INDIA continues to rank among the world’s least developed countries in the 1994 Human Development Report (HDR), an influential survey of the world’s 173 countries carried out by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Since 1990, when the UNDP re- leased its first HDR, India’s ranking has shown a downward drift except once when its position went up. In 1990 India was placed at number 94, then 123 (1991), 121 (1992), 134 (1993) and this year, it has gone down to 135.
The report employs three criteria for assessment of the development of a country. The resulting Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite measure of longevity (measured by life expectancy). knowledge (a combined estimate of adult literacy and mean years of schooling) and standard of living (Purchasing) power based on the per person real gross domestic product which is adjusted for the local cost of living)
This index has come in for a lot of criticism from all quarters and is being dubbed a “flawed” one. Given the myriad variables that determine social welfare and human well-being, the HDI is not comprehensive.
Even the HDR ’94 identifies various new indicators of human development. It says the absence of arms is not the only indicator of insecurity. Food, job and income insecurity, human rights violations, religious or ethnic conflicts inequity and military spending also play a major role and affect human development. Human development is the most productive in- vestment a society can make. The principal author of the HDR, former Pakistan Finance Minister Mahbub-ul-Haq, says that the search for human security lies in development, not in arms.
There are bound to be divergent views on the strengths and weak- nesses of computing the HDI. In a characteristic knee-jerk response of a Third World despot the Sultan of Oman ordered the closure of the UNDP office in his country when he saw what the report said about Oman’s record on human development last year. This year the German Government is threatening the UNDP with a cut in funding because the report shows that Germany’s performance in development cooperation is poor.
The US Government was upset with a very low rank it had originally secured and protested to the UNDP. When told this was caused by a low literacy rate, the US government quickly ordered a reexamination of its literacy data which pushed the USA up to the eighth position.
However, though the index amounts to a broad generalization and does not reflect the qualitative product which is adjusted for the local cost of living)
This index has come in for a lot of criticism from all quarters and is being dubbed a “flawed” one. Given the myriad variables that determine social welfare and human well-being, the HDI is not comprehensive.
Even the HDR ’94 identifies various new indicators of human development. It says the absence of arms is not the only indicator of insecurity. Food, job and income insecurity, human rights violations, religious or ethnic conflicts inequity and military spending also play a major role and affect human development. Human development is the most productive in- vestment a society can make. The principal author of the HDR, former Pakistan Finance Minister Mahbub-ul-Haq, says that the search for human security lies in development, not in arms.
There are bound to be divergent and culture-specific aspects of development, there is no room for complacency.
The fact that there are only 38 countries which are worse off than India should provoke introspection rather than self-justification. Because whatever the response of governments and people, the HDR is not ignored. And now when India is opening up its economy its image in the world can make all the difference.
While it can be argued that the lumping of nations in various stages of development is not just and leaves the method of comparison open to question, India ranks even below its neighbors – Sri Lanka (90), Myanmar (130) and Pakistan (132).
And contrast the position with South Korea, Malaysia and Thai- land which have made a double jump since 1960- they have risen from the ranks of countries with low HDI to those of high HDL. Rather than agonizing about specific country rankings, the index should be used to examine qualitative changes one half of the population is still illiterate and al- most 40 per cent live in poverty. We have lagged behind a lot and have a substantial catching up to do.
Now into the third year of its structural adjustment programmed, India must reassess the impact that its economic policies of the last decade have had on human development indicators and address these issues directly.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 9, 1994
