Human Development - Newskarnataka
The United Nations Development programme (UNDP) has brought out an annual report on the state of Human Development every year since 1990. The Programme assesses Human Development on the basis of three parameters — long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.
For this purpose the statistics that are taken into account are life expectancy at birth, mean years of education among the adult population, the expected years of schooling for children of school entry age and the gross national income in 
2011 international dollars, converted using purchasing power parity rates.
Sadly, the annual report 2014 -15 is not very encouraging for India, as the report’s statistics indicate that India is unlikely to achieve its own millennium development goals, for which the achievement deadline is next year end.
India follows the MDGs framework accepted by the Government of India which was developed on the basis of 2003 UNDG (United Nations Development Group) guidelines. Its eight MDG’s are as follows:
1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
4. Reduce Child Mortality
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability
8. Develop Global Partnership for Development
The report commends India its progress, but laments the slow rate of progress, giving rise to pessimism about the achievement of these millennium goals. Since the goals were adopted in 2003, the UPA government which was in power at the center for the last 10 years, must take the blame for the poor showing.
The report is also a report on India’s failure to lift its people out of misery. The report indicates that while India’s gross national income is the highest in the region, it ranks significantly lower on the HDI than some countries of the region While its ranking remains unchanged at 135 out 187 which is marginally lower than Bangladesh (142) and Pakistan (146), countries with smaller economies / geographically smaller SAARC countries like Sri Lanka (73) and Maldives (103) have done better on this very important index, an indicator of good governance.
Even as India moves to create a new economic world order as a signatory to the creation of a new Brics bank, it must be noted that the pomp and show that India put up at Rio de janerio in Brazil earlier this month cannot hide the fact of India’s poor human development record - Russia, Brazil and China are in the high HDI category with rankings of 57, 79 and 91 respectively.
Other significant findings of the report are:
Life expectancy in India is the lowest in the region (66.4 years)
Schooling – has the lowest mean years of schooling (4.4 years)
The report reintroduces a gender development index based on a sex-disaggregated HDI, defined as the ratio of the female HDI to the male HDI. GDI measures gender inequalities in achieving the three basic dimensions of human development indicated above. GDI was part of the report till 2010 but had then been taken out and is reintroduced.
The disparity in development between males and females is high, something that the government should be ashamed of: for males it was 0.627 — the highest in South Asia — its HDI for females was 0.519 — higher only than Pakistan. Yet we claim our society to be gender neutral in its development schemes.
Among 145 countries, India ranks 98 on inequality adjusted HDI, against 95 for Brazil and 45 for Russia.
In summary, the report states that India is moving in the right direction, but slowly. The report also suggests a six point agenda to the government if it is keen on improving its HDI ranking. It estimates that India can and should create a safety net that would include NREGA, universal primary health coverage, old age and disabled pensions and child benefits including the right to education and food security by spending a mere 4% of its GDP, something that is not unrealistic It also suggests that priority be attached to creating an ecologically sustainable energy and transport grid.
The other affordable solutions given in the report are universal basic services (including healthcare and education), targeting the three most vulnerable phases in a person’s life cycle (first 1,000 days of birth, when s/he enters the labour force and when s/he leaves it) full employment, inclusion and disaster preparedness.
These are life cycle risks that all endure, but the poor, women, minorities and the elderly are more vulnerable to these risks than the others and all safety nets must be skewed in their favour if it has to make a difference. The disabled especially in India, endure the highest risks.
The UN and the new government have been talking on these issues but the talks are yet to reach a conclusion pending finalization of the new Govt’s priorities and financial comfort. However the recent budget’s promises for the speedy development of the infrastructure sector on a PPP basis and a decision to sustain the UPA’s safety nets, albeit with modifications are certainly a step in the right direction.
2011 international dollars, converted using purchasing power parity rates.Sadly, the annual report 2014 -15 is not very encouraging for India, as the report’s statistics indicate that India is unlikely to achieve its own millennium development goals, for which the achievement deadline is next year end.
India follows the MDGs framework accepted by the Government of India which was developed on the basis of 2003 UNDG (United Nations Development Group) guidelines. Its eight MDG’s are as follows:
1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
4. Reduce Child Mortality
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability
8. Develop Global Partnership for Development
The report commends India its progress, but laments the slow rate of progress, giving rise to pessimism about the achievement of these millennium goals. Since the goals were adopted in 2003, the UPA government which was in power at the center for the last 10 years, must take the blame for the poor showing.
The report is also a report on India’s failure to lift its people out of misery. The report indicates that while India’s gross national income is the highest in the region, it ranks significantly lower on the HDI than some countries of the region While its ranking remains unchanged at 135 out 187 which is marginally lower than Bangladesh (142) and Pakistan (146), countries with smaller economies / geographically smaller SAARC countries like Sri Lanka (73) and Maldives (103) have done better on this very important index, an indicator of good governance.
Even as India moves to create a new economic world order as a signatory to the creation of a new Brics bank, it must be noted that the pomp and show that India put up at Rio de janerio in Brazil earlier this month cannot hide the fact of India’s poor human development record - Russia, Brazil and China are in the high HDI category with rankings of 57, 79 and 91 respectively.
Other significant findings of the report are:
Life expectancy in India is the lowest in the region (66.4 years)Schooling – has the lowest mean years of schooling (4.4 years)
The report reintroduces a gender development index based on a sex-disaggregated HDI, defined as the ratio of the female HDI to the male HDI. GDI measures gender inequalities in achieving the three basic dimensions of human development indicated above. GDI was part of the report till 2010 but had then been taken out and is reintroduced.
The disparity in development between males and females is high, something that the government should be ashamed of: for males it was 0.627 — the highest in South Asia — its HDI for females was 0.519 — higher only than Pakistan. Yet we claim our society to be gender neutral in its development schemes.
Among 145 countries, India ranks 98 on inequality adjusted HDI, against 95 for Brazil and 45 for Russia.
In summary, the report states that India is moving in the right direction, but slowly. The report also suggests a six point agenda to the government if it is keen on improving its HDI ranking. It estimates that India can and should create a safety net that would include NREGA, universal primary health coverage, old age and disabled pensions and child benefits including the right to education and food security by spending a mere 4% of its GDP, something that is not unrealistic It also suggests that priority be attached to creating an ecologically sustainable energy and transport grid.
The other affordable solutions given in the report are universal basic services (including healthcare and education), targeting the three most vulnerable phases in a person’s life cycle (first 1,000 days of birth, when s/he enters the labour force and when s/he leaves it) full employment, inclusion and disaster preparedness.
These are life cycle risks that all endure, but the poor, women, minorities and the elderly are more vulnerable to these risks than the others and all safety nets must be skewed in their favour if it has to make a difference. The disabled especially in India, endure the highest risks.
The UN and the new government have been talking on these issues but the talks are yet to reach a conclusion pending finalization of the new Govt’s priorities and financial comfort. However the recent budget’s promises for the speedy development of the infrastructure sector on a PPP basis and a decision to sustain the UPA’s safety nets, albeit with modifications are certainly a step in the right direction.
No comments:
Post a Comment