Should Basic Economic Security be a Human Right?

The ICRC defines economic security as the ability of individuals, households, or communities to cover their essential needs sustainably and with dignity. This can vary according to an individual’s physical needs, the environment, and prevailing cultural standards. Food, shelter, clothing, and hygiene qualify as essential needs. The current scenario would also declare educational and health care facilities as essential needs.

A slave can have all the above security but without dignity or respect. Such socio-economic security shall be termed as insecurity.

Hello Ecofun family…. welcome back… life is just too busy for me. However, this shall be an interesting read for you guys. Also, it should be an important read for everyone.

There are many papers and arguments:

1. What is basic socio-economic security?
2. Should economic security be treated as a basic human right?
3. Insecurity is worse than poverty?
4. Economic security can increase GDP?

It is an important topic among economists. Especially, labor economists. Even the more, the current country scenario which talks about CAB and NRC; is very important that we are aware of economic security-insecurity when we talk about citizenship.

What should be included as basic economic security?!

Food, shelter, clothing(roti, kapda, makaan)?! Is that all? NO!!!! All human beings require a sense of security, stability, and direction. When one feels secure enough, he will then be efficient and productive.

1. Freedom from Morbidity: An individual cannot be expected to act freely and rational if he knows his survival is at the margin. His productivity will fall and he shall live only waiting for his death.
2. Freedom from fear: A citizen shall be free from fear. And this security should be served with equality. Every citizen irrespective of caste, creed, gender, or the financial position has the right to live freely without fear.
3. Control of own development: Every individual has the right to decide and educate himself accordingly.
4. Sustainable self-respect: Self-respect: An individual can suffer from education poverty, nutrition poverty, income poverty, or dignity poverty. All these poverties are inter twinned and leads to one another. A starving person may rob or may fall prey to social ills. The person who is deprived of dignity may take more violent action. Criminal offenses can be severe.

How does one receive a sense of security?!

Security comes from the sense of identity, sense of belonging to a community, and a sense of personal control. When one is threatened to lose its identity, his economic security is questioned. So, when and how does the Government decides to isolate someone and take away the identification of an individual?

The Government is morally allowed to do so only when the welfare of the nation demands so. Let me state an example here.

During an epidemic situation, few governments decide to build more hospitals to save the patients. But, there is some government (let’s not take names) who decide to prevent the spread of the disease by putting these infected patients behind walls (where they gradually die). In the first situation, the Government is actually trying to protect the diseased patients which might (or may not) infect other healthy people too. However, in the second case, the Government decides to prevent the spread of the decease and protect its citizen. Like the COVID 19 patients of 2020.

Statistics, have proved that the countries where the second method was adopted; the loss due to epidemic was much less. So, as a Government what would you choose?!

Under the Corona pandemic scenario, we are still not blessed with proper vaccines for the disease. The high contagious nature of the fatal virus is dangerous to the welfare of the citizens. The Healthcare sector is struggling, GDP is crushing and life-security is nowhere to be seen. Under such a scenario the federal is forced to isolate and quarantine the infected person. But, this does not take away the identity of a citizen.

Let us consider India. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is an identity registration of all Indian citizens mandated by the 2003 amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955. This prevents illegal migrants from entering the country. The newly amended citizenship act (CAA) has aroused a sense of fear among the migrants who had immigrated based on religious terms. They were scared that the Government would take away their citizenship and hence their sole identity. This would destroy their human rights and hence take away their economic security.

Obviously, these public policies aren’t framed as a tyranny but it proposed and then seconded and then passed as an emergency. So, it would be best to state here, ‘ Economic security of every individual is important… But, priority is given to sustainable growth and protection of future generation.’

The term security clubbed with economic describes activities concerning prevention and reduction of deliberate harm to human life and property. Economics security is a human right similar to human life security. It focuses on the security dimensions such as freedom from humility or indignity and freedom from fear of society. The sense of community belongingness and identity secures economic security. It is the responsibility of the government to make its people feel secured. The government is elected by us and we should be its priority.

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