GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD SOCIETIES

Third World Societies: From the 17^th century to the early 20^th century the western countries established colonies in many areas previously occupied by tradition societies using their military strength wherever necessary. Although these colonies have now attained independence the process of colonialism has shaped the social and cultural map of the glove. In some regions like North America, Australia and New Zealand which were only thinly populated by hunting and gathering communities, Europeans became the majority population. Societies of the first of these types such as the US have become industrialized. Other example are many countries of Europe like France, Germany, England, and parts of Asia e.g., Japan. Those in the second category are mostly at a much lower level of industrial development and are referred to as third world societies which include China, India, African Countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria and those in South America, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela.

Level of Industrialization in the third world countries: The third world countries have a basic level of industrialization and majority of population is engaged in agricultural production. Since many of these societies are situated to the South of USA and Europe, they are sometimes referred as South (South Block) and contrasted to the nations of the north. The TWC are very different from pre-form, pre-existing forms of traditional state. They have political system which is derived from the first societies which established in the west. Most of the population still live in the rural areas but are highly affected by the process of urbanizations. Although agriculture is the primary occupation, crops are often produced for sale to the world markets rather than for local consumption. TWC do not consist of societies that have ‘lagged behind’ but have societies that are industrialized. TWC is usually understood as part of the contrast drawn between the three main types of societies which were found in the 13^th century. The FWC were industrialized states like Australia, New Zealand, Japan. FWC have a multiparty system and parliamentary system of government. Second World countries which refer to former communist societies, USSR, Eastern Europe, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The term third world refers to ‘Developing countries’ or ‘less developed countries’ by comparison with the industrialized nations. The third world societies are mostly very poor. Many of them have experienced the massive rate of population growth which places extreme strain on their resources as a result of which these countries generally have a very low standard of living.

The various conditions within the third world countries:

Economic conditions: The distribution of income and the average level of per-capita income in the developing counties is very low. There are several barriers which exist in raising the living standards of the poor. The barriers that exist are:

Dualistic nature of economies i.e., Modern and traditional economies

Disguised unemployment

Underemployment

Open unemployment

Nutrition and health: Low income has led to serious consequences in the field of nutrition and health of individuals. In the developing countries it is estimated that there are at least one billion people who suffer from malnutrition and a number of mental diseases.

Poverty and famine: Vast sections of population in the TWC face a shortage of food and experience famine conditions, not because the food has become scarce but because they are not proper entitled to have food. Entitlement to food depends on the ability of the individual to exchange productive resources (goods) for food. The need in TWC is to alleviated famine conditions. This requires the establishment and preservation of wealth and resources entitled to food and not just provision of more food.

Food production level: TWC have dual economies i.e., modern and traditional economies. The technology which is used in food production is also of different types. The developing countries have simple technology as well as modern sophisticated type of technology. Against this background food production in the developing countries has barely kept pace with the population growth i.e., the population in the developing countries rises at an alarming rate. Lack of adequate food supply and nutrition combined with rudimentary health facilities leads to low life expectancy and a high rate of infant and child mortality.

Education: There has been an enormous growth in public expenditure on education in the developing countries. However, it is shocking to know that the expenditure per-capita is only half of that in the developed countries.

Basic needs: include provisions of health services, education, housing, sanitation and adequate nutrition. All these are severely lacking int eh developing counties while there is a major improvement in the literacy rate in most countries over the last few decades, the absolute number of illiterate have increased. In the developing countries, secondary education as well as higher education is still a luxury as people cannot afford the high education fees that are to be paid.

In conclusion we can say that the developing countries lag behind severely with respect to highly developed countries and it is easy to note that the developing countries will hardly ever ‘catch up’ with the highly developed countries.