Perhaps no other aspect of human security is so vital to people as their security from physical violence, which can derail the perceived value of human progress
are more vulnerable in the event of a building fire than adults and young people who can run down the stairs. Young people are more vulnerable to high-risk behaviours—for example, by falling prey to enticing advertisements that promote cigarettes and alcohol. Even if individuals have a similar income or education, their vulnerability will depend on whether they can participate in society equally, mediated by race, religion or ethnicity. The quality of institutions therefore influences vulnerability and the ability to cope with crises. Both real and perceived threats affect behaviour. Fear of violent assault is of particular concern to women everywhere. The term bodily integrity gives concrete meaning to this vulnerability.37 Witness the brutal rape in Delhi that grabbed headlines worldwide in 2012 and highlighted what women in many societies fear in their daily lives. Being educated or having a high income is not enough to overcome such a threat to bodily integrity. Perhaps no other aspect of human security is so vital to people as their security from physical violence, which can derail the perceived value of human progress. Even in Latin America and the Caribbean, with high human development, many people fear that progress is being threatened by rising levels of homicides and other violent crime. In large parts of West and Central Africa armed conflict and lawlessness threaten to reverse human development gains, with long-term repercussions for national progress. The presence and threat of violence are more likely to exist in the lives of the poor and the socially excluded, more likely to affect the choices and freedoms of women and more likely to touch those who have fewer resources and capabilities to settle disputes through negotiations. Violence is an exercise of power to restrict choices and freedoms through physical harm and threats. It is also a means to enforce social and cultural norms.38 Another key security is economic. In today’s world large numbers of people face economic insecurity and fear not making ends meet. In developing countries half to three-quarters of nonagricultural employment is in the informal economy. 39 In the absence of job security and social protection
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informal workers lead unpredictable and precarious lives, vulnerable to abuse and corruption, often by the very law enforcement and civic authorities who should be protecting them In developed countries the impacts of the global financial crisis linger. Greece, Ireland and Italy have yet to recover from their 2008 economic downturns.40 The United States may have recovered much of its GDP growth, but many people remain in long-term unemployment. 41 And an entire generation of young people face a future of high job and financial insecurity.42 Economic security and personal security are linked. People feel secure when they have jobs with sufficient social protections—and when they are confident about the future. Full employment reduces crime and increases well-being generally.43 By contrast, high unemployment fuels uncertainty and inflicts a sense of hopelessness. Equally, long-standing unequal treatment and denials of rights feed into deep discrimination, and at times groups or communities seek to redress long-established inequities through violent means. In India estimates range from a tenth to a third of districts having insurrection movements or armed struggles in one form or the other by such dissident groups as the Naxalites and other Maoist groups.44 Horizontal inequality and unmet basic rights are often the causes of group violence.45
Policies and collective action A core aspect of human development is having the freedom to live a life that one values, to manage one’s affairs adequately. Higher capabilities, particularly in education, advance human agency—people’s capacity to make choices. It is a type of freedom—the freedom to act. But higher capabilities may not be enough. To have full agency, people also need to be free of social, institutional and other constraints that inhibit their ability to act. While empowerment is quintessentially individual, a useful analogy can also be drawn for societies. If social cohesion is not strong and there is ethnic and other fragmentation, a society’s capacity for collective action is much reduced in responding to adverse events.