THE 10 MOST SERIOUS SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN COLOMBIA - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Some of the social problems in Colombia are corruption, poverty, unemployment, discrimination, drug addiction, class inequality or juvenile delinquency.

Colombia is a State of South America, whose history has been full of political, social and economic problems, including corruption, the violation of human rights, drug trafficking, among others.

Demonstration in Bogotá. Photo by Ricardo Arce on Unsplash

In fact, Colombia is the western nation with the worst record in terms of human rights, according to the data provided by the human rights reports carried out by the United Nations (UN).

The guerrillas, corruption, drug production and trafficking have marked the country in a negative way, and this mark is translated into multiple social problems that aggravate the already precarious conditions in the country.

In recent years, the country has been recovering. However, with so many problems to face, the improvements have been rather slow.

Main social problems in Colombia

1- Corruption

Corruption is one of the most pressing social problems facing Colombia. This is evident not only in the government but also in the practice of many multinational companies.

One of the most remembered cases of corruption was the financing of paramilitary groups by banana companies (mainly the US company Chiquita Banana Brands), which occurred between 1996 and 2004.

Chiquita Brands established illegal relationships with paramilitary groups in order to illegally control the labor movement: basically the formation of unions and the right to social protest were prohibited through the terror infused by armed groups.

The subsequent investigations that were carried out around this problem showed that the US multinational had given the Colombian paramilitaries more than 1.7 million dollars.

In 2007, Chiquita Brands pleaded guilty to financing paramilitary groups and was fined $ 25 million.

2- Unemployment

At the beginning of 2017, the unemployment rate stood at 11.7%, according to the data provided by the National Administrative Department of Statistics of Colombia.

3- Poverty

According to the National Administrative Department of Statistics of Colombia, in 2014, the monetary poverty line per household was $ 894,922.

This means that a family with an income lower than 894922 pesos is included in the poor faction of the population.

By 2015, the percentage of monetary poverty was 27.8%. This figure has decreased in the last two years. However, the monetary poverty rate continues to be alarming.

On the other hand, the National Administrative Department of Statistics indicated that the value of the extreme poverty line is $ 408,436. The percentage of people living in extreme poverty was 8% for 2015.

Finally, there is the multidimensional poverty index, which refers to five dimensions: (1) educational conditions of the home, (2) conditions of childhood and youth, (3) work, (4) health and access to utilities, and (5) housing conditions.

According to the Department, the multidimensional poverty rate was 20.2% in 2015.

4- Discrimination

In 2011, the Colombian State enacted a law against racial, gender, religion, and sexual orientation discrimination, among others.

A law against feminicide was even created, the sentence of which is from 21 to 50 years, without the possibility of appealing to the reduction of the sentence.

However, there are still cases of discrimination, the most frequent being those that involve unequal treatment of women.

On the other hand, there are isolated cases of discrimination in terms of religion, with the Jewish community being one of the most affected.

5- Drug addiction

Drug addiction is a problem that mainly affects Colombian youth. The increase in the drug addiction rate in Colombia is largely due to the fact that the State has controlled drug trafficking abroad, which makes the producers of these hallucinogenic substances look for alternatives in the country's internal market.

The majority of the Colombian population that uses drugs is between 10 and 24 years of age. The most commonly used narcotics are cocaine, cannabis, heroin and some prescription drugs.

Drug use is a problem that not only affects the health of individuals but also aggravates other social problems, such as delinquency, school dropouts, unemployment, among others.

6- Juvenile delinquency

Between 2011 and 2014, between 60 and 70 minors were detained daily for having committed various crimes, which included but were not limited to the consumption of narcotics, damage to public infrastructure, theft and assaults.

In fact, crimes committed by young people constitute about 12% of criminal acts committed by the Colombian population in general.

These data are alarming since young people are the replacement generation. If juvenile delinquency continues in this way, the future of the country will be full of criminals.

7- Situation of human rights

Photo by Luis Cortes Martinez on Unsplash

The human rights situation in Colombia is the worst in the entire Western Hemisphere.

Despite the fact that the constitution of this State guarantees the basic rights of citizens (right to life, liberty, privacy, justice), the human rights reports in Colombia carried out by the Organization of the The United Nations shows that the country presents problems in the following areas:

- Integrity of human beings. Regarding the violation of the integrity of the person, there are cases of deprivation of life, forced disappearances of individuals and torture and other punishments within prisons and military installations.

- Corruption. With regard to corruption, this is a serious problem in the country. The most critical corruption cases include drug trafficking and the use of paramilitary forces.

- Discrimination.

8- Education

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The education and well-being of children and adolescents is usually one of the main concerns of Colombians. So far, the resources allocated to training are not enough to meet the needs of a good educational system.

The public offer is insufficient and private schools are quite expensive for the majority of citizens, so many minors are forced to give up having the most complete education possible.

For example, each year 300,000 students graduate who later cannot access higher education.

This causes research to stagnate or low-skilled people to join the job for their jobs. In the worst case, dropping out of school leads the young person to opt for cruder and less ethical ways to survive (crime, drug addiction, prostitution, etc.).

9- Gambling

Gambling is a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly entrenched in the Colombian population. They are, after Panama, the country that plays the most on the American continent.

From 2012 onwards, in Bogotá the number of casinos has increased from 450 to more than 600, although it is estimated that there are illegally more than 2,000 in the Colombian capital alone. In addition, it should be noted that the arrival of online betting houses has expanded the possibilities.

The problem lies in the fact that the majority of the players and bettors are from the lower class, which leads to economic instability that can put the whole family at risk.

There are more and more cases of people addicted to gambling - data indicate that between 5 and 19% of the population - and the average player is also increasingly younger.

10- Kidnappings

Kidnapping has been a stain in the recent history of Colombia. Since the 1970s, about 39,000 people have been abducted, reaching 10 cases a day in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Fortunately, the measures of the different governments in the XXI century managed to drastically reduce the figures. It went from 3,500 cases in 2000 to 170 in 2018.

The main cause of success was the negotiations with paramilitary groups and the FARC guerrillas, who were mainly responsible for most of the kidnappings during these decades.

However, the number still remains to be reduced and new challenges to be faced, such as finding many of the missing persons and doing justice to them.

Themes of interest

Social problems of Mexico.

Social problems of Peru.

Guatemala social problems.

References

1. Frydenberg (2001). Adolescence Cook with Social Issues. Retrieved on July 25, 2017, from u25-ostschweiz.ch
2. Colombia. Retrieved on July 25, 2017, from countrystudies.us
3. Issues in Colombia. Retrieved on July 25, 2017, from dem.tools
4. Corruption. Colombia's biggest problem is only getting worse, Recovered on July 25, 2017, from colombiareports.com
5. Colombia 2015, Human Rights Report (2015). Retrieved on July 25, 2017, from state.gov
6. An Assessment of the Issue and Poverty in Colombia. Retrieved on July 25, 2017, from borgenproject.org
7. Colombia poverty and inequality statistics. Retrieved on July 25, 2017, from colombiareports.com.