Human Development
Growth and Development
• Both growth and development refer to changes over a period of time.
• The difference is that growth is quantitative and value neutral while Development means a qualitative change which is always value positive.
• Growth means that the change may be either positive or negative while Development occurs when positive growth takes place.
• The concept of human development was introduced by Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq. Dr Haq has described human development as development that enlarges people’s choices and improves their lives.
• Access to resources, health and education are the key areas in human development.
• Building people’s capabilities in the areas of health, education and access to resources is therefore, important in enlarging their choices.
The Fourth Pillars of Human Development
• The four main components of human development are:
→ Equity
→ Sustainability
→ Productivity
→ Empowerment
• Equity refers to making equal access to opportunities available to everybody. The opportunities available to people must be equal irrespective of their gender, race, income and in the Indian case, caste.
• Sustainability means continuity in the availability of opportunities. To have sustainable human development, each generation must have the same opportunities. All environmental, financial and human resources must be used keeping in mind the future. Misuse of any of these resources will lead to fewer opportunities for future generations.
• Productivity means human labour productivity or productivity in terms of human work. Such productivity must be constantly enriched by building capabilities in people.
• Empowerment means to have the power to make choices. Such power comes from increasing freedom and capability. The empowerment of socially and economically disadvantaged groups is of special importance.
Approaches to Human Development
• The important approaches to Human Development are:
→ The income approach: This approach states, the level of income reflects the level of freedom an individual enjoys. Higher the level of income, the higher is the level of human development.
→ The welfare approach: This approach states the government is responsible for providing basic facilities like health, education and amenities to people.
→ Minimum needs approach: In this approach, emphasis is on providing six basic needs i.e. health, education, food, water supply, ” sanitation and housing.
→ Capabilities approach: This approach is associated with Prof. Amartya Sen. Building human capabilities in the areas of health, education and access to resources is the key to increasing human development.
Measuring Human Development
• The human development index (HDI) ranks the countries based on their performance in the key
areas of health, education and access to resources.
• These rankings are based on a score between 0 to 1 that a country earns from its record in the key areas of human development.
• The indicator chosen to assess health is the life expectancy at birth.
• The adult literacy rate and the gross enrolment ratio represent access to knowledge.
• Access to resources is measured in terms of purchasing power (in U.S. dollars).
• The human development index is a sum total of the weights assigned to all these dimensions. The closer a score is to one, the greater is the level of human development.
• The human poverty index is related to the human development index. This index measures the shortfall in human development.
• The probability of not surviving till the age of 40, the adult illiteracy rate, the number of people who do not have access to clean water, and the number of small children who are underweight are all taken into account to show the shortfall in human development in any region.
• Since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been publishing the Human Development Report every year. The Human Development index and the Human Poverty index are two important indices to measure human development used by the UNDP.
• Bhutan is the only country in the world to officially proclaim the Gross National Happiness (GNH) as the measure of the country’s progress. GNH encourages us to think of the spiritual, non-material and qualitative aspects of development.
International Comparisons
• Size of the territory and per capita income are not directly related to human development.
• Countries can be classified into four groups on the basis of the human development scores earned by them.
| Level of Human Development | Score in Development Index | Number of Countries |
|---|---|---|
| Very High | above 0.800 | 59 |
| High | between 0.701 up to 0.799 | 53 |
| Medium | between 0.550 up to 0.700 | 39 |
| Low | below 0.549 | 38 |
• According to the Human Development Report of 2018, very high human development index group includes 59 countries.
• High level of human development group has 53 countries. Countries with higher human development are those where a lot of investment in the social sector has taken place.
• There are 39 countries in the medium level of human development. Most of these are countries which have emerged in the period after the Second World War. Many of these countries have been rapidly improving their human development score by adopting more people-oriented policies and reducing social discrimination.
• 38 countries record low levels of human development. A large proportion of these are small countries which have been going through political turmoil and social instability in the form of civil war, famine or a high incidence of diseases.
|
History – Themes
in Indian History |
||
|
Pol
Science – Contemporary World Politics |
||
|
– Politics
in India since Independence |
||
|
Geography – Indian
People and Economy |
||
|
|
|
|
|
– Fundamental of Human Geography |
||
|
Chapter 1: - Population: Distribution, Density, Growth
and Composition |
||
|
Chapter 12: - Geographical Perspective on Selected
Issues and Problems |
||
