Events & Issues
New Delhi, 28 January 2008
Human Development Dismal
URGENT NEED FOR
CORRECTIVES
By T.D. Jagadesan
The UNDP’s Human Development Report is one of the most
eagerly awaited among the numerous reports published by the United Nations and
its agencies every year. During the last few years, the Human Development
Indicator (HDI) tables included in such reports have gained great acceptability
among the member countries because of the credibility of the data and fairness in analysis.
The HDI is a composite index assessing human development on three important criteria,
namely, a long and healthy life, access
to good education and reasonably good standard of living. The report provides
reliable information collected through a network of field agencies about life
expectancy at birth, enrolment in primary, secondary and higher education and the
Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) per capita in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
dollars. It provides a wide range of useful data.
Based on the data collected and analysed, UN member
countries are ranked according to their achievements in human development and
this ranking becomes for the ordinary citizens an easy guide to assess the
performance of their respective Governments.
The Human Development Report for 2007 which was released in New Delhi in the second
week of December last, focused on the issue
of climate change, and therefore, the attention of the people was mainly
centred on the implications of climate change on development.
We, in India,
have particularly to take serious note of the fact that on the criterion of
human development, our country ranks 128 in the list of 177 countries of the
world covered by the survey. A disturbing feature about this low ranking is
that India
has come two places down on its ranking from 2006.
One may argue that slipping two places is not so serious a
matter to worry about, but the fact that India has been at the 128th
rank even in 2000 is certainly a matter of great concern, particularly because,
of late, we have been talking too much about “India Shining”, “Rising India”
and about India being one of the fastest growing economies of the world”.
While we take credit for the fast rate of growth of the GDP,
we seem to be over looking the fact that on the index of human development, India is in the
lowest bracket of 50 countries covered by the UNDP survey. The country has no
doubt made some progress in life
expectancy, enrolment in education and the GDP per capita, but other countries
have also registered progress and
some have shown much better progress
than India.
Take for comparison two Asian countries, China, a country with which we love to make
comparisons, and Sri Lanka,
a small country which had gained independence at the same time as India.
According to the HDI, China
ranks 81 and Sri Lanka 99, as against India’s 128.
Besides, life expectancy at birth in China is 72.5 years, in Sri Lanka 71.6 while in India it is
63.7 years. The GDP per capita in terms
of the Purchasing Power Parity is $ 67.57 in China,
$ 45.95 in Sri Lanka and
only $ 34.52 in India.
We seem to be carried away by the 9 per cent growth rate of the
GDP. However, the GDP growth can be determinant of development only if it is
shared equitably by all sections of the people. Certainly, we cannot derive
much satisfaction from the growth rate of the GDP when more than a quarter of
the population in our country still lives in abject poverty.
If in spite of our oft-proclaimed good intentions to
eradicate poverty among the masses
and our allocating a fairly large share of public funds for human development
programmes, we find ourselves stationary at the low rank of 128.
According to observers, clearly, something is radically
wrong, either in our strategies for planning or in the contents and relevance
of the programmes we have adopted for human development. Or can it be that the
fault is not with our strategies for development or in the relevance of the
programmes, but in their implementation of the field level.
The all-pervading corruption in our society, particularly in
the public administration sector, has often been identified as the main cause
for the failure in the benefits of the development process
reaching the sections of the people which need them most. Perhaps, all these
are causes for the country’s poor record in human development.
Unfortunately, instead of making honest attempts at
corrective action, everyone is engaged in the easy game of throwing the blame
on the other. Politicians blame the bureaucrats for the laxity in the implementation
and for corruption, while the bureaucrats accuse the politicians of the same
crimes. Both politicians and the bureaucrats blame those engaged in industry
and business as the source of
corruption. While they, in turn, accuse the politicians and the bureaucrats as
being obstructionists in their paths.
In the bustle and din of the exercise of shifting the blame
for the unsatisfactory achievement in human development, very little attention is
being paid to the share of the responsibility of the Planning Commission for this poor record.
In sum, it is time that the Planning Commission, as the main agency for the formulation of
strategies, plans and programmes and also for monitoring their implementation,
turns the searchlight inside and comes up with bold suggestions for improving
its own role in achieving the goals of human development ---- quickly and satisfactorily. ----INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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