Social Inequalities

• Social Inequality

  • It is the state of unequal distribution of values, goods and opportunities.
  • It can also be described the difference in distribution of wealth, power, prestige, and opportunities based on their social class or status.

• Where did Social Inequality come from?

  • The idea for social inequality arose from Karl Marx’s ideology and analysis.
  • It comes as a result of society organizing into hierarchies of class, race, and gender or social stratification.
  • It can manifest in a variety of ways:
    • income and wealth inequality
    • unequal access to cultural resources and education
    • differential treatment by the police/judicial system.

Inequality in Access to Social/Political/Symbolic Capital

• Social Capital

  • It is the networks, connections, relationships that members in a society have that allows them to work together to achieve common goals or interests.

• Political Capital

  • It refers to the power, influence, trust, goodwill possessed by a political actor to mobilize support toward a preferred policy outcome.
  • It can also refer to an individual’s ability to influence political decisions.
    • It can refer to power or resources gained from relationships, influence, or trust between other politicians and parties.
    • This can then be used to achieve political goals, such as mobilizing voters or achieving political reform.

• Symbolic Capital

  • It refers to the honor, prestige, or recognition that individuals and groups receive.
  • It often accumulates through cultural dominance.
    • This recognition may then be used to shape what is “good”, “desirable”, or “moral” in a culture.

Government Programs Addressing Capital Inequalities

• Conditional Cash Transfer Program
  • It is also known as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps.
  • It is a government program that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor in the Philippines.
  • Households receive cash grants if:
    • children stay in school, get regular health check-ups, have their growth monitored, receive vaccines
    • pregnant women gets prenatal care, and their births attended by professional health workers
    • parents/guardians are required to participate in family development sessions about positive child discipline, disaster preparedness, and women’s rights.
• Agrarian Reform in the Philippines
  • It seeks to solve the centuries-old problem of landlessness and land ownership in rural areas.
  • To solve this, the Aquino administration enacted the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in 1987.
    • It aims to redistribute public and private land to beneficiaries to help them survive as small independent farmers.
    • Its goal is to:
      • provide landowners equality in terms of income and opportunities.
      • empower landowners to have equitable land ownership,
      • provide employment to more agricultural workers,
      • put an end to conflicts on land ownership.
  • However, it was met with various issues over years after the program was enacted.
    • These issues were lack of funding and support from legislators and opposition by landlords.
• SK Reform Act of 2015
  • This act prevents any person to be elected or appointed in any Sanggunian Kabataan (SK) Office if it has a relative us to the second degree in the barangay level to governorship
  • This is to ensure it prohibits and prevents political dynasties.
• Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act
  • It is a law that provides free tuition and exemptions from other fees in state universities and colleges (SUCs) and local universities and colleges (LUCs) in the Philippines.
  • It also gives subsidies to private higher education institutions to allow underprivileged students to have a better chance to earn a college degree.
  • Some financially capable students can:
    • avail free education while also having the option to make a contribution to their school.
    • opt out of the program and contribute for their own education instead.

Minority Groups

• Minority Groups

  • These are less-dominant groups that experience lower opportunities than their more dominant counterparts.
  • According to Louis Wirth, it can be described as “a group of people who, because of their physical or cultural characteristics, are differentiated from others in a society that they live for differential and unequal treatment, and who therefore regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination.”

• Some examples of inequality involving minority groups include:

  • Gender Inequality
    • Men are treated more preferably than women and people of gender diversity.
      • Women are paid lower and often denied access to education than men.
      • People who consider themselves as part of the LGBTQ+ often experience social discrimination and unequal access to healthcare, housing, or employment
    • Some programs that attempt to solve this are as follows:
      • Philippine Plan for Gender-Responsive Development (PPGD)
        • It is a vision of development that is equitable, sustainable, free from violence, respectful of human rights, supportive of self determination and the actualization of human potentials.
        • It is a plan that seeks to promote gender equality and empower women’s rights by integrating gender perspectives into national policies, programs and development strategies.
        • It also seeks to address gender-based disparities in various areas and sectors, such as in justice, health, social welfare, arts and media, agriculture, industry, technology, and infrastructure development.
        • It also emphasizes in eliminating discrimination and violence against women.
        • This plan is where gender and development programs or laws are based or anchored into.
      • Magna Carta for Women
        • It is a comprehensive women’s rights law that seeks to eliminate discrimination through recognition, protection, fulfillment, and promotion of the rights of the Filipino women.
        • Some of its features include:
          • equal access and elimination of discrimination in education, scholarships and training; female students should not be expelled or prevented admission or enrollment due to pregnancy.
          • women should also have the same promotional privileges and opportunities in the field of military, or police.
          • empowering women by prohibiting discriminatory or derogative portrayal of women in mass media
          • achieving a 1:1 men-to-women ratio in government positions for the next five years; 40% of women should be in all levels of development planning and program implementation.
          • leave benefits of two months with full pay for women who undergo surgery caused by gynecological disorders, provided that they have worked for at least 6 months in a row for the past year.
          • equal status given to men and women when getting legal documents such as land titles, stewardship contracts, and patents.
  • Ethnic Minorities
    • Some ethnic groups, such as the Lumads, Badjaos, or the Aetas, experience social inequalities as well.
    • These can range from marginalization, or prohibiting access to healthcare, education, or government services, to land displacement due to deforestation and mining, and even discrimination and stereotyping.
    • The Republic Act 8371, or the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) gives indigenous people right over their lands and the development of their own lands.
    • Through self-delineation, the indigenous people can decide and mark the boundaries of their ancestral domain, or the land that belongs to them, not the government or any outside authority.
  • Other Minorities
    • This may include people with disabilities, or people with religion who are less prevalent in a society.
    • Some religious people may have practices or beliefs that may not be agreed by the majority, while some people who do not consider themselves as part of any religion might experience discrimination from the religious.
    • The disabled minorities might experience discrimination from work due to their physical limitations.
    • Some programs that aim to solve this include:
      • Republic Act No. 9442, or the Act Amending Republic Act No. 7277, or also known as Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, was established to provide opportunities to for persons with disability to fully participate in mainstream society by:
        • providing a minimum of 20% discount to all basic services (transport, medicine, recreation, lodgings, etc.)
        • providing cash grants to married couples, solo parents, or grandparents with child/children with disability.
        • providing tax benefits for people caring and living with persons with disabilities
        • providing protection by prohibiting verbal and nonverbal ridicule and vilification against persons with disability
      • The Department of Education can also give special protection for children who live in harmful situations that may negatively impact their development.
        • They can work with other agencies that can help these children recover and rehabilitate from these experiences.
        • Moreover, DepEd also recognizes the rights of children to participate in proceedings (such as forming or implementing policies) that may affect them, either directly or indirectly.
      • The Anti-Bullying Law also mandates all schools in elementary and secondary level to adapt policies that address bullying inside their institutions.

Sustainable Development Goals

• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • These are the new development goals that was established by the United Nations in 2015 that the organization seeks to address and resolve by 2030, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
  • This builds upon the Millennium Development Goals previously established in 2000 and seeks to complete what the previous goals did not achieve.
  • It seeks to address major global challenges like poverty, inequality, climate change, and peace and justice.

As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind.
- United Nations, 2015

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development