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Human Development Dismal:URGENT NEED FOR CORRECTIVES, by T.D. Jagadesan,28 January 2008 Print E-mail

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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