Human Development

India’s HDI rankings have fluctuated between 135 and 130 from 2011 to the present.

Source: http://hdr.undp.org/en/data

Kerala has an HDI score of 0.790 (2007-08) which is comparable to Western Nations, and ranks the highest in India.

Tamil Nadu has an HDI score of 0.570 (2007-08).

Punjab has an HDI score of 0.605 (2007-08).

Haryana has an HDI score of 0.552 (2007-08).

Bihar with 53.33% (2011) has the lowest female literacy rate in India.

Jammu and Kashmir has female literacy rate of 58.01%

Arunanchal Pradesh has female literacy rate of 59.57%

Jharkhand has female literacy rate of 56.21%

Haryana has a female child sex ratio of 834 (2011), and is the lowest in India.

Gujarat has a female child sex ratio of 890 (2011)

Punjab has a female child sex ratio of 846 (2011)

Himachal Pradesh has a female child sex ratio of 909 (2011)

Lakshadweep with a literacy rate of 92.28% (2011), is the highest among Union Territories in India.

Chandigarh has a literacy rate of 86.43 % (2011)

Andaman and Nicobar Islands has a literacy rate of 86.27% (2011)

Daman and Diu has a literacy rate of 87.07% (2011)

Human development is a process of enlarging the range of people’s choices, increasing their opportunities for education, health care, income and empowerment and covering the full range of human choices from a sound physical environment to economic, social and political freedom.

The low levels of Human Development in most of the Northern states of India is due to:

1. Lower literacy rates

2. Higher gaps between the male and female literacy rates

Child sex ratio has been declining in all the states, except Kerala, due to

1. Cultural practices prioritise son over daughter.

For instance, the belief that it is only the son who can perform the last rites, that lineage and inheritance runs through the male line, sons will look after parents in old age, men are bread winners, etc.

2. Marriage customs are expensive for the bride’s family

Exorbitant dowry demand is a reason for female foeticide/infanticide. Moreover, small family norm and easy availability of sex determination tests may be a catalyst in the declining child sex ratio.

Freedom in the real sense of the term is possible only with the empowerment and participation of the people in the exercise of their capabilities and choices in the society. Thus, access to knowledge about the society and environment are fundamental to freedom. Hence, literacy is the beginning of access to such a world of knowledge and freedom. Female literacy is all the more important a factor in determining the spread of the freedom, that comes with development. As Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai has put it, “One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.”

Literacy rates in India reveals some interesting features:

• Overall literacy in India is approximately 74.04% (2011), while female literacy is 65.46%.

• Total literacy was well as female literacy is higher than the national average in most the states from South India.

• There are wide regional disparities in literacy rate across the states of India. There is a state like Bihar which has very low (53.33%) female literacy and there are states like Kerala and Mizoram which have female literacy rates of 91.98% and 89.40% respectively.

Such a spatial pattern could be due to:

o Traditional mindset among families of North India, which prefer educating sons over daughters since they are considered the bread winners of the family.

o Educating girls in such societies is considered a luxury, since they are anyway going to get married and never work.

India with a population of over 1.20 billion is ranked 131 among 188 countries of the world in terms of the Human Development Index (HDI). With a composite value of 0.624 India is grouped with countries showing medium human development (UNDP 2016). Similar to the UN Development Agency, the Planning Commission of India has calculated the human development index by taking states and union territories as the unit of analysis.

The scores bring into forth some interesting developmental outcomes to the fore. Kerala with a composite index value of 0.760 (2011) is placed at the top followed by the NCR Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, and Punjab. And, states like Bihar, Odisha and Chhattisgarh are at the bottom among the 23 major states in India.

There are several socio-political, economic and historical reasons for such a state of affairs. Kerala is able to record the highest value in the HDI largely due to its impressive performance in achieving near hundred per cent literacy. In a different scenario the states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Assam and Uttar Pradesh have very low literacy.

Apart from the educational attainment, the levels of economic development too play significant impacts on HDI. Economically developed states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Punjab and Haryana have higher value of HDI as compared to states like Chhattisgarh,

Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, etc.

Thus, the Indian subcontinent, as expected exhibits significant spatial variations in the levels of human development. There are states with scores comparable to western nations as well as states that have lower scores. This means the government has to take a targeted approach to bring in improvements in human development across states.