What the Poor Say

Violence, Civil Conflict and Public Safety

We do not expect any help from our neighbors…they can’t help; in any case, they won’t because everyone is just fending or grabbing for themselves. Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The men compared increasing crime and conflict to burning fire rampaging through the community. They said that increasing crime levels are a result of everybody wanting to get rich….Some men, however, were of the view that social norms and taboos have been lost in what [they] called "te nabaalee" (our ancestry) resulting in a disregard for traditional methods of enforcing law and order and therefore keeping crime and conflict in check. Ghana.

I do not know whom to trust, the police or the criminals. Our public safety is ourselves. We work and hide indoors. Brazil.

The police have become the rich people’s stick used against common people. Dangara, Uzbekistan.

In many countries in both rural and urban areas poor people reported a decline in social connectedness, concomitant with increases in crime, lawlessness, selfishness and violence. This is reflected not only in violence and public safety issues outside the home, but in conflict and violence within the home as well. Many of the poor linked these trends to decreases in economic opportunities, increased competition for resources, and poor government policies. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia the decline was also linked to the transition from communism to democracy.

While there are some rural and urban differences, poor people generally reported an erosion of traditional social solidarity, sharing of food and resources with family, kin and neighbors, and participation in marriages, rituals and visits. In Nigeria, old men said, "we poor men have no friends. Our friend is the ground." In Zambia the poor said, "when food was in abundance relatives used to share it. These days of hunger not even relatives would help you." Increases in theft were linked directly to hunger in Zambia. In the Kyrgyz Republic groups said, "there is no unity in our community. We don’t visit each other. In the past, we used to help, pool money (razha) if somebody has a death in the family. We no longer do." In Bosnia-Herzegovina, a resident of the town of Vares said, "no one helps anymore. I would gladly help someone, but how, when I am in need of help myself? This is misery. Our souls, our psyches are dead." In many countries youth complained about no place to "hang out," to play sports; they linked "nothing to do" and the absence of sports facilities and community centers to a rise in drug use, alcoholism and theft.

Women in Somaliland defined security as "when an individual, family or community has no fear for their lives, property or dignity; where there is no security, there is no life." Although there were differences in scale and intensity, the problem of declining public safety as an element of increasing insecurity arose in almost every country, in both rural and urban areas. It was mentioned least often in India, most often in Brazil and Russia. In Sri Lanka, it was an issue of concern primarily to the Tamil minority and, in Somaliland people spoke of increased security after the peace treaty between clans. Elsewhere, increasing crime was linked to breakdowns in social cohesion, difficulties in finding employment, hunger, increased migration, and also to building of roads that allowed strangers to enter communities easily. In every country it was linked to declines in social community, competitiveness and people looking out only for themselves.

A startling finding of the Consultations was the extent to which poor people experience police as a source not of help and security, but rather of harm, risk and impoverishment. While there were some exceptions, including Zambia, Ethiopia, and Sri Lanka, in many places the police were considered a necessary evil, vigilantes and criminals. In Nigeria, the poor associated the police with illegal arrests, intimidation and extortion; in Bangladesh, the poor feared the police because of "false cases" that they can bring, especially when the poor try to file cases against the rich. In Brazil the police were rated as the worst institution; the poor said, "the criminals have public safety, we do not." In Argentina, the poor equated police to rubbish, while women felt vulnerable to sexual assault by police. In Jamaica, the poor said "the police lie and steal from the poor." In India, the poor said that the menace of the police had increased many times over, and in Russia, reports about the police and criminals working together were widespread. In Bulgaria, some of the poor said that they did not blame the police as much as the judges and prosecutors who let the criminals go free; others said, "if you have connections with the police, you always will get free."

On a different scale, civil wars based on clan rivalries and ethnicity in several nations have brought untold suffering to the poor, and even after years of peace life has not returned to pre-war standards. In Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina, one person said, "even if I were to establish a household over a hundred years, I would never have what I had if the war hadn’t destroyed everything." Life for some was better during the war when there was some humanitarian assistance, but now many people interviewed appeared withdrawn, depressed, irritable, apathetic and not interested in having a conversation. In some areas where factories remained shut down people spoke about the "death of the city"; "Vares is a dead city; the spirit is dead in the city." In Sri Lanka, the Tamil people reported that life was better before 1989, and that concerns about loss of assets and insecurity still prevail. The Singhalese there were concerned about employment, and when some Muslim groups spoke openly about the looting of homes and livestock that had taken place during the violence, the tension between groups became palpable.

Households across the world are stressed. As employment and traditional livelihood strategies for poor men disappear, poor women in increasing numbers have had to make their way into the informal sector, primarily in low paying and often menial work -- piece work, vending, petty trading, trading, agricultural labor, collecting garbage, cleaning toilets, and factory employment. In almost every country in the study, both men and women reported women’s greater ability to accommodate, bury their pride and do whatever job was available to earn the money to feed the family. This sometimes includes prostitution. In many societies, women working outside the home violate social norms; it can be a source of tension and shame, especially when the primary reason is men’s unemployment. In some countries, such as Jamaica, Brazil and Argentina, women have higher levels of education compared to men, making it easier for them to find jobs.

Tensions and conflict in the home are pervasive, more acute in some countries than in others. It was reported in the Kyrgyz Republic that "unemployed men are frustrated, because they no longer can play the part of the family providers and protectors. They live on the money made by their wives, and feel humiliated because of that. Suicides among men have become more frequent." In Jamaica, men said "if you lose your job outside, you lose the job inside," and expressed helplessness at the erosion of their "power." In Brazil, a man said, "today when a woman earns more than her husband he has to obey her… he cannot complain about the kind of work, because it is with this wage that the family is maintained." "Women are at the market and men in the kitchen," wryly observed an older woman in Bahsi, Kyrgyz Republic. Some older and younger men said that they secretly helped their wives but were afraid to be seen doing the laundry or sweeping the floors because they would be mocked.

Both men and women spoke about domestic violence against women, the different forms of violence, and the reasons for it. In some countries physical abuse may have peaked and is on the decline, because of women’s willingness to walk out of abusive relations and support themselves, as well as work done by NGOs to raise awareness. Domestic violence remains widespread, however. In Bolivia, some poor people reported that domestic violence was less acute now than in the past; whereas before men would "tie the woman up on the mountain," now household disputes are resolved with "just a small scolding." An elderly man in the Kyrgyz Republic commented "Before, it was clear that the woman is to keep the house and take care of the family, while the man was earning the daily bread. Now the woman buys and sells stuff irrespective of the weather and earns the income for the family, while the man is sitting at home and takes care of the children, fulfilling the traditional women’s work. This is not right, this is not good." In Bangladesh, women living in areas where NGOs have been active said they have greater freedom to move outside the home. Women also reported that "over the last ten years the incidence of physical and mental abuse in the family has increased two to three times but the severity of physical abuse has decreased." In Vietnam, there was evidence of widespread wife beating — "that wife beatings occurred in both a remote minority village as well as a midland, economically integrated village indicates that domestic violence against women cuts across economic and ethnic lines, and may be more widespread than realized." And a woman in Ethiopia noted that "Women are beaten at the house for any reason, that may include failure to prepare lunch or dinner for the husband. They may also be beaten if the husband comes home drunk or if he simply feels like it."

Negotiating change in deeply rooted, identity-defining roles is not easy. Marriage counselors have emerged as important even in some rural areas in Malawi. In three communities, both men and women rated marriage counselors the third most important institution in their lives. People said "without marriage counselors, most of the families could have separated; they are uniting families."

Next: Four problems with the system: Powerlessness