUPS AND CATEGORIES

Some examples of social exclusion from different parts of the world will serve to illustrate the
variety of forms they take as well as the difference between socially excluded groups and
categories. Ethnicity, caste and race constitute the most empirically documented examples of
group-based exclusion in the development literature, although their significance varies by
context. Religion is also an important axis of differentiation and takes on an exclusionary
character in particular contexts or at particular times. Anti-semitism has a long history in the
European context, evident in the ghettoization of Jewish communities in many of the countries of
Europe and remains a virulent force today. While not all members of religious minorities in the
Indian context are necessarily poor, those that are have to deal with the multiple disadvantages
associated with economic deprivation and social discrimination.

The Indian caste system in many ways exemplifies the model of social exclusion sketched out in
the preceding section. Divisions between different caste groups have evolved over time into
increasingly entrenched and closed hierarchies based on rules of marriage endogamy,
occupational restriction, limited social interaction and segregated residential patterns. While
there is considerable variation in the actual configuration of castes across the region, and in the
rigidity with which the rules of caste are observed, the lowest position within each local caste
hierarchy is occupied by the „untouchable‟ castes or dalits. Historically excluded from the
ownership of land and key productive assets, dalits have been incorporated into the social system
as providers of various kinds of labour and services that were considered to be polluting. It was
members of these castes who had to carry out the removal of night soil and carcasses of dead
animals. They continue to predominate in sweeping, leatherwork, manual scavenging and forced
prostitution, all activities which are looked down upon by the rest of society.

Ethnicity is another form of group identity which has served as a basis of social exclusion across
the world. „Indigenous‟ ethnic minorities are often located in difficult or remote geographical
areas which has allowed their way of life to be preserved - or to be bypassed - through major
periods of transformation. For instance, in the Asian context, Jorgensen points out that the
mountain ranges which stretch from Afghanistan to the Gulf of Tonkin have been a refuge for
indigenous communities who have, for various reasons, occupied a marginal position in relation
to the dominant majorities in the valleys and plans.

In Vietnam, the ethnic minorities make up around 10% of the population. They are largely
concentrated in the remote, usually upland and mountainous areas of the northern and central
areas of the country with poor access to services and with little infrastructure. Many are nomadic
or semi-nomadic in their way of life. The Hmong and the Dao, for instance, were originally from
southern China (where the latter are known as Miao). They practiced swidden cultivation at high
altitudes and continue to do so today, often walking more than a week to get to their fields which
might be located across the national borders. Rainfall is low, the land is infertile and access to
water for agriculture is highly irregular.

While indigenous ethnic groups in the Indian context are by no means homogenous, they are, or
were, isolated from the rest of society, distanced not only by their distinct worldviews and way
of life, but also the remoteness of their physical location or by their nomadic way of life. They
generally tend to be concentrated in a limited number of geographical areas, rather than being
spread across the country, like the scheduled castes. They are more likely to own some land than
scheduled caste groups but their land is generally in difficult and unproductive terrain and hence
many must seek wage labour in order to survive.
Social exclusion in the Latin American context follows largely racial and ethnic lines in the
region. This is closely tied up with the colonization of the region by the Spanish and Portugese,
the suppression of its indigenous population and the import of slaves from Africa to work on its
mines and plantations. „Socially excluded‟ groups can make up significant proportions of the
population in the region. For example, indigenous peoples represent about one-tenth of Latin
America‟s population, but in Guatemala and some Andean countries they are one half or more of
the population. Afro-descendents comprise perhaps 30% of the population overall, but they
represent a majority in the states of North Eastern Brazil. There is a strong spatial dimension to
exclusion. A study by Busso et al found that more than 45% of indigenous/Afro-descendants
lived in rural areas, with poorer services and communications, but the figure rose to over 80% in
some countries. Indigenous groups are more likely to be engaged in subsistence farming in
physically remote and difficult environments while Afro-descendants are more likely to be
engaged in wage labor.

In sub-Saharan Africa, where different ethnic groups were arbitrarily, and often unequally,
joined together in the territories of colonial states and subsequently into independent national
entities, structural pluralism makes the association between ethnicity and social exclusion highly
contested and hence unstable, with different ethnic groups often exercising dominance at
different periods of history. The exclusionary implications of ethnic divisions are most stable and
prominent where it took the form of racial stratification i.e. in those parts of Africa where
colonial rulers not only settled in large numbers, displacing and dispossessing the local
population, but continue to be a significant presence in their economy today. Post-apartheid
South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies in the world as the result of a history of
officially sanctioned segregation and separate development which radically reinforced
socioeconomic inequalities along explicitly racial lines.

Other examples of ethnicity-based exclusion in the African context can also have religious
dimensions. Andvig et al. (2001) refers to the existence of forms of „slavery‟ in parts of Sudan
where soldiers from the National Islamic front sell slaves, often children, captured in the animist
and Christian (African) villages of the south to sell to (Arab) Muslims in the north. In
Mauritania, Berber tribes raid and capture slaves from Tukulor, Fulani and Wolof ethnic groups.
There is a racial dimension here but both slavers and slaves in this case are Muslims. According
to Woodburn, differences in modes of subsistence are often co-terminous with ethnic difference
and can operate as axes of exclusion. Three broad modes of subsistence characterize the sub-
continent: agriculture, nomadic pastoralism and nomadic hunting and gathering. While each of
these groups may attach negative values to others, he suggests that the severity of the stigma and
negative stereotypes attached to hunting and gathering by others in their society place them at the
bottom of the social hierarchy, even if they now earn their living through other means, mainly
agricultural labour. Such groups are in a minority in most of the countries in which they are
found but there are larger concentrations in parts of Zaire, Congo, Namibia and Botswana.They
are seen by other sections of the community to live in „the bush‟ like wild animals, to eat meat
from animals not eaten by others rather than „civilized‟ food (meat from domestic animals, milk,
grain, beer). They often play roles which confirm their inferior status in the eyes of those who
discriminate against them: burying the dead or acting as circumcisers for those for whom
circumcision is a polluting act.

Categorical forms of exclusion revolve around specific attributes of people who may share little
in common apart from the discrimination they face. These again will clearly vary in different
contexts, but age, gender, migration, illness and disability and stigmatised occupations recur
frequently in the literature dealing with excluded categories. In sub-Saharan Africa, where access
to land and other critical resources under customary law depends on membership of groups
defined by common descent, common residence or some combination of the two, different
categories of members have different – and tiered – sets of claims. Primary claimants, usually
married male household heads, have direct access while women and unmarried men gain
secondary access through the head. While „strangers‟, those who not do not belong to a locality,
do not have the same rights of access to land as „insiders‟, there are mechanisms through which
they can acquire some access.
With the emergence of land scarcity in many parts of Africa, however, a „landless‟ population is
becoming evident, generally made up of secondary claimants within kinship groups, women,
young unmarried men and „outsiders‟. Closed off from livelihood options on the land, they have
had to seek work in the off-farm economy, as traders and wage labourers, often migrating to
other areas or across borders. Scattered studies of these proletarianized groups suggest that age,
gender and migrant status may be emerging in SSA as axes of differentiation, and exclusion.

Illness and disability offer other examples of categorical forms of social exclusion. Leprosy in
particular has had near-mythical status as synonym for social exclusion of an extreme kind. As a
poor informant from Ghana interviewed as part of the World Bank‟s consultations with the poor
remarked: „It is neither leprosy nor poverty that kills the leper but loneliness‟. In many parts of
the world, leprosy was associated with the outcasting of affected individuals by their families
and communities and their decline into poverty and destitution. More recently, HIV/AIDS has
emerged as a new form of stigma-related social exclusion. As Piot noted in the plenary session of
the World Conference against Racism in 2001: „HIV stigma comes from the powerful
combination of shame and fear…Responding to AIDS with blame or abuse for people living
with AIDS forces the epidemic underground, creating the ideal conditions for HIV to spread‟.
There are in fact strong similarities between the stigma-related discrimination evoked by AIDS
and that associated with leprosy.
Finally, gender constitutes a specific form of categorical exclusion in conditions of poverty.
While gender is a widespread basis of social discrimination, the intersection of gender particular
category of the multiple-disadvantaged. Often, although not always, women and girls are at a
disadvantage to men and boys in relation to literacy, education, earnings and employment while
in some parts of the world, it also extends to physical well-being and life expectancy.

Gender is also emerging as a dimension of extreme poverty in certain parts of the world.
Analyzing the characteristics of the poorest 15-20% of households in rural areas of Asia and
increasingly Africa documented in a number of studies, Sender suggests that such households are
likely to contain a high ratio of adult females to males and that many are unlikely to have had
any access to the income of an adult male for several years because they are divorced,
abandoned, widowed or because they live with males who are unhealthy, disabled or unable to
earn or remit income for other reasons. The women in these households are likely have little or
no education, many have had children very early in their lives and report high levels of infant
mortality.

Check Your Progress Exercise 2

1. Find out open, closed and chosen groups in your area and interact with them. List the
groups.
2. Please visit different communities in your area and observe the practice of
„Conjunctural‟ forms of social exclusion
3. Define mutable and immutable identities with an example derived from your place.
4. In the section 18.6 author talks about different groups and categories of social exclusion.
Please recognize any one of the group who are placed in your area and how they are
socially excluded?
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18.6 SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND THE MDGS: SOME EMPIRICAL FINDINGS

We have already read Millennium Development Goals in the unit 1.Now we can see how the
concept of social exclusion relevant to the development policy and how it is interrelated to
Millennium Development Goals (MDG). One way to demonstrate the value-added of the concept
of social exclusion to development policy analysis is to examine its relevance to the achievement
of the Millennium Development Goals. These embody a set of concrete, time-bound
commitments to reduce poverty and promote basic human capabilities which have been agreed
by the majority of countries in the world and are likely to influence the development of medium
term poverty reduction strategies by those countries which fall short of these goals. In this
section, we examine the extent to which a social exclusion perspective can contribute to
understanding inequalities in poverty, health and education outcomes - the focus of 6 of the 8
MDGs. We examine the extent to which shortfalls in the achievements of these goals can be
explained in terms of the economic variables normally included in the analysis of poverty and
the extent to which they also reflect aspects of group identity. And where the literature allows,
we will also examine the extent to which these shortfalls are the product of group inequalities in
resources available and where they also reflect the problems that groups face in transforming
these resources into valued achievements.
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18.7 SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND THE INCIDENCE OF POVERTY

Data from the 2000 National Sample Survey in India suggests that the Scheduled Castes (SC)
constituted 20% of the rural population and 38% of them are poor while Scheduled Tribes(ST)
made up 11% of the rural population and 48% of them are poor. In urban areas, figures were
14% and 37% respectively for SC groups and 3% and 35% for ST groups. In addition, estimates
using the same data set suggest that poverty was around 30% for minorities (mainly Muslim) and
16% for non-deprived groups. There has been some decline in poverty among SC groups
between 1993-94 and 2000, but very little among ST groups. Using state level data from the
LSMS 1998 from Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar, Lucas estimates that scheduled caste/tribal
groups were 1.5 times as likely to be below the poverty line as the rest of the population, a gap of
25%.
The fact that, unlike the Scheduled Castess who is spread across the states of India, Scheduled
Tribes are concentrated in certain parts of certain states means that national comparisons can be
misleading. A more accurate picture is provided by focusing on states with high concentrations
of Scheduled Tribes. One such State is Orissa where Scheduled Tribes constitute 24% of the
population compared to 9% at the all-India level. The percentages of SCs approximate the
national figure. Data from the NSS shows that in 2000, the incidence of poverty among STs was
44% at the all-India level, but 72% in Orissa.

A number of studies suggest that the poverty of socially excluded groups cannot be fully
explained by group inequalities in assets and education. Using 2000 NSS data on rural India,
Dubey found that, holding a variety of individual and household characteristics constant (such as
education, occupation, age and gender of household head) scheduled tribe groups were 19%
more likely to be poor than the rest while scheduled caste groups were 10% more likely to be
poor, „Other backward castes‟ were 5% and Muslims 3% more likely to be poor. Muslims tend to
be at a greater disadvantage in urban area where as many as 40% of Muslims are found in the
bottom 20% of the income distribution compared to 22% of Hindus.

Using 1993/94 data from UP, Kozel and Parker in 2003 found that half of the difference in per
capita consumption between SC/ST households and other households could be explained by
differences in assets while half was due to differences in returns to those assets. SC/ST
households also suffered from lower returns to education. Gang et al in 2002 decomposed the
differences in the poverty rates of schedules castes, scheduled tribes and others and found half
the difference could be attributed to differences in group characteristics (education, occupation,
demography, location) and the rest by the effect that these characteristics had on the probability
of being poor.
The relationship between gender and household income poverty is generally captured in the
literature by the poverty of female headed households relative to male. In the South Asian region
generally, female-headed households have been found to be associated with greater poverty.
Analysis by Gangopadhyay and Wadhwa in 2003 shows that female headed households were
poorer than male headed ones in urban areas but in rural areas, the association with greater
poverty was only found for female heads who widowed or divorced. Studies are also found that
female-headed households, particularly those with no adult male members, together with
households which had ill and disabled members were most likely to have remained in poverty
over this period. The Participatory Poverty Assessment carried out in Pakistan in 2003 reported
that female household heads and widows, particularly those with young dependents, were
systematically identified as among the very poor in all the provinces.

In addition, recent estimates from Pakistan, where minority religions make up just 4% of the
population, found that the incidence of poverty was 40% among religious minorities compared to
25% among the Muslim majority. Ethnicity may also operate as a factor of exclusion, given that
poverty varies from around 32% in Punjab to 39% in the North-West Frontier Province. In
Vietnam, national level estimates confirm that the ethnic minorities constitute a distinctly poorer
group relative to the majority (the Kinh along with the Chinese are usually classified together as
the majority). Estimates by Lucas show that they were 2.4 times as likely to be below the
national poverty line in 2002 with a rate 43 percentage points higher than the rest of the
population. Data from successive LSMS (1999, 1998 and 2002) show declines in poverty among
the Kinh and Chinese from 54% to 31% to 23% while among the ethnic minorities it declined
from 86% to 75% to 69%.Poverty levels are higher in the upland areas of the centre and northern
Vietnam where the minority groups are concentrated as well as deeper in terms of the poverty
gap measure. Studies also show that physical location interacts with ethnicity in explaining
poverty outcomes. According to Swinkels and Turk, while ethnic minorities living in the
northern upland regions have seen declines in their poverty in line with the overall trend for
ethnic minorities, the Kinh people living in the same region has more than halved in ten years at
a rate much faster than the overall rate for the Kinh population. A study by Van de Walle and
Gunerwardena in 2001 confirms the interaction between ethnicity and location. Using 1992-93
VLSM on 2254 ethnic majority households (Kinh and Chinese) and 466 ethnic minority
households living in 85 communes in the northern part of the country, they examined the effect
of geographic location and ethnicity, along with a number of other expanatory variables, on per
capital household consumption.

The results suggested that differences in consumption levels between ethnic groups partly reflect
the fact that minorities lived in less productive areas, characterized by difficult physical terrain,
poor infrastructure and lower accessibility to market opportunities and off-farm work. In
addition, however, it appeared that where households were located also affected the impact of
various other explanatory variables on per capita consumption: while living in areas with less
productive land, poorer infrastructure and so on reduced returns to various household
characteristics for all groups, the effect was significantly stronger for ethnic minorities.
Evidence of administrative bias toward ethnic minorities is provided by Jorgensen‟s qualitative
analysis of interactions between government officials and ethnic communities in northern
highlands of Vietnam. He noted that while the Vietnamese government is committing to
improving agricultural practices for all sections of the population, the language in which
agricultural extension services was provided to minority groups in the upland areas (Vietnamese
which few minorities spoke as well as highly abstract and complicated), the context of the
training (often irrelevant) and its timing (a large gap between provision of training and its actual
use) all served to undermine its efforts among these groups. In addition, the attitudes of many
government officials are unlikely to have contributed to their effectiveness in providing the
services. A key official interviewed gave his views on the problems of providing extension
services to minority groups:

Box 2:
We have more than 75% ethnic minorities. People‟s brains are slow to start with and they even
forget about issues like money. If this would change, our extension work would be easy….They
are not exactly stupid – if you remind them, then they can remember.I want to make three points;
VMGs and CMGs have low level of knowledge. People are mainly ethnic minorities with slow
and heavy brains. Things should be done slowly but firmly in this area.
(Jorgensen, 2004).

A survey of the literature provides other evidence of the interaction between gender,
race/ethnicity and disadvantage in the Latin American context. Olinto and found that Black and
Brown women in urban Brazil had less schooling, lower family income and poorer housing
conditions than White women. Also in Brazil, women of African descent were disproportionately
represented among poor female heads of households with young children.Duryea et al., 2001
found that indigenous women in Bolivia and Guetamala were much more likely to work in
informal occupations than non-indigenous women and to enjoy lower returns for any given level
of schooling. In 9 out of 13 countries they studied, female headed families, particularly those
with young children, were over-represented in the low. In the context of sub-Saharan Africa,
where poverty is widespread, variations in the resources, including labour, available to poor
individuals and groups, and their ability to translate the labour at their disposal into food or
income creates considerable differentiation among the poor.
However, lack of disaggregated data on the social composition of the poor conceals the extent to
which social exclusion plays in role in explaining the persistence of poverty, with the exception
of the racially-stratified societies of South Africa and Zimbabwe. While South Africa has
experienced a decline in inter-racial inequality since the fall of apartheid, this has not been
reflected in overall measures of inequality because there has been a simultaneous rise in intra-
racial inequality, particularly within the black majority, reflected in the widening gap between
the wages of skilled and unskilled workers and rising unemployment. While class is no longer
co-terminous with race, the relationship between race and poverty has not disappeared. (Nattrass
and Seekings, 2001).est income decile which was the destitute category.At the top of the
economic hierarchy in South Africa are 12% of households who earn around 45% of the total
income and are predominantly white. In the middle are an increasingly multiracial middle class
and the African urban working class. At the bottom of the economic hierarchy in South Africa
are households whose main earnings came from semi-skilled or unskilled labour in agricultural
or domestic service together with those which had no one in employment or else relied on
negligible earnings from entrepreneurial activity (1993 data).These accounted for 41% of all
households but earned only 10% of total income. They were primarily black.
Studies from Zimbabwe suggest that its commercial farming sector has historically provided the
lowest wages, the worst living conditions and the least secure forms of employment Sachekonye,
2003. For many decades, the bulk of farm workers were migrants brought in from neighbouring
countries of Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia, with indigenous Zimbabweans shunning this
form of work. By 2000, however, they made up around 75% of the labour force, the rest being
made up by migrants and their descendants. Fast-track land reform in recent years has led to
around two-thirds of farm workers losing their jobs and with it, the little social security they
enjoyed. Food insecurity has been exacerbated by steeply rising food prices in escalating
inflation throughout the nineties and by the devastating drought in 2001-2002. An estimated 18%
in Matebeleland South, 21% in Mashonaland West, 31% in Manicaland and 39% in Mashonland
East could afford only a single meal a day in October 2002 (Sachekonye) while focus group
discussions suggested malnutrition and starvation were spreading among farm workers.
In addition, Sachekonye suggests that the descent into chronic poverty of the majority of farm
workers over the past decade has been greater among certain „vulnerable‟ groups: migrants,
casual female wage workers and particular age categories: children, youth and the elderly.
Migrants are made up of those coming from poorer regions of Zimbabwe and neighbouring
countries, sometimes a generation or two ago. Migrant workers from other countries are
particularly vulnerable because they do not have homes in communal areas to fall back on, ties
with their ancestral home from which their forebears came are weak or non-existent and many
were migrating from areas where land was becoming scarce or degrade anyway. Reports suggest
that they have been moved by the authorities to remote and marginal areas where there is little
infrastructure and no services.
Children growing up in deprived household are most likely to drop out of school and hence face
uncertain futures. Young people from poor households are also increasingly emerging as a
socially excluded group. With limited education and skills and few opportunities for employment
or self-employment, many are found to be following patterns of behavoiur which would further
damage their future: crime, drug abuse, alcoholism, early pregnancy and prostitution.
Elderly workers, who used to have some security in earlier times because they could remain on
the farms on which they had worked after they could no longer work, can now no longer rely on
this option. The absence of any social safety net (apart from a tiny pension) leaves them facing
immediate material shortfalls and an insecure future.

Finally, Sachekonya reported that women labourers make up the bulk of seasonal, casual labour
and the poorer sections of the agricultural wage labour. They are often perceived as
supplementing the earnings of male breadwinners rather than workers in their own right. Yet,
women head one in three households nationally as a result of separation, divorce, widowhood or
as single women. As Adams detailed study of female labour in rural Zimbabwe shows, even in
1986-87, when she carried out her survey, women predominated among wage labourers,
particularly those in low-paid casual agricultural work. Female headship was not necessarily a
correlate of poverty – many female heads were in receipts of remittances – but households
headed by casual female labour were amongst the poorest in the population.

Adams found that while piece rates for casual male and female labour did not differ, women
received lower wages than men and were more likely to be paid on a daily rather than monthly
basis than men. They were hired for shorter periods, sometimes a few days at a time. Many had
children to support but no male breadwinner to assist. Their wages paid for living and for
children‟s school fees. Children of female casual workers were more likely to be underweight
(33% compared to 23% of other women), with differences much greater in some regions, such as
the communal lands of Masvingo district where it varied between 40% and 26%. In short, the
poorest people in her study were women who faced desperate personal circumstances, had no
male support and few options but to leave their children with a relative in order to migrate in
search of work. There are some cases of stark ethnic divides, often taking a racial form, in some
other parts of Africa, as in the case of Sudan. „Slaves‟ were mentioned in poverty assessments in
both Sudan and Mauritania as one of the groups particularly vulnerable to poverty. There are also
examples of other less well publicized forms of ethnic inequalities which give rise to social
exclusion. A study of 102 households in urban Cameroon carried out as part of the IILS
programme found that 21% were classified as poor on the basis that they had fewer than two
meals a day, ate meat less than twice a week and did not have their own water supply. Ethnicity
was found to be correlated with various dimensions of household living standards. Compared to
the Bamilekes, members of the Beti and other ethnic groups were generally poorer. The majority
of unemployed household heads were Beti and 50% of Beti household heads were unemployed
and they are casual workers.

Elsewhere in the African context, categorical forms of disadvantage appear to be reproducing

old, and giving rise to new patterns of social exclusion. The IILS studies from Africa provided
examples of some of these. For example, a sample of members of low income households in
urban Tanzania found that a significant minority were beggars, that beggars were more likely to
be homeless than the rest of the sample, they were also older than the rest of the sample and the
majority of beggars (between 60-90% of those interviewed in two urban areas) were afflicted by
leprosy (Kaijage and Tibaijuka, 1996). The overwhelming majority of the women in the sample
were single, divorced or widowed mothers with young children to support. There was also a
predominance of ethnic groups from either geographically remote or semi-arid areas in the
overall sample. The study also noted the extent to which both pastoralists and hunter gatherers
had been dispossessed of access to the land and water they need for their livelihoods by the
dominant agricultural groups. However, attempts to convert these groups to a sedentary way of
life by the government were being resisted as an externally imposed set of values and practices.
Disability features in the generation of poverty in a number of contexts. Data from Tanzania
suggests that households with disabled members have a mean consumption of less than 60% of
the average and a poverty head count 20% greater than the average found that hunger was higher
in households headed by disabled people than the population as a whole, particularly among
black South Africans.

The spread of HIV-AIDS appear to be combining processes of impoverishment with processes of

marginalization. Based on research in Zambia, Baylis suggests that the impact of AIDS on rural
households is not a „shock‟ like any other. It removes the labour resources of young adults in the
most productive period of their lives, conjugal and mother to child transmission exerts a
cumulative effect on certain households so that there is a clustering of affected households. The
stigma attached to AIDS inhibits those affected from disclosing their condition or seeking
professional diagnosis so that the burden of care falls on family members.Combined with the
cut-back in government health services, this can put an unsupportable burden on family carers,
usually women.

One result of the spread of AIDS has been the rise of households headed by orphans or an elderly
grandparent, a category identified in participatory assessments as a socially vulnerable group
While a study from Malawi warns against assuming that all AIDS orphans would be subject to
exclusionary processes since this overlooks the role that extended family and community support
can play, it also notes that such supports have come under increasing strain with the rise in the
number of orphans.

The Tanzanian study provides evidence of strain on these traditional support systems in the
finding that many of the street children it interviewed in Mwanza town were orphans, a „good
number‟ as a result of AIDS. Even where responsibility for the care of orphans had been taken
on by relatives, they suffered a great deal of hardship because of the pressure they represented on
the family budget. Along with mistreatment and abuse, most orphans had been withdrawn from
school or had left in order to earn money.
Sachekonye noted that the spread of HIV-AIDS had particularly implications for children in poor
rural households in Zimbabwe. Estimates from the mid-nineties suggest 25% prevalence among
sexually active population among farm workers, with higher levels among casual and seasonal
workers. One effect of this has been a rise in the national orphan population to 8% of total (1
million), while local level evidence suggest that many are children of farm workers.There have
been growing numbers of child-headed households. While 65% of AIDS orphans attend school,
the rest have dropped out.
Check Your Progress Exercise 3
1. Find out the reports prepared by the government of India from 1990-2010 to estimate the
percentage of population in the below poverty line. Out of these reports, select one report and list
how much percentage of SCs, STs and women are in the trap of poverty in the states of Madhya
Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Kerala. Orissa, Assam and Gujarat.
______________________________________________________________________________
18.8 SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND HEALTH OUTCOMES
______________________________________________________________________________
As might be expected, the greater poverty of socially excluded groups translates into poorer
levels of health, particularly when their poverty is combined with locational disadvantages of
remoteness and lack of infrastructure and social services. However, one unexpected finding from
the Indian context relates to gender inequalities in mortality rates among socially excluded
groups. Several studies have shown that gender inequalities are lower among ST groups across
India and in some areas, also lower for SC group. Some recent evidence of this comes from
Agnihotri in the year 2000 by using district level data from the 1981 and 1991 census. He reports
low, „sometimes alarmingly low‟ female-to-male ratios in the 5-9 age groups among upper and
middle castes in the northern regions of India. Using a more finely-grained analysis than had
hitherto been carried out, he found that the highly masculine sex ratios were concentrated in the
north-western region. More favourable ratios prevailed in the northern mountainous states of
India (Himachal Pradesh and Manipur) and in its south-eastern states.
The pattern for the scheduled castes was similarly differentiated by region, with evidence of
gender discrimination greater among scheduled castes in northern India. By contrast, ratios for
the scheduled tribes, the poorest social groups in India, were the most balanced. Murthi et al
found that the higher the proportion of ST in a district, the lower the anti-female bias. However,
while gender inequalities in child survival rates may be lower for STs, they are disadvantaged in
other aspects of health outcomes. Maternal mortality rates in India are highest in tribal
areas.Infant and child mortality is around 83 and 126.6 per 1000 births compared to 62 and 83
for the general population. About 80% of tribal children are anemic, 50% are underweight and
only 26% receive all vaccines. 65% of women are anemic compared to 48% for the general
population. 43% do not receive any ante-natal checkup compared to 28% for the general
population. 17% of mothers have institutional deliveries and 15% are assisted by doctors
compared to 40% and 37% in the general population. Other studies suggest that 54% of children
aged 3 or less were underweight for their age among SC groups and 56% among ST groups
compared to 44% for the rest of the population. 47% of SC children and 34% of ST children had
measles immunization compared to 54% of the rest of the population; Infant Mortality Rates
were 83, 84 and 68 per 1000 live births respectively while under child mortality was 119, 126
and 92. 36% of births to SC groups and 23% to ST groups were assisted compared to 47% for
the rest of the population. In Orissa, 37% of scheduled caste women receive no ante-natal check
up compared to 15% of women from non-deprived groups and rates of immunization for
scheduled tribe children are about half of that of non deprived groups as discussed in Orissa
Human Development Report which is analyzed de Haan in the year 2004.
Betancourt and Gleason in the year 2000 used district level data from a number of different
sources to explore some of the determinants of health and educational provision by the state as
captured in the number of state provided doctors, nurses and teachers per 10 persons in rural
areas of the district. They found the most important source of variation at the district level related
to religion and caste: the higher the percentage of rural scheduled caste and Muslims in the
district population, the lower the provision of medical and educational services. Bharat et al
provide qualitative evidence that helps to explain the relationship between social exclusion and
health outcomes. They note that along with lack of respect for poorer patients, particularly
women, public health service providers hold strong stereotypes of population groups which fuel
the blaming of specific social groups for non-achievement of contraceptive targets. Acts of
discrimination against dalits were reported in the public health services in both poor and well
performing states. The avoidance by health workers, particularly paramedic and nursing staff, of
physical contact with dalits has been noted by Health Watch Trust in the year 1999 while the
reluctance to visit dalit households explains some of the incomplete immunization coverage of
dalit children. Both real and anticipated discriminatory behaviour and attitudes on the part of
health workers deters dalits from using health providers, public and private, particularly for
services which involve physical contact, such as giving birth.
In Bangladesh, as reported by Chowdhury et al. in the year 2002 that the Chittagong Hill Tracts,
where most of Bangladesh‟s tribal groups live, had a much lower immunization coverage of
children under 12 months than the national average: 22% compared to 54%. Within the Hill
Tracts, there was further differentiation by ethnicity. The majority Bangali reported 34%
coverage. Among the rest, coverage varied from 17% among Tripura people, 9% among Marma
and Chakma and 8% among Mro. In Nepal, Lucas‟s estimates suggest that infant mortality rates
among dalit groups was 1.4 times that of the rest of the population, an additional 32 deaths per
1000 births.
Gender inequality and poverty dimensions are clearly intertwined in some of the processes
behind the spread of AIDS. The growing economic pressures which lead women to sell sex for
subsistence have led a number of studies to suggest a link between gender, poverty and
seropositivity, Studies from Zimbabwe and South Africa carried out by Bassett and Mhloyi in
1991 and Jochelson et al. 1991 pointed out that the decision by women to sell sex was usually in
response to economic need, a way to supplement meagre salaries or replace them. As Doyal in
1995 points out, whenever sex is part of an economic exchange, women will be constrained in
their attempts to protect themselves from STDs: „the greater the degree of financial dependence,
the greater the constraint‟.
______________________________________________________________________________
18.9 SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES

Recent publications by international agencies draw attention to the magnitude of the problem of
getting all children to school and suggest that South Asia represents the biggest challenge in
terms of sheer numbers as well as degree of gender inequality. According to UNICEF‟s 1999
report on the State of the World‟s Children : “…over 130 million children of school age in the
developing world are growing up without access to basic education, while millions of others
languish in sub-standard learning situations where little learning takes place. Girls crowd these
ranks disproportionately, representing nearly two of every three children in the developing world
who do not receive a primary education.” Nearly fifty percent of these out of school children
were in South Asia.
According to UNESCO‟s report on Education for all in 2000, despite progress on the goal of
universal primary education, „more than a 100 million children in the world are still deprived of
access to primary education……Nearly all out-of-school children live in developing countries
and a majority of them are girls‟ . While sub-Saharan Africa reports the lowest gross enrolment
ratios in 1999 (81%), it is likely that the largest numbers of out-of-school children continue to be
located in Asia, particularly South Asia. The other side of this policy failure is documented by
ILO estimates which suggest there are a quarter of a billion working children aged 5-14
throughout the world, about half in full-time work, of whom 61% (153 million) are to be found
in Asia.
More detailed in-country analysis suggests that socially excluded groups account for a
disproportionate share of educational shortfalls and confirm the relevance of the gender
dimension. For instance, using 1998 LSMS data from UP and Bihar, Lucas estimates that
scheduled caste/tribes in the relevant age groups were 1.7 times (1.9 for males and 1.6 for
females) as likely not to be in attendance at primary school, a gap of 21 percentage points (20 for
males and 23 for females). They were 1.7 times as likely to be illiterate (2.0 for males and 1.6 for
females), a literacy gap of 24 percentage points (18 for males and 30 for females).
Analyzing NFHS data (1998-99) in India, Nambissan in the year 2004 notes that the proportion
of school-going children from dalit families communities had increased significantly in the
1990s but non-attendance continued to be higher among dalit children: 20% in the 6-10 age
group compared to 16% more generally and 29% in the 11-14 age group compared to 23% more
generally. Moreover, only 43% of dalit children completed primary schooling compared to 58%
of other castes and only 42% completed middle schooling compared to 63% of other caste
children in the respective age groups. World Bank estimates of primary school completion of
rates of children aged 12-16 years shows considerable variation for dalit children from a high of
96% in Kerala compared to 100% for other castes to 30% in Uttar Pradesh and only 19% in West
Bengal. There are thus clear caste gaps in educational attainment, but they vary considerably by
state.
As noted earlier, the greater geographical concentration of STs mean that national level estimates
provide a misleading idea of the extent of their disadvantage. In Orissa, for instance, which has
one of the highest concentrations of scheduled tribe populations in India, 27% of the not-
deprived population in the better-off rural coastal areas were illiterate (and 17% in urban areas)
but around 82% of the scheduled tribe population in the southern areas were illiterate as cited in
de Haan, 2004. According to the NFHS-2 as in 2001 by de Haan 88% of the female tribal
population, 73% of scheduled caste women, 56% of other backward caste women and 34% of
the rest of the female population were illiterate.
In 2000, the drop-out rate at primary level was 42% for all children in Orissa (similar for boys
and girls), 52% for SC (substantially higher for girls) and 63% for ST cited in Orissa Human
Development Report. Micro-level survey of 556 households in Koratpur, one of the poorest
districts of Orissa with a largely tribal population, found much higher rates of illiteracy among
girls in the age group 6-14 than boys: 31% compare to 18% .

There are various factors behind the poor educational outcomes of ST and SC children. One set
relates to the extreme nature of their poverty. 64% of the scheduled caste labour force, and 50%
of the scheduled tribe labour force, in rural areas worked in agricultural waged labour, one of the
poorest paid occupations in the economy, compared to just 30% of „other‟ groups. Both the
former groups were also disproportionately represented among bonded labourers: according to
government survey data, 66% of bonded labourers belonged to the scheduled castes and a further
18% to scheduled tribes as in Burra in the year 1995. According to a report published by the
Anti-Slavery Society (2000), the overwhelming majority of approximately 3 million mine and
quarry workers in the Indian state of Rajashtan belong to scheduled castes and tribal groups,
many trapped in debt bondage.
Not surprisingly, such groups also account for disproportionate share of child labourers as well
as of children out of school. Using 1993-94 NSS data, Thorat in1999 found that the proportion of
child labour was 2-3 times higher among scheduled caste and scheduled tribe groups than the
rest of the population. Duraisamy in 1997 found that higher levels of SC/ST groups within the
population of a state significantly increased child labour force participation rates. Since debt
bondage can trap marginalized tribal households for generations, its implications on children‟s
ability to go to school are significant. Nayak also in 2001 found that among Bondo households in
Orissa, children whose fathers die when they are young are particularly vulnerable since they
have to take on responsibility for fathers‟ debts.
The gender dimensions of child labor and educational exclusion tend to be obscured by
conceptual and methodological limitations in data collection. These have given rise to a category
dubbed the „nowhere‟ children, Children who were neither at school (and hence excluded from
enrolment data) nor at work (and hence excluded from labour force data). According to the 1991
census, there were 92 million of such children. Closer investigation suggests that they were often
engaged in forms of productive work which are not counted as „economic activity‟ by formal
data collection efforts (eg. fuel collection, rag picking, paid and unpaid domestic work) or else in
socially stigmatised forms of occupations (prostitutes, beggars, vagabonds etc) which tend to go
unreported.
The gender bias of these ommissions are pointed to by Duraisamy in 1997 who estimated that
nearly half of girls in the school-going age are engaged in such work and hence get excluded
from both work and educational statistics. Micro level studies also suggest that there are many
children, often girls, who are indeed neither at work nor in school as stated by Bhatty in 1998.
There is a high rate of abduction of adivasi girls for sexual trafficking while a study of
trafficking in girls for prostitution from Nepal, shows a high presence of ethnic minority groups.
Household level studies provide other insights into the inter-generational transmission of
disadvantages associated with social exclusion. Using all-India data on rural households,
Borooah examined various possible determinants of school enrolment, and likelihood of
continuing in school once enrolled. Along with the literacy of parents, household income,
occupation of parents, presence of a school and other government services in the village, all of
which played a significant role in predicting both independent variables, the study found that
male children were more likely to be enrolled and continue at school than female and that
children from Scheduled caste, tribal and Muslim households were less likely.
Dreze and Kingdon in 2001 analyze rural household data from Bihar, Himachal Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and UP and found that that children from scheduled caste and
scheduled tribe groups were much less likely to go to school, even when household wealth,
quality of schooling, parents‟ education and motivations were controlled for. Kingdon‟ study in
1996 based on data from urban UP, a state with higher than average percentages of children in
private schools as well as with particularly poor public provision, reported that children from
wealthier households were significantly more likely to attend private schools, and less likely to
go government schools, than those from poorer households. Boys were also more likely to go to
private schools, and less likely to go to government schools. Finally, children from low
castehouseholds had a lower probability of attending both government and private schools than
the rest of the population.
A study based on household data from two slum neighbourhoods in Calcutta found Muslim
children were more likely to be at work, particularly if they were Hindi speaking (ie. migrants
from outside West Bengal, often Bihar), compared to Hindu children. However, among Hindus,
Scheduled caste children were more likely to be working than other castes. Despite the
introduction of other explanatory variables, including household income, assets, mother‟s
education and membership of a samity (organisation), all of which exercised a positive effect on
the likelihood of children going to school, and female headship and reliance on casual labour,
which exercised a negative effect, Muslims and Hindi speaking migrants, remained significantly
less likely than the rest of the population to send their children to school and more likely to send
them to work. However, the scheduled caste effect disappeared once female headship was
factored into the analysis because of the much higher incidence of female headship among
scheduled caste households.
In her review of the factors which explain the poor educational outcomes among SC children,
Nambissan points to some of the ways in which caste identity plays a role. Teachers are
predominantly upper caste and bring their own understandings of the legitimacy of caste
relations into the class room. Dalit children are expected to run errands and are assigned menial
tasks such as sweeping and cleaning the classrooms. Higher rates of teacher absenteeism were
reported when children were mainly from scheduled caste and tribal communities. In West
Bengal it was found to be 75% in such schools compared to 33% elsewhere. Such treatment has
particularly negative effects for children who are likely to be first generation learners.

There is evidence from other parts of Asia of the interaction between social exclusion and child
labour. A report on begging in Pakistan found children to be a particularly vulnerable group.
There were reports of children being kidnapped for sexual trafficking exploited while it was also
believed that young boys were being sold in Dubai as camel boys. There was also vulnerability
to drug addiction. However, as the report points out, „the caste-based nature of much of the
begging …. means that for children, their line of work is pre-determined to a large extent and
their options are limited. This is especially dangerous for girls, who will find themselves – often
but not always – used as sex workers by their families to supplement their income‟.

While Latin America has higher levels of education than the other regions covered in this study
(UNESCO, 2004), social exclusion continues to be evident in educational outcomes. This is
illustrated by Lucas‟s estimates. He notes that while school attendance rates in Bolivia were very
high (93% primary attendance for „non-white‟ females was the lowest) „non-white‟ children
were 1.4 times as likely to be non-attendees at primary school and twice as likely to be illiterate
as white children. In Brazil, where again attendance rates were high, non-white children were 1.7
times as likely to be absentees from primary school and 5 times as likely to be illiterate. In
Paraguay, non white children were 1.8 times (1.5 males and 2.3 females) as likely to be
absentees from primary school, with attendance rates 4 percentage points (3 for males and 5 for
females) less. Illiteracy rates for those 15-24 were 3.5 times as high with a gap of 5 percentage
points.
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18.10 RESPONDING TO SOCIAL EXCLUSION

We have used the concept of social exclusion in this paper to draw attention to one way in which
poverty is linked to inequality: the concentrated nature of disadvantage among certain sections of
the poor. The challenges presented by social exclusion to present policy concerns with poverty
reduction, investment in human capabilities and the promotion of social justice suggest that the
„business as usual‟ approach to development has not proved adequate in the past and is unlikely
to do so in the future. Socially excluded groups have been invisibilised in „normal‟ forms of data
collection which tend to define „the poor‟ simply by their assets and income. The absence of
disaggregated data has helped to invisibilise the problem of social exclusion. This report has
tended to cite data from certain countries far more than others, not because the problem is worse
in these countries but because the data is more likely to be available.
Socially excluded groups are less likely than the rest of the poor to benefit from the „normal‟
processes of economic growth because not only do they own fewer resources of various kinds
than other sections of the poor, but they also find it harder to translate their resources into income
because of the discrimination they face in markets for labour and commodities.
Socially excluded groups are likely to be denied access to „normal‟ forms of social provisioning,
whether these are provided through private provision or by the state. They are unlikely to have
the means necessary to purchase these services in the market place while, as the examples cited
here show, the discriminatory attitudes prevalent in society at large are often reproduced by state
officials responsible for service provision.
Finally, socially excluded groups are generally less likely to participate in „normal‟ models of
democracy. Particularly where they constitute a minority, there is no incentive for political
parties competing for power to take their interest in to account since they neither represent
enough votes nor enough organisational clout to exercise a great deal of influence. Nor are they
likely to have the resources necessary to compete for political office. For instance, only 4.4% of
the Brazilian congress was of Afro descent although this group represented around half of the
Brazilian population. Women hold less than a fifth of senate and congressional seats across Latin
America.
Policy responses to social exclusion therefore need to address the multiple and overlapping
disadvantage that it represents. Multiplicity of disadvantage requires a multi-pronged approach to
address, among other things, the cultural norms and values which underpin discrimination
against excluded groups, to formulate policies which will address the intransigent nature of their
poverty and to strengthen their capacity to exercise „voice‟, not simply in the political domain
but across the different processes of collective decision-making which impinge on their lives.
The availability of statistics is clearly essential for a better estimate of the extent to which the
socially excluded among the poor systematically report lower levels of income and capabilities
than others while more detailed qualitative research can help to uncover the mechanisms by
which exclusion is reproduced over time. The agencies responsible for collecting data at both
national and international levels may need greater disaggregation of the poor than has hitherto
been the case.
Cultural norms and values which lead to the persistent discrimination against excluded groups
can be changed through the educational system, the media, public campaigns and setting up a
legal framework which discourages discriminatory behaviour and strengthens the civil and
political rights of excluded groups. The content of the educational curriculum, the language in
which it is taught and the extent to which teachers are drawn from, or at least sympathetic to,
social excluded groups will all help to determine the extent to which education promotes or
challenges the reproduction of social exclusion. The media plays an increasingly powerful role in
shaping everyday perceptions about difference and diversity within a society and can be
mobilized to educate, inform and entertain in ways which break down some of barriers which
separate socially excluded groups from the rest of society.
The legal framework can help to ensure that discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity,
disability, gender or age is rendered unacceptable within a society. It can also ensure that rights
of excluded groups to land, credit, employment and benefits are secured, given the greater
vulnerability of these groups. However, a legal approach to social exclusion necessitates that
attention is paid to the systems through which people obtain justice. Strengthening the rule of
law for the poor and marginalized means strengthening the judicial system at the level at which
everyday justice is dispensed. There is now sufficient evidence to suggest that the institutions
that represent the administration of justice in a society – the police, the law courts, the judges,
and lawyers – all of these infringe on the lives of poor and socially excluded in ways which
threaten their lives and their livelihoods.
Policies to address social exclusion may need to incorporate special provisions to address the
multiple disadvantages associated with social exclusion and to break the inter-generational
transmission of poverty that it has often entailed. Such provisions may entail special attention to
geographical or group targeting. It may entailing targeting the children of excluded groups to
ensure that they face that limited life chances which their parents faced. It may also need
addressing gender inequalities within excluded groups so that promoting respect for hitherto
marginalized cultures does not necessarily promote the internal inequalities which such cultures
may embody.
It may require the tailoring of social protection policies to address the particular forms of
vulnerability of socially excluded groups. Given that the vast majority of such groups are to be
found in the most exploitative forms of work in the informal economy, it is unlikely that forms of
social protection devised with the full-time formal sector worker in mind is likely to be
appropriate. Some form of basic security may be essential if those who are dependent on the
personalized forms of clientilism or highly insecure forms of employment for their survival are
to have the capacity to organize for their rights.
Addressing social exclusion will require changing the attitudes of those responsible for policy
delivery, tailoring policy design to the pace at which change takes place in conditions of
intransigent poverty, earmarking the resources necessary to ensure these provisions are
implemented and, above all, creating mechanisms which allow those who have a stake in the
success of these efforts to participate in their design.
Strengthening the voice of the socially excluded in policy and political processes may mean
changing the way that these processes are done. The decentralization of governance structures
would appear to be an essential element of this change. How decentralization is carried out, what
powers and responsibilities are devolved may vary by context but bringing the power of the state
within the reach of actors who cannot access more remote centralized structures of power must
be an important precondition for building participation and accountability.

At the same time, given that a great deal of social exclusion is reproduced through local level
hierarchies, the state is still seen by many as the only institution which has the capacity, however
imperfect, to sidestep or bulldoze disempowering relations of both market but also custom and
tradition. To that extent, the role of a central state that is not closely entangled from local power
structures and is more likely to be able to challenge them remains relevant.
Finally, promoting civil society networks which help to mobilize socially excluded groups and
which build their alliances with other organisations fighting for rights and social justice provides
a bottom-up way of strengthening their capacity to exercise voice and to ensure their claims are
addressed by policy and political processes. As we have tried to demonstrate in this unit, it is the
marginalization of socially excluded groups, their inability to influence the processes of
decision-making in their society, which partly explains why they remain poor over extended
periods of time.
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18.11 LET US SUM UP

It has been noted that the Millennium Declaration expressed far greater commitment to the
principles of equality, freedom and rights than is evident in the MDGs. Bilateral agencies could
do a great deal to ensure that the principles of the Declaration infuse the interpretation and
implementation of the MDGs. They could also ensure that these principles are built into their
policy dialogues with government. Most governments have signed the key international treaties
and covenants which commit them to respecting the political and civil rights of their citizens and
promoting the progressive realization of their social, economic and cultural rights. In doing so,
they have accepted the obligation to uphold these rights. Poverty reduction strategies which
explicitly address excluded sections of society are one important way in which they can meet
their obligations.
Check Your Progress Exercise 4
1. Do you aware NGO PRATHAM is publishing a status report on Education in India. Do
visit any one of the NGO working on Education in your area and collect ASER report.
Please prepare one page note on the primary education status of your district. Also list the
indicators used for assess the status of education.
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18.13 GLOSSARY

Gini-Co-efficient: Gini-coefficient is a measure statistical dispersion developed by the Italian

statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini. The Gini-coefficient is a measure of the inequality of a
distribution, a value of Zero expressing total equality and value of one maximal inequality. It is
commonly used to measure inequality of income or wealth.
Decentralization: Decentralization is a process of delegating functions, functionaries and
finance to the lowest administrative unit which is closer to the people.
NSS: National Sample Survey (NSS) is the nation wide survey conducted by the Ministry of
Statics and Programme Implementation on various socio-economic issues in successive rounds.
Each round covers subjects of current interest in a specific period.
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18.14 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS EXERCISES

Check Your Progress Exercise 1

1. “[Social exclusion is] the process through which individuals or groups are wholly or partially
excluded from full participation in the society in which they live.” Since the Social Summit in
1994, there has been increasing attention paid to the usefulness of the concept to concerns with
poverty, inequality and social justice in the developing country context. Institutions are also used
the concept of social exclusion are Institute of International Labour Studies, the Asian
Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.
Check Your Progress Exercise 2

3. „Mutable‟ forms of social exclusion relate to temporary phenomenon such as the situation
faced by migrants spending a limited period of time in an alien environment or to identities
which can be transformed with relative ease, for instance, through religious conversion or
acquiring formal citizenship. „Immutable‟ identities, by contrast, refer to identities and
affiliations which have evolved over an extended period of time, appear almost primordial in
nature and do not lend themselves easily to change. They tend to be associated with enduring
forms of social exclusion, lasting over the life time of an individual or over several generations.

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18.15 REFERENCES

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University of Bath

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18.16 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1. What do you mean poverty and define multi dimensional measurement of poverty?
2. How would social exclusion contribute to the analysis of inequality? What are the sectors
discussed in this unit with regard to social exclusion? Explain inequalities with the help of NSS
and NFHS data in the sectors of health and education?
3. How Social inclusion is helpful in achieving MDGs?