Dehumanization of Urban and Rural Poor

Dehumanization is a process causing indignity to and stigmatization of its victims. It is apparently a complex process by which human beings are divested of some universally expected human characteristics or qualities or behaviors that are considered common features of human beings. The term ‘dehumanization’ is generally used in a derogatory sense in everyday life. Dehumanization is the lowest level of degradation for which a human being can fall. Dehumanization is a process involving socio-economic discrimination of the worst kind. A dehumanized person is to be looked upon as a victim of the vagaries of his life setting and circumstances. It is usually observed that any disabling or incapacitating conditions threatening the very survival of human beings may create antecedents for easy dehumanization. Usually, dehumanization is found to be distinctive in the lowest strata of all societies, which survive on the treatments, meted out to them by persons who own the material and other resources that are necessary for survival.