Assignment Code: MGPE-011/ASST/TMA/2022-23

Course Code: MGPE-011

Assignment Name: Human Security

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Answer five questions in all, selecting at least two questions from each section. Each question is to be answered in about 500 words. Each question carries 20 marks.

Section-I

Q1) Examine the relations between human security and peace building.

Ans) An arms race is like a spiral because once it starts, it spirals and gathers velocity on its own. Peace cannot be attained unless violent methods of resolving human conflicts are abandoned in favour of non-violent ones. Mahatma Gandhi frequently said this. The concept of non-violence should be regarded not only as an absence of physical harm but also as an active force of compassion for all beings, including people, animals, and plants, much as peace does not only mean the absence of war but rather peace with justice and dignity.

The concept of "human security," which challenges the conventional conception of "national security," is emerging as a paradigm for comprehending global vulnerabilities. According to the human security theory, stability at the local, regional, and international levels depends on a focus on human security. In the years following the Cold War, when a peace dividend was anticipated, the idea of human security first developed. However, even while interstate conflicts decreased, the frequency of intrastate disputes rose. As a result, a multidisciplinary concept of security that takes into account many security threats emerged.

Many proposals for building one "True World" where everyone lives in peace have been inspired by the search for peace and security in a world plagued by extreme economic, social, and cultural heterogeneity, as well as self-aggrandizing states that wage war against one another, occasionally plunging the world into senseless destruction. States that are characterised by ethnic, religious, and other types of conflicts are also on the lookout for peace. Conflicts frequently result from states' own entrenched elites suppressing change. The human security paradigm proposes a multifaceted approach to conflict resolution through security assurance.

It is important to guarantee that disagreements, conflicts, and crises do not arise in the first place or, if they do, that they do not reoccur. Peace building initiatives aim to address the root causes of these issues. The UN Secretary-General concentrated on preventing future conflicts, or "post-conflict peace building," in "An Agenda for Peace."

However, promoting peace also has a strong preventive component. It is likely that many potential issues, whether internal or external, will remain manageable if the proper foundations are established through efforts to, among other things, create fair systems of rules, fair ways of distributing scarce resources, and to meet basic human needs for survival and dignity.

The idea of human security for a decent level of life, as well as for acknowledgement of one's identity and value, lies at the core of the concept of building peace. When significant interests or needs of one or more parties are thwarted, threatened, or unmet, conflict, whether domestic or international, results. There are many methods for recognising these requirements and interests, and there are ways to accommodate and reconcile them to the greatest extent possible. Here, establishing the circumstances that will guarantee a problem-free future is the main focus.

The law of war is concerned with the outcomes of armed conflict between sovereigns, with the protection of the injured, the ill, the prisoners, and the civilian victims of armed conflicts, in contrast to human security, which deals with important issues of state sovereignty and primarily with the relationship between individuals and the state. Ironically, it had already attained a high level of codification and application decades earlier. This is true since its formulation was influenced by both mutual interest and humanitarian beliefs.

Q2) Critically examine the Gandhian vision of human security.

Ans) Human security is concentrated on people. It turns its attention to safeguarding people. In order to address sources of dangers, it is crucial to consider individual wellbeing and take into account the requirements of regular people. The supreme consideration ought to be man. Human security would broaden the spectrum of protection to include a wider range of risks, such as environmental pollution, infectious diseases, and economic deprivation, in addition to safeguarding the state against external assault.

The realisation of human security requires not only the cooperation of governments, but also a wider range of different actors, including local communities, non-governmental organisations, and regional and international organisations. In addition to providing protection, human security also gives individuals and societies more power. People participate by producing and putting into action solutions to insecurity.

The first and most fundamental rule that must be followed is that human security is a component of the international discussion and must be evaluated according to the same standards that have traditionally and generally been accepted as being used to advance this dialogue. This means that there should never be a conflict between state security and human security without a valid reason, and that cooperative efforts should be used as a first step to enhance human security. Some have argued that the main danger to human security comes from the state.

The importance of power in international affairs has not diminished over the years. We cannot pretend that in the post-Cold War world, the role of the state, once expressed primarily through military, political, and economic power, and now increasingly expressed as a supplement, through the power of the concept of human security, is about to be abandoned, or that the importance of power has diminished while outlining the human security construct in a way that draws closer an agenda for action. Gandhi made the exact same case.

Gandhi was wary of the power of the state and saw it as a source of violence. Gandhi believed that the state was a platform for violence. While Tolstoy and Gandhi saw the state as the source of violence, Marx and Engels see it as the instrument of the exploiting classes. Gandhi was the leader of a heavenly kingdom on earth; thus, it goes without saying that the use of force by political institutions repulsed him. He sees humanity as having reached its pinnacle of perfection, which is why he is antagonistic to the contemporary state, which he sees as a machine that represents organised and concentrated aggression.

More crucial than the interests of the state is the defence of personal welfare. State power may be suspended if there is an internal or external threat to a person's security from the state or another state. It is more productive to deal with the underlying causes of humanitarian crises in order to prevent issues and safeguard people's long-term security. The best remedy is prevention. To stop humanitarian crises and a population's widespread lack of human security, a group's comprehension of the more fundamental societal concerns and desire to cooperate are required.

Q3) What do you understand by state violence? What are the types and theories of state violence?

Ans) State violence is defined as "the use of legitimate governmental authority to cause unnecessary harm and suffering to groups, individuals, and states". It can be defined broadly or narrowly to refer to such events as genocide, state terrorism, drone attacks, police brutality, state surveillance, or juridical violence.

Theory on Greed and Grievances

In spite of Aristotle's famous statement that poor is the source of revolt and crime, Personal greed and grievances have been cited by globalisation theorists over the last ten years as the main drivers of violent conflict. They contend that two processes in theories of greed are represented by globalisation. The state undergoes changes as a result, including the loss of state control and public goods that can make societies more susceptible to conflict. On the other hand, it also increases chances for transnational trade, both legitimate and illegal.

Many civil wars are sparked and fuelled by resource curses rather than poverty. According to data from Southeast Asia, even battles that have been labelled as separatist, communal, ethnic, or ideological do clearly have an element of greed. In the Philippines, the exploitation of mining opportunities has clashed with indigenous land rights and competition for resources, while in Indonesia's Papua, Sulawesi, and Malaku, ongoing violence is not just of a religious or ethnic nature but is also a struggle for land and resources that has been made worse by environmental degradation.

Yet many academics have linked specific conflict patterns to the instability brought on by societal change in an increasingly globalised society. For instance, Barber attributes armed conflict to violent resistance to modernity, cultural imperialism, socioeconomic exploitation, and loss of sovereignty. Others point to economic instability and growing marketization as the causes of the unrest in society. Amy Chua and Michael Mousseau believe that the market will bring about radical change and ferocious opposition, rather than being neutral.

Grievance Theory

A rival group of thinkers regard political grievances as one of the most significant sources of violent conflicts, in addition to economic and greed-related issues. According to them, it is impossible to comprehend military wars without including political grievances. Examples include those in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, and Pakistan. For instance, Edward Azar has suggested that communal groups struggle for such basic requirements as security, respect and acceptability, equitable access to political institutions and economic participation is typically what leads to civil wars.

Identities-based conflict is emphasised by a second subset of grievances theorists as the primary driver of violent conflicts since the 1980s. Scholars like Ted Gurr, Woodward, and Marshall consider ethnic and religious rivalry as the main driver of civil conflict in the post-Cold War era and refer to it as a severe ethnic security challenge. These researchers assert, using data from the Political Instability Task Force, that ethnic wars are more likely to happen when the state actively and persistently discriminates against one or more of the following:

1. Major nations with moderate to high levels of ethnic diversity.

2. When factionalism coexists with a partial democracy in the nation.

3. When the nation's neighbours are already involved in an ethnic or civil war.

4. When a nation has recently suffered from a genocide or ethnic strife.

5. When there are many young people in a nation.

Section-II

Write a short note on each part of the question in about 250 words:

Q1) (a) Human Security and Development

Ans) Human security is an attempt to change the way we think about security in a fundamental way. It is mostly a tool for analysis that focuses on the security of the individual, not the security of the state. The main goal of policy recommendations and actions is therefore to find ways to reduce threats to people's security. In line with the broader definition of human security, the causes of insecurity now include threats to socio-economic and political conditions, food, health, the environment, community safety, and personal safety. When the human security framework was used to make policy decisions, they took into account a lot more than just the traditional focus on military force. This made armies much less important, or even got rid of them altogether.

Human rights and human development can be seen as the beginning and end of security. It has to do with what people need when they are at their most vulnerable, like during wars or when there are natural or technological disasters. People often think of security as the lack of physical violence, while development is seen as the improvement of material things and living standards. Most of the writing about Human Security as a policy idea uses these distinctions, but they are wrong. In an age of globalisation, many conceptual lines, such as those between the political, civil, economic, and military, have to be redrawn because they are mostly based on the idea of a nation-state.

Q1) (b) Empowering Bonded Labour

Ans) Bonded labour is an old system in which a debtor forces a worker to work for him or her in exchange for payment from the debtor or his ancestors to the worker or his ancestors. So, it means that workers who owe money were cruelly held as slaves. This system is most common in rural areas and makes the lives of workers who are in debt very hard. There is no exact way to figure out how much bonded labour is. The problems of bonded labourers are part of a larger set of social and economic problems, such as an oversupply of workers, unemployment, low wages and a low standard of living for workers with little extra money, as well as illiteracy in rural areas and a feeling of helplessness. Such labourers are in permanent debts. The system keeps going on its own, and strong action is needed to stop their miserable lives.

The Indian government made the decision to outlaw this immoral practise and proclaimed it unlawful everywhere it existed. The government issued the Bonded Labour System Ordinance in 1975. The Bonded Labour System Act of 1976 took its place. It unilaterally released all bound labourers from servitude while simultaneously paying off their debts. Even after two decades, there is still a sizable amount of this labour present, and despite explicit laws defining bonded labour, releasing those who are bound to it, and establishing programmes for their rehabilitation, the deplorable practise continues to be practised. To abolish this practise and equip the released workers for a new, productive life, a strong, concerted effort from everyone involved is required.

Q2) (a) Gender Discrimination, Child, and Migrant Labour

Ans) In many ways, the types of people who work in a developed country are different from those who work in a developing country like India. In developed countries, it is more organised, and people who do this kind of work get all the benefits of social security "from birth to death." The people who work there are also well educated and hardworking. But in developing countries like India, most people who work don't have any skills and aren't protected. Because of this, the wages, working conditions, and other social benefits are not available to the vast majority of workers, who are called "unorganised." Whether in the city or the country, unorganised labour has always been at the bottom when it comes to getting the benefits of development.

Women workers who are paid much less than their male counterparts, despite the fact that this is unconstitutional, suffer from gender discrimination. In the unorganised sector, this approach is common. Additionally, there is a lot of child labour. Migrant workers, who make up a substantial portion of the rural labour force in underdeveloped regions without irrigation infrastructure, are frequently abused by their employers who underpay them for their labour. Additionally complicated and persistent, these issues demand ongoing, multifaceted efforts to adequately address.

Q2) (b) Organic Farming

Ans) Physical, biological, and environmentally friendly bio-pesticides can be used in conjunction in organic farming to replace the usage of chemical pesticides. Locally, biopesticides are accessible. Organic materials that do not pollute the environment, impair the production, or hurt the health of the farmers They include neem seeds, milk, ghee, fish, jaggery, yoghurt, lime, eggs, custard apples, and extracts of chilli and garlic. They also include cow dung and urine. Farmers are initially taught how to cultivate without using pesticides; once they have mastered this, they also stop using fertilisers and go to an entirely organic method.

Paddy, red gramme, groundnut, cotton, jowar, bajra, sunflower, castor, turmeric, chilies, and vegetables are a few of the crops farmed using organic methods. In various states across the nation, including Maharashtra, Punjab, and Andhra Pradesh, organic farming is being practised. The fact that farmers pass along their knowledge of these techniques to others is an added benefit. Andhra Pradesh's farmers have also been conducting independent study and developing fresh solutions. Making the farmers knowledgeable and input-independent is essential.