India ranks 134th in human development index

A UN study has ranked India at 134 out of 187 countries in terms of Human Development Index even as it has observed that life expectancy at birth in the country has increased by 10.1 per cent a year over the last two decades.
     
In the 2010 Human Development Report, prepared by UNDP, India had been ranked at 119 out of 169 countries. But the new report for 2011 says it is misleading to compare values and rankings with those of previously published reports, because the underlying data and methods have changed, as well as the number of countries included in the Human Development Index.
 
The report said India's Human Development Index (HDI) value for 2011 was 0.547 positioning the country in the 'medium human development category'.
 
Neighbouring Pakistan was ranked at 145 (0.504) and Bangladesh at 146 (0.500) respectively in terms of HDI.
 
It said Between 1980 and 2011, India's HDI value increased from 0.344 to 0.547, an increase of 59 per cent or an average annual increase of about 1.5 per cent.
 
However, the report pointed that the country's HDI of 0.547 was below the average of 0.630 for countries in the medium human development group and below the average of 0.548 for countries in South Asia.
 
The HDI is a measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development such as a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.
 
The report said the "mean" year of schooling for the country increased by 3.9 years between 1980 and 2011 and expected years of schooling increased by 3.9 years. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, who was present at the report release function, however, sounded dismissive about the figures in the report.
 
He said a better way of analysing the progress made by countries including India is to measure comparative success they have achieved on this count in the last few years from their previous record rather than by the number of their positions in the international chart.
 
Ramesh said such presentation of human development indices is "grossly misleading" and the country's progress in this respect should be seen from a 20-year perspective.
 
He said India has made huge strides in the field of education and water supply system but admitted that the biggest block in the human development indices for India is in the field of sanitation where 58 per cent of open defecation in the world takes place in India.
 
He also rued that a mere expenditure of Rs 2000 crore in the field of sanitation is being made while the budget for water supply was Rs 20,000 crore.
 
Ramesh said that the answer to the problem of sanitation is massive public investment in the sector on the lines of what the Central Government has done in education sector.

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, who was present at the function where the report was released, was dismissive about its observations, saying these were "grossly misleading" as the country's progress in respect of human development should be seen from a 20-year perspective.
 
The UN report says that between 1980 and 2011, India's life expectancy at birth increased by 10.1 years, mean years of schooling increased by 2.5 years and expected years of schooling increased by 3.9 years.
 
The country's HDI value for 2011 was 0.547, marking a 59 per cent increase from 0.344 in 1980 at an annual average of 1.5 per cent, it noted.
 
However, the report pointed that the country's HDI of 0.547 was below the average of 0.630 for countries in the medium human development group and below the average of 0.548 for countries in South Asia.
 
In terms of 'gender inquality index', the report highlights that in India, 10.7 per cent of Parliamentary seats are held by women and 26.6 per cent of adult women have reached a secondary or higher level of education compared to 50.4 per cent of their male counterparts.
 
For every 100,000 live births, 230 women die from pregnancy-related causes and the adolescent fertility rate is 86.3 births per 1000 live births.
 
Female participation in the labour market is 32.8 per cent compared to 81.1 per men, the report says.
 
The 'gender inequality index' reflects gender-based inequalities in three dimensions -- reproductive health, empowerment and economic activity.
     
Ramesh said a better way of analysing the progress made by countries including India is to measure comparative success they have achieved on this count in the last few years from their previous record rather than by the number of their positions in the international chart.