India’s Performance in Human Development Report 2022

Probable Question

 Assess the recent trend and India’s performance in the Human Development Report 2022. What policy measures should the Indian government take in this regard?

Context

The 2022 Human Development Report (HDR) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is quite different because for the first time in its history, the HDR has been compiled since 1990, the global HDI value has declined, for over 90 percent of the countries, two years in a row, erasing the gains of the preceding five years.

About HDR

• The  set of human development indices that the HDR compiles includes; HDI, Inequality-adjusted HDI, Gender Development Index, Gender Inequality Index, Multidimensional Poverty Index, and Planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index.
• World over the countries have slipped in their human development performance due to multiple crises such as COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, environmental challenges, etc.

Read yesterday’s edition of Current Affairs on Tree Plantation Policy, in case you missed reading it.

Also Read: 5 Key Findings of Emissions Gap Report 2022

India’s performance in HDR 2022

• The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite of three broad parameters: longevity, education and income per capita.
  • India ranked 132 out of 191 countries, scoring 0.633 is far away from the top-ranker, Switzerland with a score of 0.962, but also below the global average. 
  • Currently the life expectancy at birth in years is 67.2 years, Mean years of schooling is 6.7 years, while the Gross national income per capita is 6590$.
• Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) is the level of human development when inequality is accounted for.
  • India’s HDI falls by 25%, when adjusted for inequality because the share of income held by the richest 1% of the population is more than the income held by the poorest 40%.
• Gender Development Index (GDI) measures gender inequalities in achievement in three basic dimensions of human development.
  • India's GDI score is 0.849 lower than the world average of 0.958, and China's figure at 0.984.
• Gender Inequality Index (GII) looks at the issue of gender inequality by preparing a composite measure using three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market.
  • India lags behind world average GII in indicators such as Labour force participation ratio, share of seats in parliament held by parliament, etc.
• The Multidimensional Poverty Index captures the multiple deprivations that people in developing countries face in their health, education and standard of living.
  • The deprivation is measured in terms of indicators such as nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, school attendance, electricity, sanitation, drinking water, housing, cooking fuel, and assets.
  • Population living below the income poverty line (percent) ($ 1.90 a day) in India is 22.5 per cent, according to the report.
• Planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI) value can be interpreted as the level of human development adjusted by carbon dioxide emissions per person (production-based) and material footprint per person to account for excessive human pressure on the planet.
  • India’s PHDI i.e., 0.609, is much closer to the world average figure of 0.667.

Also read: Global Sustainable Development Report, 2022

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