CHALLENGES IN DEVELOPMENT OF THIRD WORLD

2.4 POLITICAL SCIENCE

Submitted By: -
Manas Nema
UID: -UG-19-62
1ST Year B.A. LL. B(Hons.)

Submitted to-
Dr. Madhukar Sharma

Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur

 Table Of Content

Introduction………………………………………………...………………………………….3

Aims and Objectives……………………………………..

…………………………………….3

Research Questions…………………………………………………….………………………
4

Research Methodology…………………………………………………………...……………4

Scope and Limitations…………………………………………………………………...…….4

Third World: Origin and

Meaning……………………………………………………………..5

Challenges in development of Third World

countries………………………………………….5

India as a third world country………………………………………………………………….8

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………..8

Bibliography and References…………………………..………………………………………

9

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Introduction

When people talk about the poorest countries of the world, they often refer to them with the
general term Third World. The designation of “Third World” countries was created by Alfred
Sauvy, in an article that he wrote for the French magazine, L’Observateur in 1952 during the
cold war, when two opposing blocs—one led by the USA, the other led by the USSR
appeared to dominate world politics. The term “First World” refers to so called developed,
capitalist, industrial countries, roughly, a bloc of countries aligned with the United States
after World War II, with more or less common political and economic interests: North
America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia.

“Second World” refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, (formerly the
Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic)
today: Russia, Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland) and some of the Turk States like Kazakhstan.

“Third World” is all the other economically developing nations of Africa, Asia and Latin
America. The Third World countries are also called as developing countries which includes
as well capitalist (e.g., Venezuela) and communist (e.g., North Korea) countries.

This project is mainly going to deal with Third World countries and challenges these
countries face in their development. There are many barriers such excessive population
growth, extreme poverty, poor infrastructure and technology, low Gross Development
Production, which hinders the growth and development of these countries which is discussed
in this project in detail.

Aim

The main of this project is to understand the current situation of Third World countries
(developing countries) and to throw light on challenges these countries face in their growth
and development.

Objectives

 To study briefly about “Third World”

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  To critically analyze some of the main development challenges faced by Third World
countries.
 To understand the current siituation of India as a Third World country.

Research Questions

1. What does “Third World” mean? What makes nation a Third World?
2. What are the main challenges and barriers faced by Third World countries in their
development?
3. What is the current scenario of India as a developing country? What are the
hinderances that India face in its development?

Research Methodology

The research method so used to write this research paper is doctrinal. It is doctrinal in the
sense that it comes from the credible sources herein, books, articles published in renowned
and justified web pages and journals. The project also uses deductive reasoning for research.
The source of information also consists of theoretical knowledge the researcher possesses as
a law student. The sources so used are secondary in nature and can be treated as library-based
experiment. To make the research paper, the instruction given by the Research Supervisor has
been followed. The whole research paper is done in an organized way.

Scope and Limitations

The limitation of the study is those characteristics of design or methodology that impacted or
influenced the application or interpretation of the results of the researcher’s study. The
research is limited to educational purposes only. Only that information could be furnished
which was available and the availability of which could be authenticated. The researcher was
unable to do a thorough empirical research due to non-availability of proper resources, time
and restrictions to the domain of research.

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Third World: Its Origin and Meaning

“Third World” is a phrase commonly used to describe a developing nation, but actually
started as term used to describe a country’s allegiance. A Third World country is a country
whose views are not aligned with NATO and capitalism or the Soviet Union and
communism. The use of the term "Third World" started during the Cold War and was used to
identify which of three categories the countries of the world aligned with. The First World
meant that you aligned with NATO and capitalism, and the Second World meant you
supported Communism and the Soviet Union. Despite ever revolving definitions, the concept
of the third world serves to identify countries that suffer from high infant mortality, low
economic development, high levels of poverty, low utilization of natural resources, and heavy
dependence on industrialized nations. Due to this reason, the terms Third World and
developing nation are often used interchangeably. These are the developing and
technologically less advanced nations of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America.1

Challenges in development of Third World

Population Growth

The countries of the Third World contain some two-thirds of the world's population, Some
gloomy facts shows that due to population and poverty in Third World countries 1.1 billion
people (one sixth of the world’s population) lacks access to safe water, 2.4 billion are without
adequate sanitation, between 2 to 4 million deaths a year are attributed to unsafe water, and
90% of those who die from diarrheal disease caused by unsafe water are children under 5.
The most populous countries of the world are China, India and Brazil which are all
recognized as Third World countries.2 However the most populated country of the world
(China) has been implementing the One-child policy for the Chinese families for decrease of
population but unfortunately there is no such policy in other populated and poor countries,

1
https://www.academia.edu/32138564/The_Third_World_Its_Origin_Meaning_Definition_and_Its_Problems
2
Third World Countries Population. (2020-02-17). Retrieved 2020-02-26, from
http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/third-world-countries/

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Beside that “The wealthiest 20% of the world’s population consumes 76.6% of the world’s
goods while 80% of humanity gets the remainder” which is really a big problem for the
populated countries like India and China.

Poverty

Poverty is definitely one of the biggest reasons of why third world countries are called third
world countries. As per UN standards poverty means living on $2.50 a whole day and
extreme poverty is living on a $1.25 or less. Around 1 billion of these poor people are
innocent little children and infants, “According to the UN approx. 22,000 children die each
day in these countries due to poverty” (NikhilGhimire). No electricity supply, low reach to
drinking water, hunger, and low reach to health care services are all a part of the poverty in
the Third World countries.3

Infrastructure

Key services, called infrastructure, such as transportation and a communications network, are
necessary for efficient commerce. Roads, bridges, railways, and harbours are needed to
transport people, materials, and finished goods. Phone and postal services, water supply, and
sanitation are essential to economic development. The absence of a dependable infrastructure
can impose severe barriers to economic development. Many governments feel that money
spent on a new steel mill shows more impressive results than money spent on such
infrastructure investments as automating the telephone system. Yet private, growth-creating
entrepreneurial activity will be discouraged more by the absence of good telephone
communications than by the lack of domestically produced steel.4

Cultural Barriers

Traditions and habitual ways of doing business vary among societies, and not all are equally
conducive to economic growth. In developing countries, cultural forces are often a source of
inefficiency. Sometimes personal considerations of family, past favours, or traditional
friendship or enmity are more important than market incentives in motivating behaviour. In a
traditional society in which children are expected to stay in their parents’ occupations, it is

3
BOUMEDIENE, HOUARI. “THE PROBLEMS OF THIRD WORLD DEVELOPMENT.” The Black Scholar,
vol. 6, no. 8, 1975, pp. 2–10. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41066377.(Accessed 25 Feb. 2020)
4
America, Latin. "Challenges facing the developing countries." (2005). Retrived on 22/02/2020 from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d50e/bdd8650232497fd2d315b9ef723155030a37.pdf

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more difficult for the labour force to change its characteristics and to adapt to the
requirements of growth than in a society in which upward mobility is a goal itself. A country
that wants development must accept some alteration in traditional ways of doing things.5

Old Technology

There is an urgent need to strengthen the technological capabilities of the Third World
countries in an increasingly open and competitive global environment because through old
technologies the poverty rate cannot be decreased. More than half the population of all the
developing nations in the world depends on Agriculture or farming for survival and for at
least two meals a day. On the other side in a developed country like America, only 4% of the
population is busy with farming by using new technologies (Worldbank). Third World
countries still use the booking style of filing in offices which causes corruption, and low
transparency, thought the developed countries use from modern technologies like computer to
manage their filing system in order to fight corruption and improve transparency.

Human Capital

Numbers of people matter, and so does their training and experience. A well-developed
entrepreneurial class, motivated and trained to organize resources for efficient production, is
often missing in poor countries. The cause may be that managerial positions are awarded on
the basis of family status or political patronage rather than merit, it may be the prevalence of
economic or cultural attitudes that do not favour acquisition of wealth by organizing
productive activities, or it may simply be an absence of the quantity or quality of education or
training that is required. In today’s world, much production is knowledge-intensive, thus
putting a premium on a well-educated workforce. The abilities to read, to do basic
calculations, to operate electronic equipment, and to follow relatively complex instructions
are important requirements for much modern labour. Failure to develop such essential labour
skills can be an important cause of lack of growth. Poor health is another source of
inadequate human resources. When the labour force is healthy, less working time is lost, and
more effective effort is expended.6

War

5
Patterson, P. J. "Problems of Social and Economic Development Facing Third World
Countries." International Journal of Bahamian Studies 5 (1984): 1-6.
6
https://buzzsouthafrica.com/problems-third-world-countries/ ( Accessed on 23/02/2020)

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Most of the countries that fall in the third world category or the ones that are developing are
either facing heavy duty corruption or buried deep under the ashes of war. Civil wars, war on
religion and so on, are fought in these countries. War causes stoppage of investment,
destruction of basic infrastructure, and other destructions which will all lead to 4 poverty.
However many global military institutions fights against the war in Third World countries
like Afghanistan, Pakistan and some African countries but it is too hard for them to destroy
the ideological roots of the war.7

Low Gross Development Product (GDP)

One of the factors for differentiating developed and developing countries are the number of
products and services produced in these country. Unfortunately due to less FDI (Foreign
Direct Investment), low level of private and public investments in Third World countries,
their GDP is lower than the developed countries (ngiedidemus, TED Conversations, Jun 4
2013), Promotion of private investments and also establishment of public industries should be
the priority of Third World countries because an investment causes employment and
employment diminishes the poverty.

Globalization

Globalization that upholds that everyone must benefit from modern transformation (Phil
Marfleet, 1998). Emerging technology is doing more harm than good to Third World
Countries. First World Countries use highly updated technology for example to manufacture
clothing, food and other items; they no longer use the cheap labor from third world countries,
which in turn leads to unemployment and poverty. Again, the third world countries being the
struggling economies are unable to reap the benefits as they are already encircled within their
basic problems. Furthermore, the gap between the first world countries and the third world
states continues to widen in all aspects. Poor nations are becoming even poorer in contrast to
rich nations which are getting richer than ever. It is important that G8 nations should derive
some solution to the problems of third world’s migrating labor class rather than implementing
more and more technology based industrial units.8

India as a Third World country

7
Ali, Mehrunnisa. “THE THIRD WORLD AND SOME POLITICAL PROBLEMS IN THE UN GENERAL
ASSEMBLY.” Pakistan Horizon, vol. 28, no. 1, 1975, pp. 30–52. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41393223.
Accessed 25 Feb. 2020.
8
https://www.academia.edu/4973140/THE_THIRD_WORLD_CHALLENGES_TO_DEVELOPMENT (Accessed on
24/02/2020)

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India is considered to be a Third World country and is also a developing country today. India
is part of BRICS, which is an acronym for as association of five major emerging national
economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. As a Third World country, India
also faces some challenges in development. India has a high poverty rate, low literacy rate,
corruption, poor water and sanitation, an outdated caste system, and other significant issues
that have stunted its development. The critical challenges India faces today can only be
overcome through communication and cooperative initiatives between the people of India
and the current political administration. Once the parties recognize that these critical
problems of population, water and sanitation, and literacy rates need to be addressed, only
then can India truly begin to successfully develop. If these issues go unaddressed, India might
encounter severe consequences that can result in potential and permanent damage to India’s
chance of becoming a developed nation.9

Conclusion

Despite of the fact that there are many challenges that Third world countries face, these
countries can fight the developmental challenges through implementing policies to decrease
the population, motivate investment, provide employment, replace old technology with new
technology, and to efficiently spend the financial helps of United Nations. The developmental
challenges in Third World countries can be diminished through implementing of these series
of policies which will transform these Third World countries to developed countries.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Articles Reffered

 Ali, Mehrunnisa. “THE THIRD WORLD AND SOME POLITICAL PROBLEMS IN THE UN
GENERAL ASSEMBLY.” Pakistan Horizon, vol. 28, no. 1, 1975
 BOUMEDIENE, HOUARI. “THE PROBLEMS OF THIRD WORLD DEVELOPMENT.” The Black
Scholar, vol. 6, no. 8, 1975

Websites Reffered

9
Gracer, Tara, Zahra Lalani, and Chi Nguyen. "The obstacles facing India on its journey to becoming a
developed country." The Park Place Economist 21.1 (2013): 10.

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 https://www.academia.edu/32138564/The_Third_World_Its_Origin_Meaning_Definition_an
d_Its_Problems
 https://www.academia.edu/4973140/THETHIRD_WORLD_CHALLENGES_TO_DEVELOPMENT
 https://buzzsouthafrica.com/problems-third-world-countries/

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