Introduction
Readers of earlier Perspectives and blogs on this site (see,
for example, The
Seven Deadly Myths of Social Protection) will recognise that there are two
opposing ideologies of social protection. The first is manifested in the neo-liberal
“poor relief” approach: poverty-targeted,
conditional, and focused on ameliorating the symptoms of current deprivation.
The second is represented by a more inclusive, universal approach that aims to
tackle the fundamental causes of poverty, often based on addressing
vulnerabilities through the life-course. Let us turn to William Shakespeare,
the greatest writer in the English language, to help us understand the
overwhelming advantages of the second approach.
In Act 2, Scene 7 of As
You Like It, written in 1599 or 1600 at the apogee of his illustrious
career, the “Bard of Avon” wrote a famous monologue setting out the seven ages
of man. The “ages” are not always depicted in the most flattering light, as
befits the nature of the melancholy Jaques who articulates them. But they
nonetheless provide a useful framework for thinking about a life-course
approach to social protection. So, in this paper, I have taken the Bard’s seven
ages to examine vulnerabilities at each stage of the life-course and propose potential
social protection interventions that may be used to mitigate them.
Three important messages about social protection already emerge
from the opening lines of the soliloquy:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
The first is the emphasis on “all the world” and the implication that social protection
should be available to all: in other words, that it should be inclusive and provided
universally. The second is the explicit focus on “all men and women”, underlining that social protection needs to be
gendered to reflect the fact that men and women may experience different
vulnerabilities requiring nuanced responses. And the third is that one man – and
“man” is used throughout to denote “woman” as well – “plays many parts” in the course of his
or her life and is therefore exposed to changing vulnerabilities and needs over
time.
Infancy
At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Infancy is perhaps the stage of a person’s life when he or
she is most in need of protection. Indeed, such protection should ideally start
at conception, and should cover – at an absolute minimum – the “first 1000
days”. The vulnerabilities of the “mewling infant” would include: malnutrition,
resulting in permanent physical stunting and reduced cognitive development;
missed immunisation and growth monitoring; limited access to ante- and
post-natal care; and the possible loss of parental care from bereavement or
migration. Social protection responses to counter these vulnerabilities would
include: maternity/paternity benefits and leave entitlements through social
insurance; and a universal maternity grant, family allowance or child benefit
funded by government – since this is such an important investment for the
future – possibly in a way that incentivises attendance at birth counselling,
facility-supervised birth, birth registration, regular growth monitoring, and
vaccinations. They might also encompass access to childcare services for
working mothers of young children – like the “nurse” in whose arms this particular
Shakespearean infant is mewling – as argued in another
of our Blogs.
School age
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.
Key vulnerabilities of the “whining student” would include
child labour, and the inability (for whatever reason) to access school or to have
a satisfactory environment in which to study; malnutrition, which, whilst not
having the same irreversible consequences as during infancy, can still impede
growth, learning and mental development; and, again, the loss of parental care
from bereavement or migration. Social assistance is important here,
particularly in ensuring access to school (for girls in particular, but also for
boys) and in optimising the quality of the learning environment. Instruments
would include child grants – such as South Africa’s Child Support Grant – educational
stipends, bursaries and school meals. Furthermore, pensions for the elderly
would help those children whose parents have migrated or died, an example of
how interventions at one stage of the life-course can be extremely beneficial
at other stages.
Youth
And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow.
The “woeful ballad” of challenges faced by young adolescents
would include: a lack of adequate skills to enter the labour market and
consequent unemployment or underemployment; the inability to access appropriate
training; resultant feelings of inadequacy, alienation and frustration; the
risk of being pressured into early marriage; and – for young girls – the
dangers of early pregnancy and motherhood. Social assistance responses should
include the availability of secondary and tertiary education stipends and support
to access free technical vocational and educational training. Helping to keep
children in education is one of the most effective methods of reducing teenage
pregnancy and early marriage, but social legislation – together with investment
in its enforcement – also has a role to play. Here too, it is worth noting that
many of the problems of young people listed above could have been avoided
through better social protection during infancy and school age.
Working age
Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth.
For those in physically demanding employment, there are
significant risks of work injury, sickness and invalidity. As Shakespeare
cautions, however well things are going and however fast one’s “reputation” is
rising, the “bubble” can always burst suddenly: the result is reduced income
and sometimes dramatically diminished well-being for the household. Where such employment
is in the formal sector, like our “bearded soldier” here, such risks should be
covered by contributory social insurance schemes: unemployment benefit, work
accident compensation, sickness benefit, and invalidity insurance. For those in
the informal sector, there needs to be access to Government-financed social
assistance in the form of grants for disability and chronic illness. Other
gendered vulnerabilities at this stage would include domestic violence, demand
for dowry payments, discrimination against women in the labour market,
unavailability of childcare services, and the need to look after ageing
parents. Many of these can be addressed through social assistance – such as
child grants, family allowances and old age pensions – which allow others to
care for children and parents so that mothers can return to employment (a
further example of how interventions can have benefits across the life-course).
Others – such as domestic violence, dowry and sexual discrimination – are best
addressed by other policies (or a mix of policies).
Maturity
And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.
Maturity is depicted as a time of moderate comfort and in a
relatively positive light (perhaps because Shakespeare was at this established
stage when he wrote the play!). But during this phase of the life-course there
are still risks, not only the continuing ones of accident, sickness, and
invalidity but also, increasingly, of unemployment (or at least underemployment),
and the inability to find new work. Key social protection responses will
include the range of social insurance benefits mentioned above. But social
assistance is also required for those outside the formal sector: this might
take the form of income tax credits, direct income transfers, an employment
guarantee scheme, public works opportunities, or retraining for new employment
opportunities.
Old age
The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.
The vulnerabilities faced in old age, as expressed so
eloquently by Shakespeare, include increasing frailty (“his big manly voice,
turning again toward childish treble”) and a decreasing ability to work (“his
shrunk shank”), although it is worth remembering that many older people nonetheless
continue to work: for example, some 50% of farmers globally are more than 60
years old. There is also the possible lack of care from family, and
discrimination in areas such as accessing the labour force or obtaining credit.
At this “sixth age” of the life-course, support to the “slipper’d pantaloon”
should consist of an old age pension. Ideally this would be one with three
tiers: a foundation tier of a universal non-contributory citizens’ pension; a
mandated compulsory contributory old-age benefit funded through social insurance;
and voluntary pensions provided by the private sector which would be funded from
additional savings made at the stage of having a “fair round belly with good
capon lined”. Having access to income allows the elderly to remain active
contributors to social networks, rather than becoming dependent on others or –
worse still – being excluded from family support as a result of being viewed as
a burden.
Death
Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
The final stage of each individual’s “eventful history” is
indeed “mere oblivion”. But even here social protection has a valuable role to
play, in ensuring that the surviving members of the household are not left bereft,
or “sans everything”. From a social insurance perspective, this would include
death benefits, funeral insurance and survivors’ allowances. Informal systems
include savings schemes and burial societies. And government assistance might
include a social pension for widows who have not yet attained the qualifying
age for an old age pension.
Conclusion
Shakespeare knew a thing or two about life and hardship, and
about “shuffling off this mortal coil”. The unmitigated cynicism of Jaques in As You Like It is a constant reminder
that grief, sorrow, suffering and death provide the inevitable counterpoint to
all human joy and success. Through this melancholy mouthpiece, Shakespeare
tells us more about the pre-eminence of the life-course approach to social
protection than the majority of learned papers and policy documents on the
subject. With that in mind, and in deference to those that persist with the alternate
neo-liberal approach, let’s leave the last wise word to another splendid character
in the same play, the court jester or “fool”, Touchstone:
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a
fool.
No comments:
Post a Comment