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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India fares well in social development: report

India fares well in social development: report

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published Published on Oct 21, 2011   modified Modified on Oct 21, 2011

-The Business Standard

 

A day before the National Development Council is scheduled to meet and possibly debate on the poverty line and the Food Security Bill, the second India Human Development Report -2011 has said India progressed well in social development front, with higher enrollment rates in education, and a shift towards social inclusion of marginalised communities and minorities.

The report, by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research, an autonomous body under the Planning Commission, suggests a lowering of poverty rates, provided poverty is seen through national accounts or gross domestic product, rather than the consumption data, which is normally used to calculate poverty.

The report, released by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Friday, said India recorded 21 per cent growth in the human development indicators (HDI) of health, education and income. HDI is a composite index, comprising three indicators—consumption expenditure (a proxy for income), education and health. The report estimates HDI at the beginning of the decade and 2007-08, and the top five ranks during both the years are accounted for by Kerala, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Goa and Punjab. States that fared better on health and education were also the states with higher HDI, and thus, higher per capita income.

At the other end of the spectrum were northern and eastern states—Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Assam, which have an HDI below the national average. HDI ranged from 0.79 in Kerala to 0.39 in Chhattisgarh.

The report compares HDI growth to the global human development report rankings. It says over the eight-year period, HDI rose 21 per cent, compared with a rise of 18 per cent in India's HDI over 2000-2010, as reported by global HDR-2010.

In comparison, China recorded a rise of only 17 per cent, the report said.

According to the report, the leap in development was mainly on account of the 28 per cent jump in education index alone, compared to a decade ago, when the first such report was released. It ranged from 0.92 in Kerala to 0.41 in Bihar. The rise has been the highest in educationally-backward states.

The improvement in the health index stands at a mere 13 per cent between 2000 and 2008. The states with the most serious health concerns—Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Assam—showed the most improvement.

The report also cites a fall in the overall fertility rate as the greatest achievement in health, while open defecation continued to be the biggest threat. Malnutrition, hunger and anaemia rates, besides infant mortality, remain grim, as reported in the National Family Health Survey.

The report also indicated economic prosperity was no guarantee of better social indicators. Gujarat, with a high per capita income, ranks below some poor states in terms of hunger, the report said. Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh also fare poorly in terms of hunger, Punjab fared the best. Gujarat had a hunger index of 24.70 per cent, just above Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.

"This clearly suggests economic prosperity alone cannot reduce hunger. Hence, there is a need for specific target-oriented policies to improve the hunger and malnutrition situation," the report said.

In Gujarat, the percentage of severely underweight children was also higher than the national average. Only six other states, including Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, which have low per capita income than Gujarat, saw the percentage of severely underweight children more than that of Gujarat, the report showed.

The author of the report, Santosh Mehrotra, said the report underlined the education success story. However, the fact that the mean number of years of schooling was very low, along with a poor rate of school attendance, undid the achievement in education.

Rural development minister, Jairam Ramesh, said while education had been a success story, health would present a better scenario in the coming two-three years. However, he said something drastic had to be done on the nutrition and sanitation fronts. He said the nutrition deficit was a puzzle and no one was able to crack it so far. On sanitation, he said it was appalling that 50 per cent of the population still resorted to defecation in the open. He added the total budget of Rs 1,000 crore from the Centre was not going to take the sanitation programme too far. The minister favoured an equal allocation for water supply and sanitation of Rs 10,000 crore each.


The Business Standard, 22 October, 2011, http://business-standard.com/india/news/india-fares-well-in-social-development-report-/453368/


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