In the developing world dependency and underdevelopment with their roots in colonialism are important to an understanding of contemporary social policy. The policies which were developed in the colonial era were favouring the rich white minority and disadvantaging the poor black majority .These policies influenced the contemporary social policies to an extent that the policies are the same the only different thing is of the authority instead of white it is the black rich person. This makes the developing countries to be still underdeveloped and depend on the developed countries because the policies which were in use during the colonial era are the same with the ones used now. The policies include the health, education, social welfare and others. However to a certain extent the dependency and underdevelopment with their roots in colonialism are not important to the understanding of contemporary social policy.
In social policy there is the education policy. According to Riddell (1980), there was a dual system of education which was consolidated by the enactment of the Compulsory Education Act in 1930. This act made education compulsory only for European children and also allowed for the provision of free education to day scholars among the European population only. This caused underdevelopment as the Africans did not have the knowledge as to develop for they did not have education. This also causes dependency of the developing countries on the developed countries as they depend on them for their policy making as they are the ones who have more knowledge.
The other policy that has its roots in colonialism that influenced dependency and underdevelopment in the contemporary social welfare. According to Boeke 1953, the provision of social welfare services is a shared responsibility between the government, Non-Governmental Organisations and local authorities when social welfare services were introduced during the colonial period, thy were primarily, intended for the white settler community. In the area of the social welfare the Old Age Pensions Act of 1936 is illustrative of the influence of the notion of racial segregation in shaping policy. The Old Age Pensions Act was beneficial to all non-Africans above the age the 60.In the contemporary social policy this helps the rich and ignoring the poor. Also the issue of non-governmental organisations helping with the aiding of the taking care of the old people and those who are poor. This makes the developing countries to be dependent on the developed countries. According to Kaseke (1998) donors had their specific areas of interest which they funded and still fund. So by aiding in the developing countries the developed countries will be gaining from it thus exploiting the developing world .How can they develop when they are being exploited by the developed world.
Also, on health policies they were also based on racial segregation during the colonial period and because they were designed primarily for the benefit of the white settler community, there was an urban bias in their provision ( Agere 1987). Likewise in the contemporary developing world the health facilities help more people are rich than the ones who poor. For example in Zimbabwe hospitals which offer better medication are the private hospitals which re expensive the government hospital do not have enough, medicine and health facilities. In the colonial era the health policy favoured the white population both in terms of access and quality of services. Furthermore health services were generally curative in the line with the diseases pattern among the European population. According to Gilmurray (1979), the neglect of rural areas by the colonial governments forced missionaries to take corrective measures, thereby assuming greater responsibility for the provision of health services in rural areas. The only few government hospital nowadays which are still running well are backed up by missionaries for Howard Mission Hospital. Also churches have influenced the formulation of policies on duty free importation of drug and related equipment by church related health centres.
developed during the colonial era .Housing policy is one of them, it is an expression of social status. The area in which one lies gives them access to other resources or also denies them access to other resources. Former British colonial cities are planned on very distinctive class divisions .For example in Harare ,Northern suburbs are areas that housed white collar workers ,the poor were allocated to the southern parts of the city and even up to now that is the setup. This shows that the policies have their roots in the colonial era. Continual underdevelopment means continual reinforcement of alien and inappropriate policies which are determined not only by needs of the majority but by means of the minority oriented economic social formations.
Colonial political systems were un-democratic no matter what form colonial rule took, all colonial systems were un-democratic as they did not allow popular participation. Decisions and policies were made with little or no input from the African peoples .Even in the contemporary social policies there is no participation of the citizens in a country the policies are made by the government and the citizens have to abide by those policies only. This causes underdevelopment to continue in the developing countries.
However it can be noted that dependency and underdevelopment with their roots in colonialism are not important to the understanding of contemporary social policy as some policies work without the influence of colonialism. The failure of the policies to develop the developing countries cannot be completely blamed on colonialism as it is also a failure of the developing world to create their own new policies which will help them grow and not to follow in the footsteps of the people who once colonised them.
The social responsibility on policy is voluntary, it is about going beyond what is called for by the law legal responsibility. It involves an idea that it is better to be proactive toward a problem rather than reactive to a problem. Social responsibility means eliminating corrupt, irresponsible or unethical behaviour that might bring harm to the community, its people or the environment before the behaviour happens. The failure to develop of developing countries cannot be blamed on their colonialists as they failed go beyond what they were expected to do.
underdevelopment with their roots in colonialism are not important in the understanding of contemporary social policy.
REFERENCES
Agere, S. (1987) “Progress and Problems in the Health Care Delivery System.”in I Mandaza (ed) Zimbabwe : The Political Economy and Transition 1980-1986, Codesria ,Dakar
Auret, D. (1990) A decade of development: Zimbabwe 1980-1990, Mambo Press, Gweru Boeke, J.H. (1953) Economics and Economic Policy of Dual Societies, New York
Gilmurray, J. (1979) Struggle for Health, Mambo Press, Gweru Riddell, R. (1980) Education for Employment, Mambo Press,Gweru
