Reasons For
Low HDI
Susmita Priyadarshini (Courtesy)
At
the beginning of this month, the Human Development Index of UNDP was released, where
India was ranked at 134 among 182 countries. Human
development is a process of
achieving an optimum level of health and well being. It includes
physical, biological, mental, emotional, social, educational, economical and
cultural components. Only some of these are expressed in HDI, a composite scale
that has three dimensions – life expectancy at birth, adult literacy rate and
mean years of schooling and income as measured by real gross domestic product
per capita. This time India’s ranking shows that it has slipped in comparative terms in ensuring a better quality of
life for its people as in the previous index published for 2007 and 2008
together it ranked 128, while the position in 2006 was 126. Some of our
neighbours have done well. Among the neighbouring countries China, Sri Lanka
and Bhutan ranked higher than India - i.e. at 92, 102 and 132 respectively.
It is noteworthy that this year the report focuses on migration overcoming barriers: human mobility and development to cast new light on some common misconceptions on the subject and propose a series of policies to increase people’s freedom and improve their lives. It is often argued that HDI should be complemented with more statistics to improve its unbiasedness. Even the comparison of countries like India with Singapore is objected.
This time Montek Singh Ahluwalia suggested taking into account some migration statistics. The importance of migration on human development cannot be avoided. Migration from less productive to more productive sectors relates to productivity gains which are reflected in income of the masses.
Looking at migration from this point of view is certainly worth a thought. Movement from less productive to higher productive sectors has been a basic impetus behind developmental process among nations. As a result the labour force gains on productivity and income and thereby leads to higher human development. Admitting all these, if we now find reason why the quality of life in India continues to be appalling, we see corruption and improper implementation of social developmental policies as mainly responsible for this.
Rahul Gandhi recently remarked that only 10 paise out of every rupee the Centre sends to the states reaches the common man. Many years ago his father Rajiv Gandhi opined that just 15 paise out of every rupee sent to the states reached the common man. Allegations of corruption and misuse of funds are raised against different states regarding implementation of different Central schemes. State governments are ready to do everthing for the sake of their party, not for the poor and downtrodden. The Mayawati regime allocated a huge sum of Rs 553 crores of the total state budget for the construction of parks with statues of CM Mayawati. Only a meagre 6.15 crore was given for the development of Bundelkhand and Purvanchal. But in this Bundelkhand region nearly 200 farmers committed suicide. If one takes the case of Sarva Sikshya Abhijan, several allegations are made against the mid-day meal scheme. This is true in case of our state also. It is noteworthy that while Sri Lanka can ensure 92% literacy, we have not achieved much despite being economically stronger than them. In order to improve on HDI, Gujarat wants to set up children’s university, but this will not be possible for every state. In our country education and health are two such departments in which corruption is deep-rooted. Even employment generating policy NREGA is not corruption free. If we take the example of our state, there is delay in issuing job cards. Sometimes job card holders do not get jobs and gram sabhas are not even formed. These things not only affect the income of the people, but also the quality of their lives. As all the states are not equally efficient in implementing Government policies for rural and social development, so gaps are seen among the states regarding poverty, infrastructure and per capita income. More than half of Indian’s population lives in Bihar, Chattisgarh,Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Poverty rates in rural Orissa and rural Bihar are 43% and 40% respectively. Despite getting preferential treatment from the Centre, these states have failed to improve the condition of their people.
The defect lies in implementation of the policies. Former Finance Minister of Punjab, Surinder Singh suggested setting up of a public sector authority which would be independent of the state government, but without treading into the state territory it would supplement and complement the development efforts of the state Government. Whether this suggestion is accepted or not is a different thing, but we are to wake up before it becomes too late.Recently, FAO said that India will have to spend $29 billion a year to feed its population in 2050. Investment is required in primaryagriculture and downstream services. But in our country farmers are that class of people who are to bear the brunt of everything from inflation to drought. We require an environment where every rupee of the Government will be properly utilized so that economic growth and human development can be achieved together.
(The writer is a Lecturer of Economics, DCB College, Jorhat)
(For Student Use)
It is noteworthy that this year the report focuses on migration overcoming barriers: human mobility and development to cast new light on some common misconceptions on the subject and propose a series of policies to increase people’s freedom and improve their lives. It is often argued that HDI should be complemented with more statistics to improve its unbiasedness. Even the comparison of countries like India with Singapore is objected.
This time Montek Singh Ahluwalia suggested taking into account some migration statistics. The importance of migration on human development cannot be avoided. Migration from less productive to more productive sectors relates to productivity gains which are reflected in income of the masses.
Looking at migration from this point of view is certainly worth a thought. Movement from less productive to higher productive sectors has been a basic impetus behind developmental process among nations. As a result the labour force gains on productivity and income and thereby leads to higher human development. Admitting all these, if we now find reason why the quality of life in India continues to be appalling, we see corruption and improper implementation of social developmental policies as mainly responsible for this.
Rahul Gandhi recently remarked that only 10 paise out of every rupee the Centre sends to the states reaches the common man. Many years ago his father Rajiv Gandhi opined that just 15 paise out of every rupee sent to the states reached the common man. Allegations of corruption and misuse of funds are raised against different states regarding implementation of different Central schemes. State governments are ready to do everthing for the sake of their party, not for the poor and downtrodden. The Mayawati regime allocated a huge sum of Rs 553 crores of the total state budget for the construction of parks with statues of CM Mayawati. Only a meagre 6.15 crore was given for the development of Bundelkhand and Purvanchal. But in this Bundelkhand region nearly 200 farmers committed suicide. If one takes the case of Sarva Sikshya Abhijan, several allegations are made against the mid-day meal scheme. This is true in case of our state also. It is noteworthy that while Sri Lanka can ensure 92% literacy, we have not achieved much despite being economically stronger than them. In order to improve on HDI, Gujarat wants to set up children’s university, but this will not be possible for every state. In our country education and health are two such departments in which corruption is deep-rooted. Even employment generating policy NREGA is not corruption free. If we take the example of our state, there is delay in issuing job cards. Sometimes job card holders do not get jobs and gram sabhas are not even formed. These things not only affect the income of the people, but also the quality of their lives. As all the states are not equally efficient in implementing Government policies for rural and social development, so gaps are seen among the states regarding poverty, infrastructure and per capita income. More than half of Indian’s population lives in Bihar, Chattisgarh,Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Poverty rates in rural Orissa and rural Bihar are 43% and 40% respectively. Despite getting preferential treatment from the Centre, these states have failed to improve the condition of their people.
The defect lies in implementation of the policies. Former Finance Minister of Punjab, Surinder Singh suggested setting up of a public sector authority which would be independent of the state government, but without treading into the state territory it would supplement and complement the development efforts of the state Government. Whether this suggestion is accepted or not is a different thing, but we are to wake up before it becomes too late.Recently, FAO said that India will have to spend $29 billion a year to feed its population in 2050. Investment is required in primaryagriculture and downstream services. But in our country farmers are that class of people who are to bear the brunt of everything from inflation to drought. We require an environment where every rupee of the Government will be properly utilized so that economic growth and human development can be achieved together.
(The writer is a Lecturer of Economics, DCB College, Jorhat)
(For Student Use)
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