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While India is a high-growth economy, the benefits have been unequally shared and there is a large human development backlog. Around 28% of the population, some 320 million people live below the poverty line and three-quarters of the poor in rural areas, according to the latest Human Development Report
India has dropped two places, to 128, in the Human Development Index (HDI) 2007 out of 177 countries, despite a marginal gain in points given by the index and steady improvements over the past 30 years, simply because other countries have performed better. While Pakistan has also slipped one place since 2006, from 135 to 136, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, also ranked below India, have improved their placing in the latest United Nations annual development ranking, released on November 27. But the real surprise in the region is Sri Lanka -- the highest placed South Asian nation -- whose ranking in this year's HDI has fallen dramatically, from 84 to 99. The biggest overall change in this year's HDI, released as part of the UN Development Programme's annual Human Development Report (HDR) is that Iceland has ended Norway's six-year reign at the top of the development rankings. The bottom strata of the worldwide rankings remains largely the same with many countries in sub-Saharan Africa figuring among the last 20.Twenty-two countries -- all in sub-Saharan Africa -- fall into the category of "low human development" according to the report. In 10 of these countries, two children in five will not reach the age of 40; in the case of Zambia that figure rises to one child in two. By contrast, amongst the top 20 countries, only in Denmark and the United States will fewer than nine children in 10 reach the age of 60. Introduced with the first HDR in 1990, the HDI assesses the state of human development through life expectancy, adult literacy and school enrolment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level, along with income, based on the most recent reliable data from UN partners and other official sources. Due to shifts in how countries report the statistics from which the rankings are calculated, the index is subject to regular adjustments. The rankings are compiled on the basis of data from two years ago. While 177 countries were ranked in the 2007 index, 17 countries that are UN member states, including Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq, have been excluded from the 2007 list due to lack of sufficient reliable data. This year's HDR, titled 'Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a Divided World', attempts to explain what climate change means for the world's 2.6 billion who survive on less than two dollars a day. "We wanted to bring a distinctive human development analytical framework to the problem, and what came out of the analysis is that we are dealing with a systemic threat to development to which there is no obvious historical precedent and no parallel," lead author Kevin Watkins said ahead of the Human Development Report 2007/2008 (HDR 2008) release. The report warns that climate change may actually reverse the trend of the steady linear progress in health, education, sanitation and poverty reduction seen in the last few decades. This is especially so in India with a "large human development deficit". HDR 2008 illustrates this through a number of examples: for instance, during a flood in the 1970s, Indian women were 19% less likely to have attended primary school. "While India is a high-growth economy, the benefits have been unequally shared and there is a large human development backlog. Around 28% of the population, some 320 million people live below the poverty line and three-quarters of the poor in rural areas. Superimposing incremental climate change risks on this large human development deficit would compromise the ambition of inclusive growth set out in India's Eleventh Five-Year Plan," warns the report. Even within the country, disparities are widening. The emergence of India as a high-growth economy, with per capita incomes rising at an average of 4%-5% since the mid-90s, has created enormous opportunities for accelerated human development. But the growth has not produced poverty reduction and improvements in nutrition. About 500 million people in the country do not have access to electricity. India's progress in basic human development indicators has been consistent over the past 15 years, says the report. The country has improved in all underlying indicators between 1990 and 2005. During this period, life expectancy at birth has increased by more than four years, GDP per capita has doubled, and both the adult literacy rate and combined gross enrolment ratio has grown by about 12 percentage points. This has resulted in cumulative improvements in HDI value for India, says Human Development Report 2007. India's value this year, based on 2005 data, is 0.619. In 2006, India ranked 126 out of 177 countries with a value of 0.611 which was based on 2004 data. India's gains in the current HDI have come from updated GDP per capita and the more recent gross enrolment data -- both are higher in 2005. Gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary education has gone up from 62% to 63.8%. On the minus side, its 2007 HDI of 0.619 is above the regional average of 0.611 for South Asia but far below the 0.691 for developing countries. India stands at 62 in the Human Poverty Index (HPI) among the 108 developing countries. HPI represents people living on an earning of below one dollar per day. Brazil and China, which often draw comparisons with India, have both performed well in the 2007 HDI, improving their positions over last year. Brazil now stands at rank 70 compared to 74 in 2000, while China has zoomed up to 81 from 99 in 2000. While India has performed better in the HDI than Nepal and Pakistan, since 1990, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are significantly ahead at 99 and 100 respectively in this year's rankings. With the exception of Pakistan, all its South Asian neighbours ranked below it have improved their standings since 2006 -- Bhutan an impressive nine places from 142 to 133, Bangladesh up six places to 140, and Nepal from 144 to 142. Source: The Indian Express, November 28, 2007
Hindustan Times, November 28, 2007
www.googlenews.com, November 28, 2007
www.undp.org, November 27, 2007
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