‘Examining India’s progress in human development is valid’
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On September 9-10, 2023, New Delhi hosted the G-20 Summit, which resolved to accelerate the full and effective implementation of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. On September 18-19, 2023, an “SDG Summit” was convened at the United Nations headquarters to follow up and review the implementation of the Agenda and the progress of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A “Summit of the Future” took place on September 22-23, 2024, at the UN headquarters to build upon the SDG Summit 2023 and its commitments by member nations.
In this context, examining India’s progress in human development since 1990, based on the UNDP’s latest Human Development Report (HDR), is valid. As said by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in his book, Development as Freedom, ‘development is a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy’. In his ‘capability approach’, the basic concern of human development is ‘our capability to lead the kind of lives we have reason to value’. Freedom from hunger and ill-health on the one hand and gender and income equality, and access to quality education on the other hand lead to the achievement of human development, and, consequently, to sustainable development.
Development and the SDGs
The Human Development Index (HDI) developed by the UNDP has three dimensions: long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy at birth); knowledge (expected years of schooling and mean years of schooling), and a decent standard of living (income per capita). All the three dimensions are much related to some of the key SDGs: SDG-3 (good health); SDG-4 (quality education); SDG-5 (gender equality); SDG-8 (decent work) and SDG-10 (reduced inequality). Clearly, countries aspiring to achieve sustainable development need to take appropriate measures to boost human development.
The HDR 2023-24 places India in the ‘medium human development category’ with a human development index (HDI) value of 0.644. India ranks 134 out of 193 countries. The HDI value was stagnant in 2019-20, at 0.638, and fell to 0.633 in 2021. It improved to 0.644 in 2022. In this report, some of India’s neighbouring countries have better HDI ranks — Malaysia (63); Thailand (66); China (75); Sri Lanka (78); Indonesia (112); Bhutan (125), and Bangladesh (129).
The HDR also presents interpolated consistent data which can be used to compare HDI values across years and countries. India saw its HDI value increase by 48.4%, from 0.434 in 1990 to 0.644 in 2022. As for HDI rankings, during 2015-2022, India improved by four ranks, while neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh and Bhutan improved by 12 and 10 ranks, respectively. China improved by 18 ranks. India’s human development initiatives lagged behind during 2015-22. One of the reasons for the slow growth is the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on dimensions of human development such as education and income.
Gender gaps
The HDR also presents the Gender Development Index (GDI) for 193 countries. It measures disparities in human development by gender. The report contains HDI values estimated separately for women and men, the ratio of which is the GDI value. The closer the ratio is to one, the lesser the gap there is between women and men.
Among the 42 ‘medium human development countries’ to which India belongs, there are only seven with low equality in HDI achievements between women and men. These countries, with absolute deviation from gender parity of more than 10%, are India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Uganda, Morocco, the Syrian Arab Republic, and Kiribati.
India has one of the largest gender gaps in the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) a 47.8 percent points difference between women (28.3%) and men (76.1%). Female labour force participation rate in India is very low when compared to many countries, more so when one compares it with India’s neighbouring countries where in China it is 53.6 %, Bhutan 53.5 %, and Bangladesh 39.2%.
In the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)-2022-23, published by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, around 37% females of working age (15 years and above) were in the labour force in 2022-23; it was 23.3% in 2017-18. However, there is a huge gap in female labour force participation in rural and urban areas. While the female labour force participation rate in rural areas increased from 24.6% in 2017-18 to 41.5% in 2022-23, there is only a marginal increase in urban areas (from 20.4% to 25.4%). This is a matter of concern that requires further research and in-depth study aimed at feasible policy initiatives.
Income inequality
In addition to the gender gap in income, inequality of incomes is also on the rise. India is one of the countries where income shares held by the richest 1% is very high (21.7%) compared to Bangladesh (11.6%), China (15.7%), Bhutan (18.1%), and Nepal (9.7%). Income inequality in India is also higher than the world average of 17.5% and the South Asia average of 19.6%. Most importantly, income inequality is also higher than other regional groups such as East Asia and the Pacific (16.5%) and Europe and Central Asia (15.7%).
India needs to address these gender development issues and increasing inequality in order to achieve the SDGs.
Shylajan C.S. is Director and Professor, ICFAI School of Social Sciences, Hyderabad
Published – October 18, 2024 12:08 am IST