GS2/GS Paper 3
Syllabus: Disaster Management, Governance: Poverty and developmental issues
Source: DTE
Context: According to the UNDP report “Turning the tide on internal displacement: A development approach to solutions”, for the first time ever, more than 100 million people were forcibly displaced in 2022, most of them within their own countries
What is forced displacement?
Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region.
Impact of forced displacement:
- These internally displaced persons struggle to cover their basic needs, find decent work or have a stable source of income
- 48 per cent of the internally displaced households surveyed earned less money than before displacement.
- Female and youth-headed households were more impacted
- Other Economic impacts: The direct impact of internal displacement globally was estimated at over $21.5 billion in 2021 in the form of the financial cost of providing every internally displaced person with housing, education, health and security, and accounts
- Lack of Proper and Commonly Accepted Statistics about displacement has led to a lack of policies for displaced people.
- The term “climate refugee” does not exist in international law, and therefore international efforts/policies towards it have been lacking.
What does the report say?
- Russia- Ukraine war: 6.5 million people are estimated to have been internally displaced
- By 2050, climate change could force more than an estimated 216 million people to move within their own countries.
- Disaster-related internal displacement is even more widespread, with new displacements recorded in over 130 countries and territories in 2021
- Most affected regions: sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa and parts of the Americas
Key pathways suggested:
- Strengthening governance institutions
- Boosting socioeconomic integration through access to jobs and services
- Restoring security
- Enhancing participation e.g., equal access to rights and basic services
- Building social cohesion
- Humanitarian aid
Conclusion:
UNDP called for countries to take political, social and economic measures to ensure that IDPs can exercise their full rights as citizens, including in political processes. This renewed social contract should ensure the safety of IDPs as well as their access to healthcare, education, decent jobs and social protection.
Insta Curious:
Did you know that June 20 is designated as World Refugee Day by the United Nations. The theme for World Refugee Day 2022 is whoever, whatever, whenever. Everyone has got a right to seek safety.
Internal displacement describes the situation of people who have been forced to leave their homes but have not left their country.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was created in 1950, during the aftermath of the Second World War, to help millions of Europeans who had fled or lost their homes.
1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol assert the principle of non-refoulment (a refugee should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom)
Insta Links
Human Migration: Reasons & Impact
The Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID 2020)
Mains Links
Q. Examine the causes and consequences of forced migration of population being witnessed across the world. (250 words)
