NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Geography Ch 4 Human Development

1. Choose the right answer from the four alternatives given below.

(i) Which one of the following best describes development?

(a) an increase in size

(b) a constant in size

(d) a simple change in the quality

► (c) a positive change in quality

(ii) Which one of the following scholars introduced the concept of Human Development?

(a) Prof. Amartya Sen

(b) Ellen C. Semple

(d) Ratzel

► (c) Dr Mahabub-ul-Haq

2. Answer the following questions in about 30 words.

(i) What are the three basic areas of human development?

Answer

The three basic areas of human development are:

• Access to resources

• Health

• Education

(ii) Name the four main components of human development?

Answer

The four main components of human development are:

• Equity

• Sustainability

• Productivity

• Empowerment

(iii) How are countries classified on the basis of human development index?

Answer

Countries are classified into three groups on the basis of human development index:

• Countries with High Index value: Countries who have a score of above 0.8 in HDI. This group includes 57 countries.

• Countries with Medium Index value: Countries who have a score between 0.5 upto 0.799 in HDI. This group includes 88 countries.

• Countries with Low Index value: Countries who have a score of below 0.5 in HDI. This group includes 32 countries.

3. Answer the following questions in not more than 150 words.

(i) What do you understand by the term human development?

Answer

• 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.

• People are central to all development under this concept. These choices are not fixed but keep on changing.

• The basic goal of development is to create conditions where people can live meaningful lives.

• A meaningful life is not just a long one. It must be a life with some purpose.

• This means that people must be healthy, be able to develop their talents, participate in society and be free to achieve their goals.

(ii) What do equity and sustainability refer to within the concept of human development?

Answer

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.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1.

How does the Human Development Index ranks the countries?

Answer:

The Human Development Index ranks the countries based on their performance in the key areas of health, education and access to resources. These ranking are based on a score between 0 to 1, that a country earns from it record in the key areas of human development. Each of these dimensions is given a weightage of 1 / 3. The HDI is the sum total of the weights assigned to all these dimensions. The closer a score is to 1, the greater is the level of human development.

Question 2.

What are the aspects of human development?

Answer:

Leading a long and healthy life, being able to gain knowledge and having enough means to be able to live a decent life are the most important aspects of human development. Therefore, access to resources, health and education are the key areas in human development.

Question 3.

Why are some people incapable of making the basic choices?

Answer:

Very often, people do not have the capability and freedom to make even basic choices. This may be due to their inability to acquire knowledge, their material poverty, social discrimination, inefficiency of institutions and other reasons. This prevents them from leading healthy lives being able to get educated or to have the means to live a decent life. Building people’s capabilities in the areas of health, education and access to resources is therefore, important in enlarging their choices. If people do not have capabilities in these areas, their choices also get limited. For example, an uneducated child cannot make the choice to be a doctor because her choice has got limited by her lack of education. Similarly, very often poor people cannot choose to take medical treatment for disease because their choice is limited by their lack of resources.

Question 4.

With examples show how the government expenditure on social sector is an indicator of human development in different area?

Answer:

The pattern of government expenditure on social sector is an important indicator of the level of human development in a particular region. The political environment of the country and the amount of freedom people have is also important. Countries with high levels of human development invest more in the social sectors and are generally free from political turmoil and instability. Distribution of the country’s resources is also far more equitable.

On the other hand, places with low levels of human development tend to spend more on defense rather than social sectors. This shows that these countries tend to be located in areas of political instability and have not been able to initiate accelerated economic development.

Long Answer Type Questions

Question 1.

Compare the social-economic conditions of the people in the countries with different human development levels.

Answer:

High level of human development group has 53 countries. Providing education and healthcare is an important government priority. Countries with higher human development are those where a lot of investment in the social sector has taken place. Altogether, a higher investment in people and good governance has set this group of countries apart from the others. Many of these countries have been the former imperial powers. The degree of social diversity in these countries is not very high. Many of the countries with a high human development score are located in Europe and represent the industrialized western world. Yet there are striking numbers of non-European countries also who have made it to this list.

Countries with medium levels of human development form the largest group. There are 42 countries in the medium level of human development. Most of these are countries which have emerged in the period after the Second World War. Some countries from this group were former colonies while many others have emerged after the break up of the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1990. Many of these countries have been rapidly improving their human development score by adopting more people-oriented policies and reducing social discrimination. Most of these countries have a much higher social diversity than the countries with higher human development scores. Many in this group have faced political instability and social uprisings at some point of time in their recent history.

As many as 43 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. There is an urgent need to address the human development requirements of this group through well thought out policies.

Question 2.

Explain the four pillars of human development.

Answer:

The idea of human development is supported by the concepts of equity, sustainability, productivity and 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. Yet this is veiy often not the case and happens in almost every society. For example, in any country, it is interesting to see which group the most of the school dropouts belong to. In India, a large number of women and persons belonging to socially and economically backward groups drop out of school. This shows how the choices of these groups get limited by not having access to knowledge.

A good example is about the importance of sending girls to school. If a community does not stress the importance of sending its girl children to school, many opportunities will be lost to these young women when they grow up. Their career choices will be severely curtailed and this would affect other aspects of their lives. So each generation must ensure the availability of choices and opportunities to its 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. Ultimately, it is people who are the real wealth of nations. Therefore, efforts to increase their knowledge, or provide better health facilities ultimately leads to better work efficiency.

Empowerment means to have the power to make choices. Such power comes from increasing freedom and capability. Good governance and people-oriented policies are required to empower people. The empowerment of socially and economically disadvantaged groups is of special importance.

Question 3.

What are the different approaches/ ways of looking at the problem of human development?

Answer:

Some of the important approaches of looking at human development are:

(a) Income Approach: This is one of the oldest approaches to human development. Human development is seen as being linked to income. The idea is that 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.

(b) Welfare Approach: This approach looks at human beings as beneficiaries or targets of all development activities. The approach argues for higher government expenditure on education, health, social secondary and amenities. People are not participants in development but only passive recipients. The government is responsible for increasing levels of human development by maximising expenditure on welfare.

(c) Basic Needs Approach: This approach was initially proposed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Six basic needs i.ehealth, education, food, water supply, sanitation, and housing were identified. The question of human choices is ignored and the emphasis is on the provision of basic needs of defined sections.

d) Capability 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.

Question 4.

“The Human Poverty index is more revealing than the Human Development Index”. Explain with examples,

Answer:

The human development index measures attainments in human development. It reflects what has been achieved in the key areas of human development. Yet it is not the most , reliable measure. This is because it does not say anything about the distribution. The human poverty index is related to the human development index. This , index measures the shortfall in human development. It is a non-income measure. 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. Often the human poverty index is more revealing than the human development index.

Looking at both these measures of human development together gives an accurate picture of the human development situation in a country.

The ways to measure human development are constantly being refined and newer ways of capturing different elements of human development are being researched. Researchers have found links between the level of corruption or political freedom in a particular region. There is also a discussion regarding a political freedom index and, a listing of the most corrupt countries.