THE CONCEPTION OF NEEDS: INTRODUCTION
It
is a well known truth that human beings everywhere experience needs, wants and
desires, have aspiration and interests, and claim rights. Yet ‘needs’ differ
from all these related categories. One may want many things that one may not
actually need; one may desire things beyond one’s needs, one’s aspiration may
be higher than ones wants, needs and desires; even so, not all wants and
desires correspond to having need or claiming rights. As concerns ‘needs’
contrasted with desires and wants, Roscoe Pound suggested the importance of the
category of ‘interests’ as interests are social demands made by groups of the
category of people on the law and state.[1] He regarded law as a species of social
engineering whose function is to maximise the fulfilment of the interests of
the community and to promote the smooth running of the machinery of society[2]. The task of law is both as legislation and
adjudication to provide mechanism for adjustment and settlement of conflicting
interests. We may surely ask in the context of the planned economy of India and
Globalisation, whether the Wants and Desires of the impoverished humanity
actually experienced basic need and
attended by state, Politics and law or not. Here in this Article Author would
try to find out the project but to understand the inter-action between law and
life and how the community can register peaceful progress through the
instrumentality of law. Likewise Mr. Justice S.Ratanavel Pandian observes in
Indira Sawhney v. Union of India:[3]
This court which stands as a sentinel on
the quie vie over the rights of the
people of this country has to interpret the Constitution in its true spirit
with insight into social values and suppleness of the adoption to the changing
social needs upholding the basic structure of the Constitution for securing
social justice, economic justice and political justice as well as equality of
status and equality of opportunity ...
... It may be a journey of thousand miles in achieving the equality of status
and of opportunity, yet it must begin with a single step. So let the socially
backward people take their first step in that endeavour and march on and on.
IDENTIFICATION OF HUMAN NEEDS
The
satisfaction of human needs is widely accepted as an ideal for any human
society. Human needs may be understood as a physiological or social requirement
of the body or the mind which is considered essential for the maintenance of
human life. In respect of physiological or homeostatic needs the biological
sciences are more precise in giving scientific information regarding the
essential needs relating to general hunger and specific food appetites, thirst,
respiration, constant internal temperature and sleep, rest after fatigue and
work after rest etc. Karl Marx described these as species needs, which include primarily the need for solidarity
relations (companionship and communication) and need to perform productive
work.[4]
PRIORITIZING HUMAN NEEDS
One
of the earliest thinking about Basic human needs can be found in Buddhist
writings, which ordained that even for a person who joins the ascetic order
certain basic needs known as Chhatupacchay,
including within its fold Pindpat
(food), Chivar (clothes), Sensan (shelter) and Gilanapachhaya Bhashaya Parikhara
(medical services) ought to be provided.[5]
The
United Nations has identified the following as the basic human survival needs:
(i) Nutrition (ii) Shelter (iii) Health (iv) Education (v) Leisure (vi)
Security (Physical safety and economic security) and (vii) Environment.
Abraham
Maslow[6]
made the Pyramid of needs which he categorised in four parts, in the rank of
hierarchy Bottom level i.e. (i) Safety and Security includes
survival: food-water-shelter, above this (ii) Self esteem mentioned as
Belonging: Love and acceptance, after this (iii) Aesthetic appreciation meaning there by Intellectual
achievement and on the Top levels he puts Self actualisation. There are some
societies that lack resource for providing all the basic needs at a time.
However, in some societies even the actualisation of priority basic human need
such as food, poses serious resources and political will problems. The question
arises on what basic one need is to be preferred over the others?
DIRECTION
MANIFESTD IN OUR CONSTITUTION
Part
IV has been put into our Constitution containing directive principles of State
Policy which specify the socialistic goal to be achieved. Directive Principles in the scheme of our
Constitution project the high ideal which the Constitution aims to achieve
hence these Principles are fundamental in governance of the country. And
Fundamental rights occupy a unique place in the lives of civilized societies
and have been variously described as "transcendental",
"inalienable" and "primordial" and they constitute the ark
of the Constitution. They are like a twin formula for achieving the social
revolution that is the ideal which the visionary founders of the Constitution
set before themselves. In other words, the Indian Constitution is founded on
the bed-rock of the balance between Parts III and IV. It is in this sense that
Parts III and IV together constitute the core of our Constitution and combine
to form its conscience. The edifice of Indian Constitution is built upon the
concepts crystallized in the Preamble. Having resolved to constitute ourselves
into a Socialist State which carried with it the obligation to, secure to our
people justice- social, economic and political.[7]
DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OF STATE POLICY AND BASIC
NEEDS
Articles
38,39,41,42,43,43A,45,46,47 and 48 of
our Constitution clearly manifests the importance of basic needs and includes
policies to followed by states for welfare of the citizens, men and women
equally in terms of means of livelihood, right to work, education, just and
humane conditions of work, public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age,
sickness and disablement etc.
Article
45 which provides right to free and compulsory education may be read as after
the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment)Act 2002:
The state shall endeavour to provide, within a
period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution for, for free
and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of
fourteen years.
Further
Article 46 is another important provision for the Promotion of educational and
economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker
sections and protects them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.
In
D.S Nakara v. Union Of India,[8]
the court has held that the basic framework of socialism is to provide a decent
standard of life to working people, particularly security from cradle to the
grave. The object is to achieve economic equality and equal distribution of
income. The main emphasis in a socialist state is given on the welfare of all
and not a few. The state must adopt all
possible measures to secure the well-being and progress of all citizens.[9]
In
a Democracy Government is formed by consent and when laws are made it is the
voice of the people, and discipline of a democratic citizens conforms to the
norms of behaviour so set by the law.
ILO -
Prioritizing basic needs
The
first operationally sound and intellectually coherent vision of a people
focused development strategy emerged in the 1970’s when the ILO’s World
Employment Conference developed a strategy for meeting basic needs. This
strategy emerged from a careful analysis at country level of problems of
employment, poverty, and inequality in a number of countries. The ILO mission visited countries like
Colombia Sri Lanka and Kenya And Philippines and Sudan. This led to the
preparation of a synthesis of required actions that became embodied in Employment,
Growth and Basic Needs – A One World Problem.
The basic document was submitted in 1976
in the ILO World Employment Conference. The basic needs strategy captured the
world’s attention and entered popular imagination. It won the support of people
who held positions of international leadership, including the erstwhile World
Bank president Robert McNamara.
As a dynamic
strategy for development, the basic needs approach prioritized ensuring that
the poorest group of each country should achieve a minimum standard of living
within a defined time period (this was originally intended to be the end of the
20th century, a time period of 25 years from the time basic needs
was first formulated).
As mentioned
earlier, the strategy required each country to give attention to two elements
of basic needs- 1) provision of certain minimum requirements of a family for
private consumption and 2) essential services provided by and for community at
large; such as safe drinking water, sanitation, health and education.
Participation of governmental bodies and human rights were included in the
definition of basic needs. The World Employment Programme stressed that a
strategy that combined fast economic growth and the redistribution of the
fruits of growth had to be backed by international policies that covered
elements of international trade, FDI, development assistance, migration
policies for developing countries and policy towards multi-national
enterprises. The World Employment Conference (of 76’) considered not only the
strategy but also agreed on follow-up actions to be taken by both individual
countries and the international community. In spite of some bitter ideological
differences between poor and rich countries, the implementation of the strategy
was met with a remarkably unequivocal consensus.
The ILO report
of the World Employment Conference of 1976 laid down the idea of development
and growth in terms of achieving basic needs for all, and also includes broad
strategies to be followed viz. basic needs, but stops short of providing
explicit steps of how developing nations might develop the political will to
bring about the change that are part of basic needs strategy. The report also
makes it very clear the need for more effective international trade and aid
policies with the latter targeted more directly towards meeting basic needs.
The World
Employment Conference and its consequences were mostly favorable. A few
extremely poor countries such as South and North Korea, Taiwan, China and Sri
Lanka, were able to address the basic needs of their poor majorities with
relative success. East Asian countries that had seen twenty years of major
civil and international wars now refocused on ensuring increased growth to go
hand in hand with social equity. What the conference and exceedingly clear was
that the leaders of developed and developing countries need to take parallel
actions on the reform of international system and on internal reform to create
political environment necessary to bring change.
In
all this, ILO’s initiative and leadership need to be applauded. It went beyond
its capabilities and duties as an organization and articulated basic needs as a
concept, and saw to the implementation of the same by providing countries
strategies to pursue to achieve basic needs. The marriage of economic aspects
(employment, income equality) and social aspects(human rights, health,
education etc.) that ILO realized necessary to human growth and development was
visionary. ILO seemed to be the forerunner in realizing that true development
to meet basic needs must ultimately encompass progress in all the areas of
concern.
Achievements
of the Tripartite World Conference
(1)
Setting priorities for basic needs:
There are several ways in which the basic needs of the poor could be satisfied
within a given time horizon. One approach is through more rapid overall growth
alone, leaving the income distribution to market forces. This approach implies
high rate of investment, redistribution could occur as a byproduct of overall
increased output.
Governments
wishing to embark on a basic needs strategy may find it useful as a first step
to establish suitable machinery to determine a national set of basic needs
targets or minimum standard of living. To achieve the satisfaction of basic
needs within a generation will therefore require action on all fronts, both
redistribution and growth together. To be of use, this redistribution must
result in production of more basic goods and services. The provision of adequate employment
opportunities is an essential ingredient in this strategy. A productive
mobilization of unemployed and underemployed plus higher productivity by
working poor are essential means of ensuring both a level of output high enough
to meet basic needs target and its proper distribution. Redistribution of
ownership of land and other productive resources are also likely to raise the
level of productivity of working poor.
The
word “tripartite” world conference on Employment Income Distribution and Social
Progress was represented by 121 delegates of government, 112 employers, 116
workers and 921 advisors. The conference achieved a major move in the direction
of acceptance of basic needs strategy. The remarkable feature was this
acceptance was heavily dominated by delegates from developing world
itself. Although the resolution leaves
considerable room for flexibility in implementation, one needs to see how fast
poor countries can be expected to move into basic needs strategy. Clearly the developing world is very united
on the need for a new international economic boarder but redistribution of
wealth among countries will only be going to solve the problem of poverty. As
said earlier, countries focused on new international economic boarder as
opposed to change in the internal policies, it is likely that neither will
happen without the other.
(2) Declaration of basic needs – The
conference adopted the following resolution as Programme of Action.
1.
Past
development strategies have not helped to eradicate poverty and unemployment
2.
Industrialized
countries have not been able to ensure full employment
3.
The
effort of the conference is to establish a more equitable international
economic border
4. The
causes of unemployment, poverty, malnutrition and illiteracy are caused by both
national and international factors.
5. The
primary objective of national development efforts should be to achieve full
employment and to satisfy the basic needs of all people. Committed to
attainment of equitable distribution of income and wealth through appropriate
strategy to eradicate poverty.
(3) Articulating areas of focusing each basic
need:
Broadly
speaking, the Programme of Action developed in the conference includes two
elements of basic needs:
- to include certain minimum requirements of a family for private consumption i.e. adequate food, shelter and clothing as well as certain household equipment and furniture. They include essential services provided by and for the community at large, such as safe drinking water, sanitation, public transport and heath, educational and cultural facilities.
- It also emphasized that the concept of basic needs is a country-specific and dynamic concept. It should be placed within a context of national independence, the dignity of individual and people and their freedom to chart their destiny without hindrance.
Creating full
employment and national employment centric development strategy aiming at
satisfying the basic needs of the population as a whole should include the
following essential elements; to the extent it is desirable and applicable:
Macro-economic
policies:
An increase in the volume and productivity of the workforce in order to
increase incomes of the lowest income groups.
- The control of the utilization and processing of natural resources as well as establishment of basic industries that would generate self-relying and harmonious economic development.
- A planned increase in investments in order to achieve diversification of employment and technological progress and to overcome other regional and sectoral inequalities.
- Provisions by the government for policy framework to guide the public and private sectors towards meeting the basic needs
- The development of human resources through education and vocational training.
Employment Policies:
- Member States should prioritize generation of employment. Specific targets should be set to reduce unemployment and underemployment.
- Equality of treatment and remuneration for women should be ensured.
- Wage policy should be such that wages earned by members of the workforce should be able to meet minimum standards of living, and be equitable and the wage policy itself should reflect social productivity.
Rural
Sector Policies:
- Government should give priority to rural development, in particular to effectively reorganize the agrarian structure.
- Cooperatives should be promoted, especially in the areas of transportation, storage, marketing distribution network etc.
- The main thrust of a basic needs strategy must be to ensure that it is an effective mass participation of the rural population in the political process in order to safeguard their interests. A policy of active encouragement to small farmers and rural workers should be pursued.
Social Policies:
- To increase the welfare of working people especially women, the young and the aged.
- Special emphasis should be placed in developing countries on promoting the status of education and employment of women and on integrating women into economic and civic life of a country, thus enuring their development as a social group.
- Abolition of every kind of discrimination as regards right to work, wage equality, vocational guidance, training etc.
- Favourable workplace conditions for married women
- The implementation of basic needs strategies should allow no discrimination against the young, the aged or the handicapped. Every segment of the working class should be given equal opportunity, equal pay for work and working conditions suited for their age.
- Government should try to involve employers’ organization, trade union, rural workers in decision making procedure
- Education itself is a basic need and hence an important ingredient of the basic needs strategy. Lack of access to education denies many people the opportunity to participate fully and meaningfully in social, economical, cultural and political life of the community.
- Educational and vocational training system should adopted for the national development needs
Population Policy:
- Empirical studies have shown that high birth rates in poverty stricken areas are not the cause of under development but a result of it. This may however jeopardize the satisfaction of the basic needs. Even though each country must adopt a population policy, the policy must be in line with the existing cultural and social background.
International Economic Cooperation:
- Stabilize developing countries’ export of primary products and improve their terms of trade to financing and integrated commodity program
- Increase the net transfer of resources to developing countries including mitigation of their debt burden.
- Increase mutual economic cooperation between countries with different social and economic systems.
In
a changing society such as in India, law must be dynamic and followed by
socio-economic legislation for addressing the changes. In this backdrop there
is a need to examine the new emphasis on Land Reforms, Right to Food, Right to
Education, Right to Legal Aid, Right to Information, Recognition of Forest
Dweller Rights, Protection of Children from the Sexual Offences, National Rural
Employment Guarantee, Prohibition of Child Marriage, Welfare of Senior Citizen
and Old Parents, Prohibition on Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation,
Disaster Management, Unorganised Sector Workers Right and Green Tribunal etc..
CONCLUSION
More
than sixty five years after independence, India’s development records are still
not very convincing. International economic and social indicators reveal the
existing problems in achieving basic needs for the majority of the population.
In view of the stages of development and preferences there may be differences
between one Society and other on the issues of perception of human needs. But
the starting point of enquiries for basic needs is the field of legal rights,
human rights, social justice, individual liberty and equality etc.
[3] AIR
1993 SC 447 at 634)
edn.,
2008) as referred in Minerva Mills Ltd. & Ors v. Union Of India
& Ors, AIR 1980 SC 1789. Further see Austin, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, 50 (Clarendon
Press, Oxford, 1966).
8.Articles
38(1) and 39(b) and (c) of the Constitution of India. Further see Kerala Hotel and Restaurant association v.
State of Kerala AIR 1990 SC 913.
Rupesh Chandra Madhav is presently working om his dissertation on "Informational Privacy" for Indian Law Institute, New Delhi. He is also Executive Editor of LAWMAN. He can be reached at: rupesh.andi11@gmail.com
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