1.What is counselling?

Counselling is a helping relationship, that includes someone seeking help, and someone willing to give help, who is capable of or trained to help in a setting that permits help to be given and received.

2.List the elements of counselling.

The following are the elements of counselling:

• Counselling involves responding to the feelings, thoughts, and actions of the clients.
• Counselling involves a basic acceptance of the client’s perceptions and feelings without using any evaluative standards.
• Confidentiality and privacy constitute essential ingredients in the counselling setting. Physical facilities that preserve this quality are important.
• Counselling is voluntary. It takes place when a client approaches a counsellor. A counsellor never uses any kind of pressure for obtaining information.
• Counsellors and clients both transmit and receive verbal and non-verbal messages during the process. Therefore. awareness and sensitivity to the nature of the message is an important prerequisite for a counsellor’s effectiveness

3.List the characteristics of a good counsellor.

The success of a counselling process depends on the skill, knowledge, attitude, personal qualities and behavior of a counsellor. There are three main qualities that are associated with effective counsellors. These include: (i) Authenticity, (ii) Positive regard for others. (ill) Ability to empathize

• Authenticity: Authenticity means that your behavioural expressions are consistent with what you value and the way you feel and relate to your inner self-image.

Your image or perception of yourself makes up your “I”. This self-perceived “I” is revealed through ideas, actions, clothing and your life-style. All of these communicate your “I” to others. Those who come into close contact with you also build their own image of you for themselves, and might sometimes communicate this image to you. For example, friends tell you what they like and dislike about you or your teachers and parents praise and/ or criticise you.

You are also evaluated by persons you respect. These collective Judgments by people you respect, also called ‘significant others’, develop into a ‘me’. This other perceived ‘me’ is the person that others perceive you to be.

This perception may be the same as or different from your own self-perception of I. The degree to which you are aware of these perceptions of others as well as of your own perception of yourself indicates that you are self-aware.

• Positive Regard for Others: Feelings of uncertainty and anxiety which are experienced when a new relation is formed get minimised when a counsellor extends a positive regard to the client by accepting that it is all right to feel the way the client is feeling. To show positive regard to others, the following guidelines may be kept in mind:

1. When you are speaking. get into the habit of using “I” messages rather than you” messages. An example of this would be. “I understand” rather than “you should not”.
2. Respond to what the other person has said after checking with her/him.
3. Give the other person the freedom to share feelings or anything s/he wants to say.
4. Do not interrupt or cut in.
5. Do not assume that the other person knows what you are thinking. Express yourself accordingly.
6. Do not label either yourself or the other person (for example, you are an introvert).  

• Empathy: It is the most critical competencies that a counsellor needs to have. Empathy is the ability of a counsellor to understand the feelings of another person from her/his perspective. It is like stepping into someone else’s shoes. There is a difference between sympathy and empathy. In sympathy, you play the Saviour whereas in empathy you try to understand the feelings of another person.

4.Describe the various communication skills for counsellors.

Communication is a conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional process in which feelings and ideas are expressed as verbal and/or non-verbal messages that are sent, received and comprehended.

Few characteristics of communication are:

• It is dynamic as it constantly changes. As in the attitude, emotions and person who you are communicating.
• It is continuous as it never stops. Even when we sleep out brain is active.
• It is irreversible because a said message cannot be taken back.
• It is interactive because we are constantly in contact with others or ourselves.

The process of communication can be accidental (having no intent), expressive (resulting from the emotional state of the person), or rhetorical (resulting from the specific goal of the communicator).

Human communication occurs on the intra personal, interpersonal and public levels. Intrapersonal communication involves communicating with yourself. Activities like thought processes, personal decision making and focusing on self. Interpersonal communication refers to the communication that takes place between two or more persons who establish communicative relationship. For example, face to-face or mediated conversations, interview and small group discussions. Public communication is characterised by a speaker sending a message to audience. It may be direct such as face-to-face messages delivered by the speaker to an audience, or indirect such as message relayed over radio or television.

There are various different types of communication skills:

1. Speaking: speaking with the use of language is an important component of communication. A communicator must know how to use language appropriately because it is symbolic, it is necessary to be as clear and precise when using words. Communication takes place within a context. So, one needs to consider the other’s frame of reference, that is, the context used by the sender to say something, Also, it is important to adjust your vocabulary level and choice of words to fit the level of the listener. Remember that slang expressions, words unique to a culture or region, and code words can sometimes become obstacles in good communication.

• Listening: Listening is an important skill that we use daily. Your academic success, employment achievement, and personal happiness, depend upon your ability to listen effectively. Listening may appear as a passive behaviour, as it involves silence, but it actually requires a person to be attentive. S/he should be patient, non-judgmental and yet have the capacity to analyse and respond.

Hearing and listening are not the same. Hearing is a biological activity that involves reception of a message through sensory channels. It is only a part of listening process that involves reception, attention, assignment of meaning, and listener’s response to the message presented.

• Paraphrasing: paraphrasing is a summary of ideas just received and provides us with a restatement of what was understood. It allows to understand how much s/he understood of what was communicated. If someone cannot paraphrase what was just communicated, then s/he probably did not get the whole message or did not understand it. For example, paraphrasing when in a demanding conversation, such as a conflict situation with a friend. Repeat to the speaker what you think she or he had just said in order to check whether you both received and understood the same thing. Many a times conflicts result from miscommunication.

• Role of Culture in listening: the culture in which we have been brought up influences our listening. For example, the Asian cultures, such as India emphasises on listening by being a silent communicator when receiving messages from seniors or elders.

In Buddhism has a notion called ‘mindfulness. This means devoting your complete attention to whatever you are doing. This helps to develop longer attention spans, which leads to not only better listening but also to sympathetic listening. Whereas in many cultures such listening enhancing concepts are not present.

Some tips to improve your listening skills:

1. Avoid ego speak
2. Be a patient listener
3. Be careful to emotional responses
4. Do not form an early judgement 

• Body Language: non-verbal acts are symbolic and closely connected to any talk. Such non-verbal acts are part of what is called body language.

Body language is composed of all those messages that people exchange besides words. A single non-verbal signal does not carry complete meaning, factors such as postures, eye contact, clothing style and body movement should also be considered as a whole.

Also, in verbal communication, non-verbal signs can have many different meanings. For example, crossing arms over the chest may suggest that a person likes to keep aloof. But, crossed arms accompanied by an erect posture, tightened body muscles, clenched jaw, and narrowing of the eyes are likely to communicate anger.

A person’s background and past patterns of behaviour are also considered when we analyse body language. The consistency between current and past patterns of behaviour, as well as harmony between verbal and non-verbal communication, is termed as congruency. For example, you friend says, “you do not look well today”. S/h is basing the statement on the evaluation of the person’s appearance today versus in the past. In other words, something has changed, and you that difference.

Body language is also used to encourage or discourage conversation. For instance, consciously waving at waiters or friends to catch their attention. Much of the use of body language occurs in conversing with others without conscious realization.

5.Explain a counsellor’s psychological testing skills.

Psychologists require knowledge of the discipline of psychology which involve psychological assessment, evaluation and problem solving with individuals and groups, organisation, and the community.

Psychological tests are used for the determination and analysis of individual differences in general intelligence, aptitudes, personality and various non-intellectual characteristics. Psychological tests have also been used for studying a variety of psychological studies on groups.

Psychologists study these differences based on factors such as occupation. age, gender. education. culture. etc. While using psychological tests an attitude of objectivity, scientific orientation and standardised interpretation must be kept in mind.

For example, in organisational and personnel work where specialised tests are used to select individuals, it is essential to use actual performance records or ratings as a criterion for establishing validity of a test. Suppose, the personnel department wants to know whether a certain psychological test can help it to identify best stenographers. The test must be able to differentiate among employees of several performance level and that performance should match with test scores.

The following are the skills needed for psychological assessment:

• Ability to formulate and apply diagnoses
• Ability to utilise systematic approaches to gather data for taking decisions.
• Ability to integrate assessment data from different sources for diagnostic purposes.
• Knowledge of issues related to integration of different data sources

6.How does the environment influence human behavior?

The environment and human both influence each other and depend on each other for their survival and maintenance. Environment influences humans in various ways ranging from physical effect to psychological effect. For example, change of clothing in response to climate changes to severe psychological effects such as serious depression after a natural disaster.

environmental influences on perception?

Certain aspects of the environment influence human perception. For example, a tribal society of Africa lives in circular huts, that is, in houses without angular walls. They show less error in a geometric illusion (the Muller-Lyer illusion) than people from cities, who live in houses with angular walls.

environmental influences on emotions?

The environment affects our emotional reactions as well. Watching nature like a flowing river or a flower provides a great amount of joy. Natural disasters such as floods, droughts or landslides can affect people’s emotions to such an extent that they experience deep depression, sorrow and lack of control over their lives. Such an influence is traumatic experience can last a very long time even after the event in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

environmental influences on occupation?

The natural environment of a particular region determines the occupation of the people living in that region. Occupation also determines the lifestyle and attitudes of the residents. For example,

• people living in plains rely on agriculture.
• people living in forest, mountainous or desert regions rely on hunting and gathering
• people living in areas that are not fertile enough for agriculture rely on industries

environmental influences on living style?

Environment also influences the living style of people. For example,

• People closer to nature are more dependent on natural events such as the monsoon, and may face situations in which necessary natural resources such as water are in limited supply.
• Whereas people living in highly industrialised societies feel less close to and less dependent on nature.

environmental influences on attitude?

Environment also has an influence on the attitude of people. For example,

• an agricultural society depends on the collective efforts of its members. Therefore, develop an attitude of cooperativeness. and consider group interests more important than the individual’s wishes. They may also be fatalistic in their beliefs.
• Members of industrialised societies may value independent thinking, develop an attitude of competitiveness, and cultivate a belief of personal control over what happens to them.

7.How do humans influence the environment?

Human beings exert their influence on the natural environment for fulfilling their physical needs and other purposes. For example, the human being built ‘houses’ by changing the natural environment in order to provide shelter for themselves.

Some of these human actions harm and damage the environment, and ultimately harm themselves. For example,

• human beings use appliances such as refrigerators that generate chemical substances (e.g., chlorofluorocarbons) that pollute the air and, in the long run, may be responsible for physical diseases such as cancer.
• Smoking is known to pollute the air around us, and the burning of plastic or metal articles has disastrous polluting effects on the environment.
• Cutting down trees, or deforestation, may disrupt the carbon cycle and the water cycle. This may eventually affect the pattern of rainfall in a region, and increase soil erosion and desertification.
• Industries that discharge effluents, and pump this untreated sewage into rivers cause dangerous physical and psychological pollution.

human beings have brought about these effects in order to exhibit their control and power over the natural environment. Instead of improving the quality of their life, they are worsening it. Noise, pollution, crowding, and natural disasters are some examples of environmental stressors. Environmental conditions are stimuli or conditions in the environment that create a stress for human beings.

8.Describe noise as an environmental stressor. 

Any sound that is annoying or irritating, and felt to be unpleasant Is said to be noise.

Noise for long periods of time, is uncomfortable, and puts people in an unpleasant mood. Exposure to noise for a long period of time may lead to hearing loss. Apart from that, noise has negative effects on mental activity because it reduces concentration. For example, trying to study for an examination when the neighbours are celebrating a marriage with loud music.

Three characteristics of noise have been found to determine its effect on task performance, namely, intensity, predictability and controllability of noise.

The effects of noise on human beings are the following:

• When the task is a simple mental task, such as addition of numbers, noise does not affect overall performance, whether it is loud or soft. In such situations, people adapt to the noise.
• If the task is very interesting then the presence of noise does not affect performance. This is because the nature of the task helps the individual to pay full attention to the task and ignore the noise. This may also be one kind of adaptation.
• When the noise comes at intervals, and in an unpredictable way, it is experienced as more disturbing than if the noise is continuously present.
• When the task being performed is difficult, or requires full concentration then intense, unpredictable, and uncontrollable noise reduces the level of task performance.
• When tolerating or switching off the noise is within the control of the person, the number of errors in task performance decreases.
• In terms of emotional effects, noise above a certain level causes annoyance and can also lead to sleep disturbance. These effects are also reduced if the noise is controllable, or is necessary as a part of the person’s occupation. However, continued exposure to uncontrollable and annoying noise can have harmful effects on mental health.

To conclude the stressful effects of noise are determined, not only by its high or low intensity but also by the extent to which people are able to adapt to it, the nature of the task being performed, and whether noise is predictable and controllable.

9.Describe pollution as an environmental stressor.

Environmental pollution may be in the form of air, water, and soil pollution. Waste or garbage that comes from households or from industries also cause pollution.

Pollution is hazardous to physical health. Pollution may also have a direct or indirect psychological effect as it affects the nervous system because of the presence of toxic substances and influences psychological processes in some way.

Pollution also affects the emotions of people as it creates discomfort and has consequences such as decreased work efficiency, lowered interest in the Job, and increase in anxiety level. People do not like to live or work in a locality that is littered with garbage, or has a constant foul smell. Similarly, the presence of dust particles may give a feeling of suffocation and difficulty in breathing and may actually lead to respiratory disorders. People who experience this kind of discomfort cannot pay full attention to their work or be in a pleasant mood.

Specific psychological effects of air pollution have also been reported. For example,

• in one part of Kolkata, the psychological reactions to air pollution were compared between a group living in an industrial area and a group living in a non-industrial residential area. Those living in the industrial area reported greater tension and anxiety than those living in a non-industrial residential area.
• In a study conducted in Germany, the presence of pollutants such as sulphur dioxide in the air was found to decrease the ability to concentrate on a task, and lowering performance efficiency.

Pollution caused by leaks of dangerous chemical substances can cause other kinds of harm. The infamous Bhopal gas tragedy of December 1984 that claimed many lives, also left behind psychological effects because of the gas. Many of those who had inhaled the poisonous gas, methyl isocyanate (MIC) along with other substances, showed disturbances in memory, attention and alertness.

There can be harmful air pollution in the home and office environment (indoor environments). For example, tobacco smoke pollution, that is, pollution through cigarette, cigar or beedi smoking, can also cause psychological effects. Such effects are supposed to be more dangerous for the smoker. However, those who inhale tobacco smoke (passive smoking) can also suffer the negative effects. A researcher found that inhaling tobacco smoke can increase the aggression level of individuals.

The presence of polluting substances in water and soil are hazardous for physical health. Some of these chemicals can also have damaging psychological effects. The presence of specific chemicals such as lead can cause mental retardation by affecting brain development. Such toxic substances affect human beings through various routes, i.e. through water, or through soil by being absorbed by vegetables grown in polluted soil.

Another source of toxicity is household and industrial waste, or garbage, which are non-biodegradable. Common examples of such waste are plastics, tin or any metal container. This kind of waste material should be destroyed or burned through special techniques, and the smoke should not be allowed to escape into the air that people breathe.

Thus, toxic chemicals in the air, water and soil may lead to harmful effects not only on normal psychological functioning but may also cause serious mental disorders.

10.Describe crowding as an environmental stressor.

Crowds are large informal groups of persons coming together temporarily without any particular goal. For example, when a famous person suddenly appears on the road, people who are present in the situation at the time often collect around the scene, just to watch this person. Crowding is different thou.

Crowding refers to a feeling of discomfort because there are too many people or things around us, giving us the experience of physical restriction, and sometimes the lack of privacy. Crowding is the person’s reaction to the presence of a large number of persons within a particular area or space. When this number goes beyond a certain level, it causes stress to individuals caught in that situation.

The experience of crowding has the following features:

• Feeling of discomfort.
• Loss or decrease in privacy.
• Negative view of the space around the person, and
• Feeling of loss of control over social interaction.

Crowding is not brought about by just the large number of persons or the shortage of space. It is related to density, that is, the number of persons within the available space. For example. if there are fifteen persons trying to squeeze into four seats in a railway compartment each person is likely to experience crowding. Place the same fifteen persons in a large hall, and nobody experiences crowding

However, crowding is not always experienced in high density settings. For example, when we go to a fair (mela) or a wedding ceremony, usually the physical setting has high density of people, but we enjoy it. People also don’t experience its negative effects to the same extent.

The effects of crowding and high density as reported in several studies are:

• Crowding and high density may lead to abnormal behaviour. This was shown in a study of rats. These animals were placed in an enclosure, initially in small numbers. As their population increased within this enclosed space, they started showing aggressive and unusual behaviour, such as biting the tails of other rats. This aggressive behaviour increased to such an extent that ultimately the animals died in large numbers, thus decreasing population in the enclosure. Among the human beings also an increase in population has sometimes been found to be accompanied by an increase in violent crime.
• Crowding leads to lowered performance on difficult tasks that involve cognitive processes and has adverse effects on memory and the emotional state. These negative effects are seen to a smaller extent in people who are used to crowded surroundings.
• Children growing up in very crowded households show lower academic performance. They also show a weaker tendency to continue working on a task if they are unsuccessful at it, compared to children growing up in non-crowded households. They experience greater conflict with their parents and get less support from their family members.
• The nature of social interaction determines the degree to which an individual will react to crowding. For example, if the interaction is on a happy social occasion such as a party, the presence of a large number of persons in the setting may cause no stress at all. Rather, it may lead to positive emotional reactions.
• Individuals differ in the degree to which they show negative effects of crowding, and also in the nature of these reactions. Two kinds of tolerance can be mentioned that may explain these individual differences, i.e. crowding tolerance and competition tolerance.
• Crowding tolerance refers to the ability to mentally deal with a high density or crowded environment, such as a crowded residence (a large number of persons within a small room). People who are used to an environment containing many persons around them (for example, individuals growing up in a large family that lives in a small house) develop more crowding tolerance than people who are used to only a few persons around them. Our country has a large population and many live with in small houses. This might lead to expect that Indians have more crowding tolerance than people from other, less populated countries.
• Competition tolerance is the ability to put up with a situation in which individuals would have to compete with many others for basic resources, including physical space. Since there is a greater possibility of competition for resources in a crowded setting, the reaction to that setting would be influenced by the extent of tolerance for competition for resources.
• Cultural characteristics may determine the extent to which a particular environment is judged to be subjectively more crowded or less crowded. They may also affect the nature and extent of negative reactions to crowding. For example, in cultures that emphasize the importance of the group or collectively over the individual, the presence of a large number of people in the surroundings is not taken as an undesirable state. On the other hand. in cultures that emphasize the importance of the individual over the group, the presence of many other persons may make us uncomfortable. Overall, though, in all cultures, crowding is experienced as being stressful.
• Personal space, or the comfortable physical space one generally likes to maintain around oneself, is affected by a high-density environment In a crowded context, there is a restriction on personal space, and this can also be a cause of negative reactions to crowding

In social situations, human beings like to maintain a certain physical distance from the person with whom they are interacting. This is called interpersonal physical distance and is a part of a broader concept called personal space, i.e. the physical space we like to have all around us.

Edward Hall mentioned four kinds of interpersonal physical distance, depending on the situation:

• Intimate distance (up to 18 inches): The distance you maintain when you are talking privately to someone. or interacting with a very close friend or relative.
• Personal distance (18 inches to 4 feet: The distance you maintain when you are interacting one-to-one with a close friend, relative, or even with someone not very close to you in a work setting or other social situation
• Social distance (4 to 10 feet): The distance you maintain when the interaction is formal, and not close.
• Public distance (10 feet to infinity): The distance you maintain in a formal setting, where there is a large number of persons. For example, the distance of an audience from a public speaker or a teacher in a classroom.

The concept of personal space is important for the following reasons.

• It explains many of the negative effects of crowding as an environmental stressor.
• It tells us about social relationships. For example, when you visit your school library and if your friend is sitting at a table and the place next to her/him is empty, you like to sit next to her/him. But if a person you do not know is sitting at the table, even if the place next to her/him is empty, it is unlikely that you will sit next to this person.
• It gives us some idea about how physical space can be modified in order to reduce stress or discomfort in social situations, or to make social interaction more enjoyable and fruitful

11.Describe natural disasters as environmental stressors.

Natural disasters are stressful experiences that are the result of disturbances in the natural environment. For example, earthquakes, floods. Some other disasters are wars, industrial accidents such as the leaking of poisonous elements in industrial plants, or epidemics. However, wars and epidemics are human-made events, their effects can be as severe as natural disasters. These events are called disasters’ because they cannot be prevented, usually come without any warning and result in immense damage to human lives and property. They may even lead to a psychological disorder, called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The effects of natural disasters are:

• They leave people poverty-stricken, homeless, without any resources, usually along with a loss of everything they owned.
• The sudden loss of all their belongings as well as their dear ones leaves people shocked and stunned.
• They create a deep-seated psychological disorder. Natural disasters are traumatic experiences, i.e. emotionally wounding and shocking to those who survive the disaster. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe psychological problem that results from traumatic events such as natural disasters.

PTSD has the following features:

• The immediate reaction is of disorientation. People take some time to understand what the disaster has done to them.
• Physical reactions such as bodily exhaustion even without physical activity, difficulty in sleeping, change in the eating pattern, increased heartbeat and blood pressure, and getting startled easily can be found among the victims.
• Emotional reactions, such as grief and fear, irritability, anger (“Why should this happen to me?”), helplessness (“I could do nothing to prevent this event”), depression, sometimes absolute lack of emotion (numbness), guilt feelings for having survived while someone else in the family died blaming oneself, and lack of interest in even routine activities.
• Cognitive reactions, such as worry, difficulty in concentration, reduced span of attention, confusion, loss of memory, or vivid memories that are unwanted (or nightmares of the event).
• Social reactions, such as withdrawal from others, getting into conflict with others, having frequent arguments with even loved ones, and feeling rejected or left out. Survivors may help in the healing processes, having been through the experience, yet survived it and staying alive, these persons may develop a positive outlook on life and, with empathy, pass on this attitude to other survivors.

These reactions may last for a long time, in some cases throughout life. However. with proper counselling and psychiatric treatment, PTSD can be remedied at least up to a level where the victims can be motivated and helped to start life afresh. People react with different intensities to natural disasters. In general. the intensity of reaction is affected by:

• The severity of the disaster and the loss incurred (both in terms of property and life)
• The individual’s general coping ability
• Other stressful experiences before the disaster. For example, people who have experienced stress before may find it more difficult to deal with yet another difficult and stressful situation.

Although we are aware that most natural disasters can be predicted only in a limited way, there are ways of being prepared to minimise their devastating consequences in the form of (a) warnings. (b) safety measures that taken after the event and (c) treatment of psychological disorders. These measures are described below:

a) Warnings: listening to the radio in the recent past helps as you might have heard advertisements that mention what people should do when it is announced that some natural disaster is likely. For example, when cyclones or high tides are predicted, fishermen are asked not to venture into the sea.

b) Safety measures: In the case of some natural disasters such as earthquakes, even if prediction is possible, the events are too sudden. Therefore, tips are given beforehand about what to do when there is an earthquake.

c) Treatment of psychological disorders: This includes self-help approaches as well as professional treatment. The first step involves providing material relief in the form of food, clothing, medical help, shelter, and financial help. Counselling at the individual and group level is the next step. This can be by encouraging the survivors to talk about their experiences and emotional state, and giving them time for their emotional wounds to heal. One of the key attitudes to be developed in the survivors is that of self-efficacy. i.e. the belief that I can do it!’, or I can come out of this phase successfully. Psychiatric help may be needed for those showing extreme stress reactions. Finally. rehabilitation in the form of employment and a gradual return to the normal routine should be undertaken. Follow up of the victims and survivors is also needed.

12.What are some strategies for promoting pro-environmental behaviour?

Pro-environmental behaviour includes both actions that are meant to protect the environment from problems. and to promote a healthy environment. Some promotive actions to protect the environment from pollution are:

• Reducing air pollution – by keeping vehicles in good condition, or changing to non-fuel driven vehicles, stopping the practice of smoking.
• Reducing noise pollution – by ensuring that noise levels are low, for example, discouraging needless honking on the road, or making rules regarding noisy music at certain hours.
• Managing disposal of garbage sensibly – for example, by encouraging separation of biodegradable garbage from non-biodegradable waste, or composting of kitchen waste. These practices need to be adopted both at home and in public places. Special attention has to be paid to the management of industrial and hospital waste.
• Planting trees and ensuring their care, keeping in mind that those plants and trees should not be planted that have adverse health effects.
• Saying ‘no’ to plastics in any form, thus reducing toxic wastes that pollute water, air and the soil.
• Reducing the non-biodegradable packaging of consumer goods.
• Laws related to construction (especially in urban areas) that violate optimal environmental design.

13.What is poverty?

Poverty is a condition in which there is a lack of necessities of life in the context of unequal distribution of wealth in society.

14.Difference between poverty and deprivation.

Poverty	Deprivation
refers to an actual shortage of the resources necessary for living	refers to the state in which a person feels that s/he has lost something valuable and is not getting something what s/he deserves

15.What are the adverse effects of poverty and deprivation?

on personality:

In terms of personality, the poor and deprived have low self-esteem, are high on anxiety and introversion, and care a lot about the immediate present rather than the future. They prefer smaller immediate rewards to larger rewards in the long run, because in their perception, the future is too uncertain. They live with a sense of hopelessness, powerlessness, felt injustice, and experience a loss of identity.

on motivation

In terms of motivation, the poor have low aspirations and low achievement motivation, and high need for dependence. They explain their successes in terms of luck or fate rather than ability or hard work. They believe that outside factors control the events in their lives.

on social behaviour

With respect to social behaviour the deprived sections exhibit an attitude of resentment towards the rest of society.

on cognitive processes

It has been found that intellectual functioning and performance on tasks (such as verbal reasoning, time perception, etc.) is lower among the highly deprived compared to those who are less deprived. The effect of deprivation is because the nature of the environment in which children grow up-whether it is developed or poor – makes a difference in their cognitive development, and this is reflected in cognitive task performance

on mental health

With regard to mental health, there is a relationship between mental disorders and poverty. The poor are more likely to suffer from specific mental illnesses compared to the rich, possibly due to constant worries about basic necessities, feelings of insecurity, or inability to get medical facilities, especially for mental illnesses. It has been suggested that depression may be a mental disorder largely of the poor. They also experience a sense of hopelessness and a loss of identity, as though they do not belong to society. As a result, they also suffer from emotional and adjustment problems.

16.What are the major causes of poverty?

Poverty is sometimes caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and cyclones, or man-made disasters such as poisonous gas leaks. When such events take place, people suddenly lose all their possessions and have to face poverty.

Similarly, one generation of the poor may be unable to eradicate their poverty, and the next generation continues to remain in poverty. Apart from these causes, other factors are:

• The poor themselves are responsible for their poverty. According to this view. the poor lack the ability and motivation to put in effort, and make use of available opportunities. Such a view is negative and does not help in making them better.
• It is not the individual but a belief system, a way of life and values, in which she/he is brought up, that is the cause of poverty. This belief system is called the ‘culture of poverty which convinces the person that s/he will continue to remain poor, and the belief is carried from one generation to the next.
• Social disadvantage in terms of economic, social, political factors and discrimination together account for poverty. Due to discrimination, certain sections of society are denied the opportunities needed for getting even the basic necessities of life. The economic system is made to grow in a disproportionate way, through social and political exploitation, so that the poor are left out of the race.
• The geographic region in which one lives is also a significant cause of poverty, for example, people living in regions (such as deserts) that have a shortage of natural resources and a harsh climate (such as extreme heat or cold) end up being poor. This factor cannot be controlled by human beings. However, attempts can be made to help to find alternative means of livelihood, and to provide special facilities for their education and employment.
• The poverty cycle is another important cause which explains why poverty continues among the same sections of society. Poverty begets poverty. Beginning with a low income and lack of resources, the poor go through low health and nutrition, lack of education and lack of skills. This leads to low employment opportunities which in turn, continues their low-income condition, low health and nutrition status and resulting lowered. Thus, the cycle starts and continues again.

17.What are the measures to reduce poverty/ poverty alleviation?

Several steps are being taken by the government and other groups to work towards alleviation or reduction of poverty and its negative consequences.

• Breaking the poverty cycle, and helping the poor to attain self-sufficiency, financial relief, medical and other facilities may have to be provided to the poor. Care should be taken to see that this help does not make the poor dependent on these sources.
• Help the poor to take responsibility instead of blame for their poverty. This will help to regain a sense of hope, control and identity.
• Providing educational and employment opportunities, following the principles of social justice. This step may help the poor to discover their own abilities and skills, thus enabling them to come up to the level of other sections of society. It will also reduce crime and violence by reducing frustration and encouraging the poor to earn through legal rather than illegal means.
• Measures for improved mental health. Many of the poverty reduction measures help to improve the physical health of the poor but their mental health still remains a problem to be tackled effectively. With greater awareness of this problem, it is hoped that more attention will be paid to it.

Steps for empowering the poor:

• Through the measures mentioned above. the poor should be made more powerful, capable of living independently and with dignity. without depending on the help given by the government or other groups.
• The concept of Antyodaya’, or the rise of the ‘last person’ in society. i.e. the poorest or the most disadvantaged. This has helped a large section of the poor to get uplifted to a better economic condition than they have experienced earlier. Under Antyodaya programmes, there is provision for health facilities, nutrition, education and training for employment. Many of these programmes are more active in rural than in urban regions as the rural poor have even fewer facilities than the urban poor. In addition. The poor are encouraged to start their own small-scale businesses. Initial capital for these ventures is provided through small loans or micro credit facilities. This facility is similar to the idea of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
• Following the 73rd amendment of the Constitution, the aim is to give more power to people for their development through distributed planning and through people’s participation.
• ActionAid, an international group dedicated to the cause of the poor has goals of making the poor more sensitive to their rights, to equality and justice, and ensuring for them adequate nutrition, health, and facilities for education and employment. The Indian branch of this organisation has been working for poverty alleviation in our country.

These measures cannot be expected to have magical effects in a short time. But. if these efforts towards poverty alleviation are continued in the right spirit and right direction. we may see positive results in the very near future.