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Graham Room, social exclusion is defined as:

'in relation to the social rights of citizensa€|to a certain basic standard of living and to participating in the major social and occupational opportunities of the society.' (Room, 1992:64)

Similarly for Duffy, social exclusion is an

'Inability to participate effectively in economic, social, political and cultural life; alienation and distance from the mainstream society'. (Duffy, 1995:35)

According to both authors, social exclusion is an obstacle for human development as the individual's has limited or no participation in the societal sphere. Beall and Piron regard social exclusion as being founded on social relations. It is concerned with the excluded as well as the excluder, thereby putting power at the centre of analysis. It is a feature of social structure of societies in which recurrent patterns of social relationships deny individuals and groups access to goods, services and activities and resources which are associated with citizenship (ESCWA, 2007). It can thus be said that human rights are denied due to social exclusion.

Social exclusion brings in the feeling of being left behind and the inability to take charge of one's life. It refers to a process of social disintegration, a progressive rupture of the relationship between the individual and the mainstream. Somehow, it is multi-dimensional, it is thus difficult to define it and measure it precisely. According to Walker and Walker, it may refer to the dynamic process of being shut out fully or partially from any of the social, political, economic and cultural system which determines the social integration of a person in society (Walker & Walker, 1997).

The concept of social exclusion plays a valuable role in broadening the debate about what constitute a good quality of life to include more than purely material considerations (Haralambos & Holborn, 2000). In other words, social exclusion is a form of poverty but encompasses more than just material concerns and may take the forms of powerlessness, deprivation, vulnerability and voicelessness. Bohn believes that concepts such as exclusion-confinement, social closure, surnuméraire, precarilization, affiliation and non-affiliation are the various terms linked to exclusion (Born, 2008). The author added that exclusion touches the interface between the social system and the person. Exclusion may be either regarded as self-exclusion, that is the choice of the person to exclude himself or social exclusion, which is exclusion from the social system.

Theoretical concepts of social exclusion
Exclusion results from social closure where institutions and cultural distinctions monopolize scarce resources and create boundaries (ESWA, 2007). It is a multidimensional process where aspects of social disadvantage intersect. Social disadvantage includes:

Social identity such as race, ethnicity, caste, religion, gender and age

Social location such as remote areas, stigmatized areas, war and conflict areas

Social status, including the health situation (disability, illness of HIV/AIDS and other stigmatized diseases, migrant status including refugees), occupation and livelihood.

Culture of poverty
For those people who feel of being excluded of social life, they have not been able to keep pace with development. Being unable