HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

IN
INDIA
UNDP in its Human Development Report (1997) describes human
development as “the process of widening people’s choices and the level of
well being they achieve are at the core of the notion of human
development.”

The Human Development Report 1990 presents three measures; Human

Development Index (HDI), Gender Development Index (GDI) and Human
Poverty Index (HPI)
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX (HDI)
• Human Development Index aims to measure achievements in various
sectors such as education, health, income enhancement etc.

• Measures the average achievement in three basic parameters

 A long and healthy life
 Acquisition of Knowledge
 Decent standard of living as measured by GDP per capita (PPP $)
• The HDR 2014 has categorized countries into four groups
1. HDI range 0.8 and above are Very High Human Development Nations
2. HDI range 0.7 to 0.8 are High Human Development Nations
3. HDI range 0.5 to 0.7 are Medium Human Development Nations
4. HDI range less than 0.5 are Low Human Development Nations

The data had been collected for 187 countries with India having HDI
0.647, (Male HDI 0.692, Female HDI 0.574), all figures for 2019-2020 and
falling under the category of Medium Human Development Nations
• Nations in Very High Category include United States, Canada, Japan
• Nations in High Category include Russia, Sri Lanka, China
• Nations in Medium Category include Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan
• Nations in Low Category include Nigeria, Niger
• India has managed to improve its HDI from 0.412 in 1980 to 0.647 in 2020
• India ranked 135th in HDI in 2013
• India’s ranking improved to 130th amongst the 187 countries
• Currently it is ranked 129th
GENDER DEVELOPMENT INDEX (GDI)/ GENDER INEQUALITY INDEX (GII)
• Newly introduced index in 2010
• Outlines disadvantages for women in four areas; reproductive health,
education, empowerment and labour market
• Highlights the losses in human development due to inequalities between
men and women
• Index ranges from 0 to 1 with every increase depicting poor treatment of
women
• Out of 187 countries, India has a GDI of 0.829 (2019-2020) with GII of 0.509
(2019-2020)
• China is ranked 91st with a GDI of 0.719, rank 1 is enjoyed by Norway with
GDI of 0.944

HUMAN POVERTY INDEX (HPI)

• Introduced in the year 1997 under the Human Development Report, it
concentrates on degree of deprivation of three essential elements of
human life; longevity, knowledge and standard of living and measured by
the percentage of population earning below US $ 1.25 per day
• The first category is represented by calculating percentage of people
expected to die before attaining 40 years of age
• The second is measured in terms of adults who are illiterate
• The third relates to deprivation in terms of standard of living. It is
represented by composite of three variables; health services, safe
drinking water availability and percentage of malnourished children
below 5 years of age
• One problem related to using human poverty index is that the use of
same poverty line for different countries can be rather misleading
• The minimum income needed to escape social estrangement is different
for all countries
• India has an HPI of 0.282
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX
FOR
VARIOUS STATES IN INDIA
• As per the studies conducted on HDI, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil
Nadu and Haryana are the top five states.
• The bottom five states include Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar
Pradesh and Bihar
• In the middle range are Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh,
and Assam
• As per the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) the HDI of Kerala is
62.8 and that of Bihar is 34.0
• As per the Human Development Report, HDI provides a summary or an
“approximate picture” and is not a comprehensive measure of HD
• As per the National Human Development Report 2011 from 0.381 in 1991
to 0.547 in 2011 India's HDI as been continuously improving
• As per the NHDR for the past two decades, states like Punjab,
Maharashtra, Haryana and Tamil Nadu have HDI above 0.50
• States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa have HDI less
than 0.40 with the first three being the tail enders in HDI race
• There also appears to be a sharp variation in rural urban disparity in HDI
• States which show low urban rural HDI disparity (less than 1.25) Kerala,
Goa, Pondicherry, Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar islands, Manipur and
Lakshadweep
• States with high urban rural HDI disparity (1.50 and above) include
Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Rajasthan, Madhya
Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
• Urbanization is considered to be a major factor promoting human
development
• The share of urban population has been continuously increasing and
reached 27.8% in 2001 and moved up further to 32.2% in 2015, currently,
India has an urban population of 34% (2019-2020)
• In terms of proportion of children in total population, those below 15
years of age were 348 million in 2001 and came down to 345 million in
2015. By 2026, it is expected to further come down to 23.3%
• Population between 15-64 years of age is 903.1 million (2019-2020)
• In terms of total world population, India’s share is 1/6th whereas in terms
of number of illiterates, her share is 1/3rd
• Life expectancy has shown continuous improvement from 50.7 years in
1970-75 to 66 years in 2000-07. It is 69.4 in 2020 (UNDP)
• The Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births) is 32 (2019-2020)
• However, 46% of children under five years of age are underweight
• Government expenditure on education is 3.8% of the GDP (2019-2020)
• The adult literacy rate in India is 69.3% (2019-2020)
• Primary school drop out rate is 12.3% (2019-2020)
• In terms of skilled labour force, 17.6% of the total work force is skilled
(2019-2020)
• Percentage of population using improved drinking water sources is 93%
(2019-2020)
• Percentage of population using improved sanitation facilities is 60%
(2019-2020)
• Percentage of population with access to electricity in rural areas is
89.3% (2019-2020)
• Total percentage of internet users in India is 34.5% (2019-2020)
 POPULATION GROWTH
AS A
FACTOR OF
ECONOMIC DEVELOPEMENT
1. Population Growth and National and Per Capita Income
• It is expected that population growth is likely to decline further in the
coming decades
• Consequently, the per capita income is expected to rise
• A high growth rate of population is a retarding factor for improvements
in per capita income

2. Population and Food Supply

• The per capita cultivated area in India has been on a gradual decline
• Between 1921 to 2001, the cultivated area per capita dropped from
1.11 acres to 0.32 acres, indicating a fall of 71%
• The total food output increased from 82 million tones to 235 million
tones from 1961 to 2011.
• However, correspondingly, the population increased from 439 million
to 1210 million, an increase of 176%
• The per capita output of food grains increased from 512 grams to 532
grams, a marginal increase
• It is important to note that major part of population growth takes
place in the rural areas
• It signifies an increase in the share of family consumption in total
production with lesser amounts left as marketable surplus
3. Population and Unemployment
• Rising population is accompanied by a rise in labour force
• The unemployment rate in India has increased from 6% in 1993-94 to
7.32% in 1999-2000
• The same has been at 8.3% in 2020, (Urban 9.7%, Rural 7.7%)
• As per the Approach Paper of the 11th Plan, the five year plans were not
able to absorb the net addition in unemployment backlog
• The problem of unemployment is set to become even more grave in the
coming years
• A significant proportion of resources shall have to be diverted towards
employment generation activities to ease the situation
4. Population and Burden of Education, Medical Care and Housing
• Rising population is an added burden on a country’s resources
• Government expenditure on education is 3.8% of the GDP (2019-2020)
• This is considered to be low because as per the Education Commission it
should have increased to 6% of the GDP
• India spends just about 0.9% of its GDP on public health expenditure
• This specifically impacts the poor who cannot afford medical
expenditures
• There is a dire need to increase the public health expenditure to 2-3% of
the GDP
5. Increase in Population and Capital Formation
• In order to maintain the pace of development, the national income must
grow at the same pace as the growth of population
• This requires continuous capital investment
• The capital output ratio at present is 4:1
• The rate of growth of population being around 1.5%
• This implies a capital accumulation of the order of 6.2% would be
necessary