K.Kanagasabapathy
India is shining in one respect and if the current economic growth is
sustained, it is expected to become the world's third largest country by
2030. But, for real development of the country, the human side of
development in terms of reducing inequality, improving health and
education and enlarging and empowering women participation are equally
important.
The United Nations Study
The United Nations-Development Programme (UNDP) study on
human development index (HDI) was released on November 2, 2011. The HDI
is a measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions
of human development, such as a long and healthy life, access to
knowledge and a decent standard of living. The HDI measures the average
achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human
development. First, a long and healthy life, as measured by life
expectancy at birth. Second, knowledge, as measured by the adult
literacy rate. Third, a decent standard of living, as measured by Gross
National Income per capita based on purchasing power parity in terms of
the US dollar.
Despite some controversies surrounding these
calculations, HDI is considered by many to be an excellent tool for
measuring development, since both economic and social indicators are
covered.
How India fares
India ranked 134 out of 187 countries in terms of Human
Development Index in 2011. While ranking of any particular country is
not comparable over years because of changes in methodology and the
number of countries covered, between 1980 and 2011, India's HDI value
increased from 0.344 to 0.547 for 2011. This is no mean achievement. An
index below 0.5 is treated as low human development, and above 0.8 as
high human development and, in between, as medium human development.
India has moved from a low level to medium level of human development.
The 2011 report pointed that the country's HDI of 0.547
was, however, below the average of 0.630 for countries in the medium
human development group and below the average of 0.548 for countries in
South Asia.
An attempt is made here to see how India fares in terms
of certain key parameters, constituting HDI, among select countries, in
particular its neighbours such as China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
and Nepal.
The HDI of India is much lower than that of China and
Sri Lanka, but only a shade better than those of Pakistan, Bangladesh
and Nepal. If we take out the income element, that is the economic
element and consider only the social element in terms of ‘non-income
HDI', India's position improved from 0.547 to 0.568, but similar index
for other countries improved much more significantly. That would mean,
in terms of social dimensions, India relatively lagged behind these
countries. This is evident from studying some individual components of
certain social indicators (Table).
The life expectancy at birth at 65.4 years in India is
comparable to Pakistan, but turned out to be lower than those of
Bangladesh (68.9 years), Nepal ( 68.8 years), Sri Lanka (74.9 years) and
China (73.5 years).
The mean years of schooling at 4.4 years was lower than
even those of Pakistan and Bangladesh, but much worse compared with Sri
Lanka (8.2 years) and China (7.5 years).
It must, however, be added that in terms of expected
years of schooling, which measures the number of years of schooling that
a child of school entrance age can expect to receive if prevailing
patterns of age-specific enrolment rates persist throughout the child's
life, India stands out much better compared with Pakistan, Bangladesh
and Nepal, and also does not compare that unfavourably with other
countries.
This shows that education facilities that are made
available and expected to be made available in India would better take
care of the growing young population in the country and make them
skilled enough to reap the demographic dividend in the coming years.
What is most surprising is that as regards the gender
inequality index — which is a composite measure reflecting inequality in
achievements between men and women in three dimensions, namely
reproductive health, empowerment and labour markets — India turns out to
be the worst with an index of 0.617 (higher the ratio, higher is the
inequality). This compares unfavourably with Pakistan (0.573),
Bangladesh (0.550), Nepal (0.558) Sri Lanka (0.419) and China (0.209).
In terms of female labour force participation at 32.8
per cent, India fared better than Pakistan (21.7 per cent), but not so
with other countries: China (64.7 per cent), Sri Lanka (34.2 per cent),
Bangladesh (58.7 per cent) and Nepal (63.3 per cent).
The maternal mortality rate at 230 per lakh of live
births in India is worse and equally so in other compared countries with
the exception of China and Sri Lanka.
Policy Implication
In terms of improving education and health, while India
has not fared very poorly compared with some of its neighbours, policy
makers must pay serious attention to enlarging the role and
participation of women, besides empowering them and addressing concerns
such as maternal mortality.
India may have been ranked at 134 out of 187 countries, but has moved
from a low to medium level of human development since 1980. Gender
empowerment, however, needs to be addressed.
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