Human Development

“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.”

Several types of indicators can be used to represent Human development

Income-based Indicators

Rich resource base and access to these resources by all, particularly the poor, downtrodden and the marginalised is the key to productivity, well-being & human development.

Poverty line

The poverty line is the minimum level of income (or consumption) that is necessary to maintain a decent standard of life.

Head count ratio: refers to the proportion of people below the poverty line; It is popular because it is easy to understand and measure. The Poverty headcount ratio at the national poverty line (percentage of population) in India was last reported at 21.9% in 2011-12 according to the census data.

Number of people below the poverty line:

• It is most severe in Bihar and Chhattisgarh where more than 40% of the population is below the poverty line;
• It is above 30% in Jharkhand, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Assam, MP and UP
• The least poverty is reported in Goa (5%), and Kerala(7%);.

Per Capita Gross National Product (GNP)

GNP and its per capita availability are taken as measures to assess the resource base/ endowment of any country. Currently, India’s GNP was $3.5 Trillion (297.5 Lakh Crore) in 2023.

Accordingly, per capita income is $2485 (Rs. 2,07,500) at current prices. These figures indicate impressive growth over the years.

Classification of countries based on per Capita GNI

Gross National Income (GNI) or the Gross National Product (GNP) is the value of all goods and services produced by the residents of a country. It is different from GDP as it is not limited by the geographical location of production done by the citizens of a country.

GNP per capita tells us about the average income of all the citizens of a country. The World Bank classified countries into the following four categories based on GNI:

Income Category	GNI per Capita (USD)	Description
Low-Income Countries	$1,145 or less	Lower levels of industrialization and higher poverty rates. Limited access to education and healthcare.
Lower-Middle-Income Countries	$1,146 to $4,515	Transitioning economies with ongoing poverty challenges and infrastructure development.
Upper-Middle-Income Countries	$4,516 to $14,005	More diversified economies, and better access to services; but may face income inequality.
High-Income Countries	$14,006 or more	Well-developed infrastructures, advanced economies, and higher standards of living.

According to these criteria, India can be classified as a middle-income country.

Health Indicators:

• Death Rate:  25.1/1000 in 1951 to 7.5/1000 in 2024.
• Stillbirth Rate: the number of babies born with no signs of life at 28 weeks or more of gestation, per 1,000 total births. It is currently 16.2/1000
  • Our target is < 10 by 2025, according to the National Health Policy (NHP)
• Neonatal mortality: number of deaths of infants aged 0–27 days per 1,000 live births. It is currently 20 deaths/1000.
  • Targets: <10 by 2030 according to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and <16 by 2025 according to NHP.
• Infant Mortality Rate: The number of deaths under the age of 1/1000 live births is known as the infant mortality rate.
  • It has reducedfrom 148/1000 in 1951 to 70 in 1999 to 28 in 2020 according to the SRS data from Registrar General.
• Child Mortality: Number of deaths under the age of 5 every 1000 live births. It is currently about 36 according to UNICEF.
• Life expectancy at birth: It is currently 69 inIndia; For males, it is 67.8 and for females, it is 70.04.
  • 37.1 years to 62.3 years for males & 36.2 to 65.3 for females.

Indicators of Social Empowerment:

“Development is freedom” from hunger, poverty, servitude, bondage, ignorance, illiteracy & other forms of domination.

Literacy rate:

• According to the 2011 census data, the Literacy rate is at 74.8 (men), and 65.5 (women) Highest in Kerala, Mizoram: 94% and 91.5%;
• It is the lowest in Bihar at 63%.

Thus we can see that the development has brought in significant improvement in the quality of life in more than one way. However, several issues such as increasing regional disparities, social inequalities, discriminations, deprivations, displacement of people, abuse of human rights undermining human values and environmental degradation remain great concerns.

Sex ratio: 

• Sex ratio at birth:  the number of female births per 1000 male births. The SRS takes a moving average basis. It is an indicator of how society treats its citizens.
• India’s sex ratio at birth: It is 904 for all of India; 904 for rural & 906 for urban areas.
• Total sex ratio: 943 [2011 Census]
• 5th report of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019-21) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare the sex ratio of the total population (females per 1000 males) is 1020 for the country as a whole, with the sex ratio rural at 1037 and sex ratio urban at 985.

Approaches To Human Development:

a) Income Approach	One of the oldest approaches to human development. Human development is seen as being linked to income.	The idea that the level of income reflects the level of freedom an individual enjoys is simply not true. For example, even in rich households, women might not have any freedom.
(b) Welfare 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.	Problem: 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 ILO.  Six basic needs i.e.: health, education, food, water supply, sanitation, and housing were identified.	Problem:  The question of human choices is ignored and the emphasis is on the provision of basic needs of defined sections. What if people want something else instead?
(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.	Capability: Measure of People’s freedom to pursue self-appointed goals.Freedom is the ultimate goal: Freedom and development are linked.

Role of Democracy in Human Development

People’s participation, progressive democratisation and increasing empowerment of people as minimum conditions for human development. The expansion of people’s choices cannot happen without understanding the needs of the people.

All approaches other than the capability approach lack democratic participation of the people.

UNDP in its HDR 1993 tried to amend some of the implicit biases and prejudices which were entrenched in the concept of development. It recognised a greater constructive role of ‘Civil Societies’ in bringing about peace and human development – reduction in military expenditure, and increased production of basic goods and services.

People’s choices may involve a host of other issues –

1. living a long and healthy life, being educated and having access to resources needed for a decent standard of living including political freedom.

In this context, China’s case becomes interesting. It has provided its citizens with good health and education, but not with political freedoms. Amartya Sen’s approach designates freedom as the ultimate aim of human development. Taking away freedom cannot be termed as Human development.

Origin of the Concept of Human Development and Human Development Report

The concept of human development was introduced by the economist Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq, and championed by his contemporary contemporary Amartya Sen. Both worked together in the leadership of Dr Haq to bring out initial Human Development Reports. He created the Human Development Index in 1990 – a concept used in Human development reports published annually since. The first Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1990. It defines development, makes amendments and changes in its indicators and ranks the countries. It mentions: “progressive democratisation and increasing empowerment of people are seen as the minimum conditions for human development”… “development must be woven around people, not the people around development”.

Four Pillars Of Human Development:

1. Equity: making equal access to opportunities available to everybody – irrespective of their gender, race income and in the Indian case, caste. This is not very often the case. For example, most school dropouts are women or belong to economically weaker sections and backward groups.
2. Sustainability: continuity in the availability of opportunities. 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. For example, Poor health expense coverage can push a family into poverty due to some chronic illness of a member of the family.
3. Productivity: human labour productivity or productivity in terms of human work.Must be constantly enriched by building capabilities in people.
4. Empowerment: People must have the power to make choices. This comes with increasing freedom and capability which requires Good governance and people-oriented policies.

Capability Approach

Amartya Sen saw an increase in freedom as the main objective of development. It is a Utilitarian Approach, i.e. one that focuses on increasing the happiness of individuals.

How can one be happy or free?

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

Expansion of Choices

Building people’s capabilities in the areas of health, education and access to resources is important in enlarging their choices (ability to make better choices). If people do not have capabilities in these areas, their choices also get limited.

• The government should not decide the products of welfare (food subsidy etc.) because these choices are not fixed but keep on changing.
• Democracy: Often government create schemes that are really not wanted by the public. Thus, an expansion of democracy is needed in terms of public involvement in policymaking.
• Humanist approach: People are central to all development under this concept.

Sen’s concept of Accessibility, Affordability, and Availability

Sen’s concepts of human development revolve around ensuring equitable access to essential goods and services for all. Such services must be:

1. Accessibility emphasizes the ease with which people can obtain services, focusing on physical, social, and informational aspects.
2. Affordability stresses that essential services should be within financial reach, addressing economic barriers to access.
3. Availability highlights the presence and sufficiency of resources to meet the needs of the population, ensuring that services are not just present but sustainably so.

Together, these principles form a framework for evaluating welfare policies, promoting inclusive development, and reducing poverty by addressing economic and social inequalities.

A Lesson from Bengal Famine of 1943

“In the terrible history of famines in the world, no substantial famine has ever occurred in any independent and democratic country with a relatively free press.”  – Amartya Sen. Bengal famine of 1943 “was made viable not only by the lack of democracy in colonial India but also by severe restrictions on reporting and criticism imposed on the Indian press, and the voluntary practice of ‘silence’ on the famine that the British-owned media chose to follow”. This famine gave several ideas to Amartya Sen as a child: It broke the misconception that Civil and Political rights come second to Welfare. In several stores, food was available, but it was either not affordable for the poor or it was not accessible to the caste barriers.

Measuring Human Development

Human Development Index:

Amartya Sen created the Human Development Index (HDI) in 1990 which is published annually in the Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The HDI ranks countries based on their performance in the key areas of health, education and access to resources. It is based on a score between 0 to 1.

Since 2010, the following methodology has been adopted to measure human development.

Note: It is not necessary for a civil services aspirant to remember this methodology by heart.

Health access indicator:

It is represented by the life expectancy at birth. The higher the life expectancy, the higher the chance that people have of living longer and healthier lives. Life expected to be between 25 and 85:

• 85 means a score of 100/100
• 25 means a score of 0/100

Knowledge indicator:

It takes an average of two indicators:

• Mean years of schooling (expected 15)
• Expected year of schooling (18 years equivalent to master’s)

Income Index (Access to Resources indicator):

Measured in Purchasing power (in US Dollars): On a logarithmic scale: $40,000 to $100 annual income.

The Human development index is calculated as the Geometric mean of the three indicators. It means that each of the above indicators is given a weightage of 1/3^rd for the calculation of HDI.

Since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been publishing the Human Development Report every year. This report provides a rank-wise list of all member countries according to the level of human development.

The Human Development Index and the Human Poverty Index are two important indices to measure human development used by the UNDP.

Distribution of countries as per HDI

International Comparisons: High Medium and low; each colour at a difference of 0.1.

Countries of the World as per HDI

According to the Human Development Report 2023-24, countries are divided into three categories:

1. Very High Human Development: HDI of 0.800 and above
2. High Human Development: HDI between 0.700 and 0.799
3. Medium Human Development: HDI between 0.550 and 0.699
4. Low Human Development: HDI below 0.550

High Human Development Countries:

Countries like the USA, Singapore, Australia, and Canada fall into this category, reflecting strong performance in health, education, and income metrics.

The top five countries according to HDI are:

1. Norway
2. Switzerland
3. Ireland
4. Germany
5. Hong Kong, China (SAR)

Medium Human Development Countries:

This group includes nations such as India, Vietnam, and the Philippines, indicating moderate achievements in human development indicators.

China’s Human Development Index (HDI) reached 0.788 in 2022, placing it in the high human development category and ranking 75^th among 193 countries and territories. This marks significant progress from an HDI of 0.499 in 1990.

Low Human Development Countries:

Countries like Somalia, South Sudan, and Afghanistan are categorized here, facing challenges in health, education, and economic stability.

HDI in India

In 2022, India’s Human Development Index (HDI) value increased to 0.644 from 0.633 in 2021, leading to an improvement in its global ranking from 135^th to 134^th out of 193 countries. In 1990, India’s Human Development Index (HDI) was 0.429.

This enhancement reflects progress across key HDI indicators:

• Life Expectancy: Increased from 67.2 to 67.7 years.
• Expected Years of Schooling: Rose to 12.6 years.
• Mean Years of Schooling: Improved to 6.57 years.
• Gross National Income (GNI) per Capita: Grew from $6,542 to $6,951.

HDI within India:

• Highest in Kerala and then Delhi;
• Chhatisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, MP, Jharkhand and UP have the poorest HDI

South Asian countries as per HDI

South Asian countries are categorized based on their Human Development Index (HDI) values as follows:

1. Only two countries have High levels of Human Development:
2. Sri Lanka: HDI value of 0.782, ranked 73^rd globally.
3. Maldives: HDI value of 0.747, ranked 90^th globally.
4. Most of the South Asia belong to the Medium Human Development:
5. Bhutan: HDI value of 0.666, ranked 127^th globally.
6. Bangladesh: HDI value of 0.661, ranked 129^th globally.
7. India: HDI value of 0.644, ranked 134^th globally.
8. Nepal: HDI value of 0.602, ranked 143^rd globally.
9. Low Human Development:
10. Pakistan: HDI value of 0.544, ranked 161^st globally.
11. Afghanistan: HDI value of 0.478, ranked 180^th globally.

Problems with the Human Development Index:

• It doesn’t look at the negatives: Inequality, poverty, probability of not surviving till a certain age.
• Just looks at averages. Averages don’t tell about the spread of the data.
• Doesn’t look at the standard of education; just looks at the number of years in class.
• Lacks ethical and moral judgement; Corruption; Where the surroundings are corrupt, honest citizens surrender to the surroundings; the true potential of HDI is hindered.

Indices under the Human Development Report

The Human Development Report (HDR) was released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and was released for the first time in the year 1990. HDR Office releases five composite indices each year:

Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI),

Gender Development Index (GDI),

Gender Inequality Index (GII),

Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

Disability-adjusted life Year (DALY Index)

The DALY index measures the Burden of Disease as a measure of the sum of years of life lost due to premature mortality and the years lost due to disability.

• One DALY can be thought of as one lost year of “healthy” life: Life – (early dying + disability)
• It is a measurement of the gap between current health status and an ideal health situation.

The Quality of life and the level of human development can also be measured in terms of how well a person is able to enjoy life effectively. DALY Index objectively represents good nutrition in an economy and how well its health system is.

It is therefore one of the key targets for India’s Health Policy of 2017.

Gross Happiness Index

It wasproposed by Bhutan in 1971 to measure the spiritual, physical, social, and environmental well-being of its citizens and environment.

• Material progress and technological developments are approached more cautiously taking into consideration the possible harm they might bring to the environment or the other aspects of the cultural and spiritual life of the Bhutanese – material progress can’t come at the cost of happiness.
• It has four pillars:
  • Sustainable and equitable socio-economic development
  • Conservation of Environment
  • Preservation and Promotion of Culture
  • Good governance.

Bhutan is the only country in the world to officially proclaim the Gross National Happiness (GNH) as the measure of the country’s progress

Related FAQs of Human Development

1. What is the Human Development Index (HDI) and what are its key components?

The HDI, created by Amartya Sen and Mahbub ul Haq, measures a country’s average achievements in three basic dimensions:
Health – Life expectancy at birth
Education – Mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling
Income – GNI per capita (PPP, US$)
It is published annually by the UNDP in the Human Development Report.

2. What is the Capability Approach to human development, and how is it different from income-based approaches?

The Capability Approach, pioneered by Amartya Sen, emphasizes freedom and human agency over income or welfare provisions. It focuses on what people are actually able to do and be – not just their material resources. Unlike income-based or welfare approaches, it views development as expansion of real freedoms and opportunities.

3. What is the difference between HDI and Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI)?

While HDI measures average achievement across health, education, and income, it doesn’t account for inequality.
IHDI adjusts HDI by factoring in inequality in each dimension. A higher gap between HDI and IHDI indicates more inequality in that country.

4. How is India performing in human development compared to its neighbours?

India’s HDI in 2022 is 0.644, ranked 134th out of 193 countries.
Better-performing South Asian neighbours:
• Sri Lanka (0.782, Rank 73)
• Maldives (0.747, Rank 90)
Lower-ranked neighbours:
• Pakistan (0.544, Rank 161),
• Afghanistan (0.478, Rank 180)

5. What are the limitations of HDI as a measure of development?

• Ignores inequality, poverty, and corruption
• Uses averages – hides regional disparities
• Doesn’t measure quality of education or ethical governance
• Fails to capture non-economic freedoms like political rights and social justice
Hence, complementary indices like GII, MPI, GNH are used.