Human Security and Human Development

A conception of security that is centred on the sanctity of the individual may be called human security. How safe and free are we as individuals, is a core question behind the whole debate of human security dynamics. Human security as an idea has been in existence since very long. As long ago as 1705, a German philosopher, Leibniz, expressed the need for the state to provide common security to its people. French philosopher Montesquieu also echoed the same sentiment when he said that true political freedom could only be achieved when people are secure The concept, however, remained suppressed for long.

However, over the last few decades or so, the changes witnessed in the local, national, regional and international arena like human rights violations, environmental degradation, poverty, political instability, terrorism, ethnic & religious violence, gender inequity etc have led security thinkers to realise that the conventional or traditional security discourse appears inadequate to capture these emerging sources of insecurity. In recent times, governments, international organisations, non-governmental organisations and ordinary citizens have been attempting to explore the questions of human security as never before and also act as agents in enlarging the scope of safety and freedom of the people. Political scientists, sociologists, economists, environmentalists, political geographers, security & defense experts and others have been trying to study the issue of human security from different perspectives in order to conceptualise the term in a better way.

The recent line of thinking and discourse on human security issues can be connected to the growing dissatisfaction with the prevailing idea of security and development during 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. They were the economists who, in the 1960s, led the critiques on the dominant models of economic development. Since the 1950s there have been a series of attempts to formulate alternative development theories and strategies. Among many others, they include, Neo-classical ‘trickle down’ growth theory, the employment strategy, the anti poverty oriented strategy and basic needs approach. Perhaps the most important forerunners of the idea of human security were the reports of a series of multinational independent commissions consisting of prominent leaders, intellectuals and academics of the 1970s. In the early seventies, the Club of Rome group produced a series of volumes on the world problematique that were premised on the idea that there is a complex of problems troubling men of all nations: poverty…degradation of the environment, loss of faith in institutions, uncontrolled urban spread, insecurity of employment, alienation of youth, rejection of traditional values, and inflation and other monetary and economic disruptions.

If the earlier attempts to explore the aspects of human security were the precursors, it was the beginning of the 1990s that witnessed an explicit human security perspective getting articulated among the works of the scholars across the disciplines. The first concrete contribution in consolidating the structure of human security issues was the first Human Development Report published in 1990 by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the leadership of Mahbub ul Haq. The human development thesis explicitly put at the centre of its formulation the notion that development thinking and policies must focus on the welfare of individuals rather than simply on macro economy. This thesis tends to present a more comprehensive theoretical and practical approach to human security debate.

Further, a chapter was dedicated on the human security discourse in UNDP’s Human Development Report of 1994. According to the report, ‘for most people, a feeling of insecurity arises more from worries about daily life than from the dread of the cataclysmic world event. Human security is not a concern with weapon; it is a concern with human life and dignity’. The report further makes it clear that human security is a universal concern, an interdependent aspect, easier to ensure through early prevention, and it is people centric in nature. If human development is a broader concept defined as a process of widening the range of people’s choices, human security means that people can exercise these choices safely and freely and that they can be relatively confident that the opportunities they have today are not totally lost tomorrow. Human development and human security are thus interlinked in more than one ways. The Human Development Report of 1994 has categorised human security into seven major security heads. They are: Economic security, Food security, Health security, Environmental security, Personal security, Community security, and Political security.

It is, however, important to note here that our National Human Development Report (2001) as well as State Human Development Reports have not been able to include the importance of human security in their discussion. Besides the indices on economy, health and education a new index on gender disparity has been developed and introduced in the HDRs in recent times. This is largely the result of feminist lobby over the years. We have, however, not been able to discuss issues in human security and develop any kind of security index in our Human Development Reports.

The state of Sikkim is in the process of preparing its second Human Development Report. The report will possibly be completed in the next one year. It would be advisable that our second State Human Development Report initiates discussion on the vital aspects of human security in the State and attempts to develop a new index on Human Security. This would be a pioneering contribution of our report that other State Human Development Reports would follow gradually. While attempting discussion on any aspects of human security and preparation of human security index for Sikkim, UNDP’s Human Development Report of 1994 should be the foundation.


**Published by Sikkim Express, September 6, 2007**