Impact of Urbanization on Mental Health
Paper presented at NATIONAL SEMINAR on Impact of Urbanization in the College
URBANIZATION AND MENTAL HEALTH: AN OVERVIEW
Dr. R. B. Singh
Department of Zoology
K. M. Agrawal College, Kalyan (W)
It has been held by many medical and social researches that urbanization is not fit for mental health and it has its adverse effects on thought processes of the brain. Urbanization brings noise, population density, social isolation, housing & psychological stress and polluted environment which act as factors for mental disorders. On the other hand, the traditional rural life pattern is believed to be protective for mental health (Klerman, 1969; Greenblat, 1970; Fromm, 1973; Murphy and Taumoepeau, 1980).
Urbanization means:
1. Growth of cities due to immigration and industrialization
2. Change in the division of labor
3. Change in the human behaviors
4. Stressful life events
5. Scarcity of basic amenities
6. Poor social network
All above factors may adversely affect mental health which is an important concern for both urban people and immigrants. According to the Washington based Population Reference Bureau (PRB), India is set to overtake China as the world's most populous nation by 2050 and the population of India is expected to increase from 1.03bn(2001) to 1.63bn people.
1. Growth of cities due to immigration and industrialization
There are many factors which are responsible for the continuous growth of the urban population. In India, the term Urban Agglomerations, was used in the 1991 census for urban population which has been defined as i) a city or town and its urban outgrowth outside the statutory limits or ii) an urban agglomerate may be two or more adjoining cities or towns and their outgrowths or iii) a city or town together with a universitycampus or military base located on its outskirts. The two most important factors responsible for urban populations are immigration and industrialization. The bulk of immigrants belong to the rural population who are migrating from their native places towards the cities either in search of livelihood or to avail better opportunities confined to the cities only. In India, most of the industries are located in the urban areas. Those persons, who have been born and brought up in rural background, are bound to join those industries irrespective of whether they are skilled or unskilled. In the process of acquiring urbancharacteristics and isolation from their rural life, they undergo through a cultural transformation both in terms of economic and social aspects. During this cultural transformation process, besides the development of urban culture, city dwellers should psychologically, physically, and behaviorally have to be acclimatized with the new environment. Generosity and solidarity towards one’s own may have emerged only in combination with hostility towards migrants. Therefore, adaptation of immigrants to urban life gets comparatively difficult. Such persons feel refused and stranger to the urban culture. The balance formed over hundreds of years in the life of a rural person comes under the risk of decaying through the immigration to town. A person from rural background, who tries to express his personality in town, and to behave independently, however, mostly fails to do so and eventually becomes unhappy. Such a failure causes both psychological and economic distress. Whereas, urbanite can be accepted as anybody, a rural individual always fights for his identity.
2. Change in the division of labor
Human evolution from the early primates had been taken a long duration and during the same period there was the cultural evolution. Human body is adapted to the cycles of nature. The food, water, air, light, temperature and other non-biotic factors had played a very important role in shaping the physiology and psychology of human body. Rural life is closer to the nature than urban life. Any change in the environment is going to be adopted by the body and mind gradually. The different types of activities performed by rural people are not in contradiction of those in which the species had been evolved. Therefore, the stress on both, body and mind is of lowest possible degree in the village life. On the other hand, urban population, in general, has been living in the artificial environment. The eatables, mode of life and work culture together with leisure time in our cities are not suitable for either the metabolic or the mental activities of the body. Definitely, it affects our thought processes adversely. The urban poor are really rural people moved to the cities for seeking employment there. The economic gap between urban rich and such migrants is very wide. It has its own negative impact on the large section of urbanites.
3. Change in the human behaviors
Researchers in the field of social sciences and ethologists have long tried to explain the effects of urbanization on the human mind. The main concern has been the observed rates of crime and inhuman behavior found in cities. It is the common fact that crime rates are higher in metropolises than in suburban areas, which in turn are higher than in rural areas. In villages, small number of population, the same social status among them, close relationships and neighborhood provide a common control of relations and social solidarity. Eventually, aggressive behavior, violent events and crime rates have been less common in rural life. Difficulty in having relationship, estrangement and failure in being attuned in urban culture cause increased violent behavior through isolation and externalization. Many theories have been developed to explain the effects of crowds on human behavior. Wirth’s (1938) is the most common with his observation that size, density and heterogeneity explain the effects of urban life on human animal. According to Milgram (1970), when people are confronted with a large number of strangers in everyday life, they tend to withdraw and take less interest in the community in order to protect themselves from overload. Many other workers have suggested that urban withdrawal from density explains higher urban crime rates. Experimental studies done on animals by Calhoun (1962) show that crowding in the animal world results in what he calls the behavioral sink. Aggressive behavior increases when density passes a certain point as animals compete for resources. Those, who deny any possible connection between any human behaviors simply say that humans are not animals so there can be nothing learned from animal experiments.
4. Stressful life events
Homelessness is one of the most important social and personal problems which include some of the following difficulties deterioration of physical and mental health (Wright and Weber, 1987; Lehman and Cordray, 1993), social isolation (Solarz and Bogat, 1990) and deterioration of personal dignity (Miller and Keys, 2001). Early exposure to stressful life events and lack of job security compel the people to join the gang membership. Finance based livelihood is also responsible for mental disorder which also disturbs the feeding and sleeping habits.
Other stressful life events like family quarrels and violence in the nuclear families of cities trigger of depression and anxiety. One of the major causes of depression in cities is related with neighborhood contexts. The daily stress level, personal safety and immediate support play a very important role in human lives. Women who live in neighborhoods high on economic disadvantage would have higher rates of major depression than those women who live in neighborhood low on economic disadvantage. Such depressions in the long run affect the mental health negatively.
5. Scarcity of basic amenities
One of the basic requirements of human beings is shelter for survival. In cities, we are suffering from the constraints of space. Living space of a person gives enormous impact on his behavior. Availability of private and public space has significant psychological impacts on urban dwellers. Slum problem is common in all big cities. Children are born and brought up in the inadequate environment of slum. These negative conditions may affect children and may provide basis for personalities that tend to commit crime. Unhealthy environment of slums together with maladjusted life-style may generate intense hate and revengeful attitudes. Such individuals may express their hate via violence. Disobedience, telling lies, hostility towards parents & law, burglary, fraud, aggressiveness, fighting, playing truant, sexual behavior disorders, and alcohol and drug addiction may be seen in these individuals. All these symptoms are affecting the physical as well as mental health. Unemployment and threat of unemployment may trigger mental disorder in predisposed persons. The quality of food has a profound effect on our health. Starting from milk food in childhood to the variety of tasty foods available in the urban area, we have to take in many compounds unfit for our body and mind. Likewise, drinking water available in the cities is devoid of many essential salts or elements which are controlling the smooth functioning of our physiology. Conversely, it contains pollutants which are harmful to the body. Industrialization is integral part of the urbanization. Various types of obnoxious gases are continuously released in the atmosphere. Urbanites feel suffocation due to the presence of these gases with the automobile’s emissions. Biological clock of the body is also disturbed because of schedule of works is not dependent upon natural day and light. Unwanted and untimely sounds frequently affect the brain physiology directly. Therefore, the scarcities of all these basic requirements are the factors which gradually affect the mental health of the population in our cities.
6. Poor social network
Mental stress/ load can be reduced by strong social networks as prevalent in the rural life. In fact, social support system which is stronger in village than in cities promotes the mental health and increases the confidence level. Therefore, poor social networks affect both directly and indirectly. In direct effect, it affects health negatively irrespective of social status while indirectly; it increases the stress level of a person which is part of the life in any society. Strong social networks have positive effects on behavior, psychology and physiology. Many things are not as prevalent in villages as they are in urban life e. g. smoking, drinking & use of drugs, unhealthy diets, less physical work and use of allopathic drugs. The perception of social security makes oneself strong enough to cope with stress factors through powerful immune system and cardiovascular system. It has been observed that people reporting psychological distress decreases due to increase in social support system. It is a fact that social support system is weaker in cities than in villages. According to Dalgard & Haaheim (1998) poor support system is associated with high mortality rates (mortality caused by cardiovascular diseases).Emotional support is important for the etiology and prognosis of cardiovascular disorders.
Conclusion:
Most of the common observed facts discussed in this paper and various studies suggest that rapid urbanization and urban culture have a number of adverse impacts on urbanites’ mental health. Therefore, growing population of our cities must be kept under control. It will be better to shift urban opportunities to the villages than to compel the rural population towards urban opportunities.
THANK YOU---Dr. R B Singh
No comments:
Post a Comment