Poverty and Social Conflict

Published on 17 Feb 2025

How poverty leads to social conflict

✔     Limited access to resources: Poverty increases the competition for certain essential resources and the lack of access to few, leading to frustration and tension among people.

●      Example: Cauvery water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka

✔     Regional divide: Poverty concentrated in certain regions leads to migration to more developed regions. This migration changes the social profile of the region, leading to cultural conflicts.

●      Example: The development deficit in tribal and forested regionals has led to the growth of Naxal movements and associated violence in India.

✔     Identity-based conflicts: People in poverty are more vulnerable to conflicts in the name of religion, caste, language etc.

●      Example: The majority of people who died in the Manipur riots are people belonging to the poor strata of the society.

✔     Unemployment-based resentment: Youth in poverty are more vulnerable to unemployment and these disenchanted youth engage in violent protests to mark their dissent towards the system.

●      Example: Son of soil movement in Maharashtra due to loss of employment opportunities for the locals.

✔     Political exploitation: People in poverty could be easily manipulated by political elements to trigger conflicts or riots to satisfy a certain narrow political agenda.

●      Example: The Panchayat poll violence in West Bengal has been politically driven, where the majority of the dead people were from poor economic backgrounds.

✔     Limited penetration of social services: When the number of people in poverty is more, the social services may not reach every deserving person, turning them against the state and society.

How social conflict reinforces poverty

✔     Economic disruption: Social conflicts can inflict damage upon infrastructures like roads, buildings, houses, etc., thus disrupting the economic structure of the region.

●      Example: Ethnic conflict drags down Manipur’s exports by 80%.

✔     Threat of unemployment: Conflicts can directly disrupt the livelihood of many people. Moreover, such events prevent future investments, thus hindering future employment potential.

✔     Migration and loss of human capital: People migrate from conflict-prone regions to preserve their lives, which makes the region short of effective human capital.

●      Example: More than 150 people got killed and around 60000 got displaced during the Manipur riots, leading to huge erosion of human capital.

✔     Deterioration of social capital: Lack of social cohesion, trust and cooperation hinders rehabilitation and further development in the region, leading to poverty.

●      Example: The 2023 Haryana riots between Hindus and Muslims affected the social capital and brotherhood in the region.

✔     Disruption of education: Children from conflict-ridden areas have reduced chances of pursuing good education, thus falling into the vicious poverty trap.

✔     Diversion of resources: The government is forced to spend on rehabilitation programmes, which reduces the spending on social service and poverty alleviation programmes.

●      Example: The 2012 Assam riots resulted in the displacement of around 4 lakh people, leading to significant resource diversion.

Way forward

✔     Poverty alleviation programmes: To address the shortage of resources and enable people to meet their basic requirements, so as to reduce the scope for conflicts.

✔     Better employment opportunity: Regular employment and economic stability prevent youth from engaging in violence to some extent.

✔     Conduct social programmes: Cultural events that aid in cultivating social harmony without affecting the religious sentiments of any particular social group.

Thus, poverty is both a result and a cause of social conflicts. Hence, fair distribution of economic growth is crucial for reducing poverty and for maintaining social stability.

Tags:
Social Justice

Keywords:
Poverty Social Conflict

Syllabus:
General Studies Paper 2

Topics:
Social Justice