“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
UN-Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Inequality matters !
The rising number of inequalities is growing globally and locally. It always depends on which perspective we take when we look any Global challenges, it might be that not every sector will touch us in personal level. But the important thing is do we want to acknowledge the problem? Do we want to even try to understand the issues others are facing every day? We are now living a era where we have lots of information yet we don’t understand each other. I often think that what is the main reason for this? One of the reasons is maybe that we mind our own business, but we forget to look around and feel others. For balanced society and to live peaceful life it is important that we look around and try to help others also because together everything is better and stable.
We can look inequalities from different perspectives. One of the First thing we recognize is inequality based on income but according to Progress of goal 10 in 2019” Greater emphasis will need to be placed on reducing inequalities in income as well as those based on other factors.”
In Sustainable development goal 10 Targets , I want to bring up specially few targets here.
Target : 10.2 By 2030 empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex ,disability ,race , ethnicity ,origin ,religion or economic or other status.
Indicator 10.2.1 Proportion of people living below 50 per cent of median income, by age, sex and persons with disabilities
Target : 10.3 Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard
Indicator 10.3.1 Proportion of the population reporting having personally felt discriminated against or harassed within the previous 12 months on the basis of a ground of discrimination prohibited under international human rights law
Target :10.4 Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality.
Indicator 10.4.1 Labour share of GDP, compromising wages and social protection transfers.
Facts and figures
- In 2016, over 64.4% of products exported by the least developed countries to world markets faced zero tariffs, an increase of 20% since 2010.
- Evidence from developing countries shows that children in the poorest 20 per cent of the populations are still up to three times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than children in the richest quintiles.
- Social protection has been significantly extended globally, yet persons with disabilities are up to five times more likely than average to incur catastrophic health expenditures.
- Despite overall declines in maternal mortality in most developing countries, women in rural areas are still up to three times more likely to die while giving birth than women living in urban centers.
- Up to 30 per cent of income inequality is due to inequality within households, including between women and men. Women are also more likely than men to live below 50 per cent of the median income
How dose inequality is visible globally?
If we look around, we can see it in everyday life, when there is a income inequality it affects on a society by bringing gaps between people. The classes in the society is one of the results of that. In the following picture you can see how much it differ from each country.
WHO has done many different reaches how the inequality affects on the health and well-being.One of the reports finds that there is a link between how the person get the health treatments based on his economical and societal background. In the following report there is a detail how the systems in different countries has improved and what is still to be done. https://www.who.int/social_determinants/resources/closing_h_inequalities_gap.pdf
As my roots are from Bangladesh, I visit there almost every year. And I can see the effect of the socio-economic inequality, it is so visible in Asian countries. I could see the result of all the different aspects. UN, Unicef and many others NGO´s have many ongoing projects to reduce the inequality in different urban and rural areas. The awareness is rising among the people and the young generation is trying to work for it.
Please watch the video Tedx with Jhonny Miller, It has a different way to look the inequality around us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpfMMKT_4jw
How inequality harm the society? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFOEe6M2VT4
How we are doing in Finland ?
Let us look on how Finland is doing to reducing inequality gaps. According to Oxfam inequality index 2018 Finland is number 3 in global rank. The overall ranking combines all three core pillars on which the index is based: social spending, progressive taxation policies and labour rights.
There were another report done by Ihmisoikeusliito ,kepa ,pelastakalapset, puinainen risti ,suomen lunnonsuojeluliitto , soste and sininauhaliitto . In the following article there are some detail pondering how Finland is doing .
https://www.fingo.fi/sites/kepa.fi/tiedostot/julkaisut/KEPA_Finland-and-the-2030Agenda_FINAL.pdf
In my opinion Finland is doing quite well in many sectors as a welfare state. There are still some societal issues which need more discussion. There is quite much inequality and discrimination towards minorities. Racism is one of the biggest issues which is part of the daily life of immigrant’s in Finland. Immigrants face quite much discrimination based on their skin colours, religion, ethnicity etc. There is many NGO’s and other sectors trying to improve the minorities rights and equality. The problem is when these inequalities are quite structural that it is difficult to be noticed by the other citizens who do not face the inequality.
There have been many articles recently in Yle news how minorities face the inequality in Finland. Micro racism is one of the forms which are recently noticed more and more.
Many peoples face the inequality in job market, even if they are good candid for the job, they don’t get the place based on their backgrounds. Also, the problems go with the housing companies, even if the person has full time job and decent lifestyle. The person does not get the offer because of his/her ethnicity. These were only few but there are many other problems which are not noticed by many peoples or do not get the needed attention. As a human being we might have our likes and dislikes but to have a better atmosphere there need to be more tolerance.
What can we do to reduce inequality around us?
- Trying to acknowledge the problem
- Educating ourselves and others about the problems
- Charity and voluntary work
- Trying to Live sustainable
- Being sensible towards others in our communities, living without prejudice and trying to think out of the box. By changing perspective, we can see the world differently.
- Looking differences among us as a possibility not as a problem
“Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life”
Resource:
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld
https://yhdenvertaisuus.fi/en/minorities-in-finland
https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/world-social-report/2020-2.html
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