Human Development is an approach that is focused on creating fair opportunities and choices for all people. Human Development revolves around three basic foundations, that is, to live a healthy and productive life, to be knowledgeable and to have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living. The better the working conditions and equality among the employees, the better is the productivity. .
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical tool used to measure a country's overall achievement in its social and economic dimensions. These dimensions can be based on the health of people, their level of education attainment and their standard of living. The concept of human development was introduced by Mahbubul Haq. Sen (1989) has greatly influenced international organizations such as the United National Development Programme (UNDP), International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank. Over the years, he introduced innovative solutions to help underdeveloped countries cope with social problems like poverty, famine, gender inequality, human rights and biased liberalism. The formula for calculating the Human Development Index is given by:
HDI = 1/3(Life expectancy Index) + 1/3(Education Index /Literacy Index) + 1/3( Gross National Income Per Capita Index)
The HDI data is regularly published by the United Nations Development Programme. It is about providing people with opportunities. The process of development – human development - should at least create an environment for people, individually and collectively, to develop to their full potential and to have a reasonable chance of leading productive and creative lives that they value.
The differences across the world in terms of HDI is very large. Starting from the highest values in North America, Europe, Japan, and Oceania to the lowest in central Africa. Now speaking about India and analyzing the 2019 report published by the UNDP, we notice-
According to the 2019 Human Development Report India’s rank rose by one position, that is, it is at 129th out of the 189 countries. Inequality and deprivation continue to be high in the country. India’s HDI for 2018 improved to 0.647 compared to 0.640 the year before. It was reported that despite lifting up around 271 million people out of poverty between 2005-2015, India still owns around 28% of the world’s poor and needy.
The annual report on HDI ranks India at the 129th position which is a slight improvement from the previous year. However, India remains the home of 364 million poor people (28 percent), out of a global population of the 1.3 billion. Around 661 million of these poor people live in Asia and the Pacific.
Between 1990 and 2018, India’s HDI value has risen by 50 per cent (from 0.431 to 0.647), which places it above the average for countries in the medium human development group (0.634). We are very well addressed to the fact that HDI components have equal contribution is raising the Human Development Index. In other words, an increase in all the 3 components will lead to a rise the HDI value of a country. Therefore, after glancing through the reports it was noticed that the life expectancy at birth in India increased by 11.6 years, whereas the average number of schooling years increased by 3.5 years. Per capita incomes increased 250 times. Despite all these efforts India still remains in the medium HDI group, while countries like US, China and Singapore fall into the high HDI group.
It is very clear that there are several other areas which need proper attention. It has been noticed that group-based inequalities persist especially affecting women and girls. The report states that as the number of people coming out of poverty is increasing, the world is veering towards another type of poverty based on technology, education and climate, according to the report. India has both types of poverty. Some Indians do not have proper access to healthcare and education while some are becoming poor based on the new criteria.
India’s development initiatives like the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana focusing on financial inclusion and Ayushman Bharat focusing on universal health care are crucial in ensuring that we meet the needs and fulfill the Prime Minister’s vision of development for all.
The current levels of human development in India are extremely low for many reasons such as finance, education, gender inequality and many more. These have caused many concerning effects on India’s society. In terms of causes that affected human development in India as a whole, there aren’t many, but they affect India at very high levels.
One includes the presences of the caste system in India. The separation and classification of various Indian societies by socio-economic status has resulted in many becoming disadvantaged, and having low levels of education, health and income within their society As a result, individuals suffer greatly due to this and ultimately the reducing the human development index as a whole.
Another cause of low levels of human development includes the lack of socioeconomic safety nets. One of the major reasons why India still lags behind is because it does not have ‘socioeconomic safety nets’ for the urban poor. Socioeconomic safety nets are transfer programs with the aim of preventing the poor from falling below a certain poverty level. India does not have these transfer programs and as a result many people are subjected to very extreme levels of poverty. Basic needs are missing among these people, and they live extremely difficult lives.
How we tackle these problems, ranging from access to basic services such as housing to things like access to quality university education, will ensure the ability of the entire nation to achieve the Development Goals. Focus on education, nutrition and health, and service skills can help in expanding human capital and provide for constant progress which in turn will improve HDI. We know that Human Development is an index indicating the development of the country. Hence, it is now the duty of the government to step in and take all the necessary actions so as to raise India’s human development and make India at par with the other developing and developed nations.
Unfortunately, the year 2020 has been a huge shock to the Indian economy. The scale of the economic damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic will be far greater than that caused by the 2008 global financial crisis, globally as well as for India.
While, dealing with the after-effects of Covid-19 will be a major challenge for the next few years. Hence, the government has to bring effective as well as appropriate strategies to help India fight this battle.
- Komal Wahi for Ecobuzz
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