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Re-reading
Human Development
Indian policymakers may be a bit premature in applauding themselves over
the findings of the recently released Human Development Report (HDR) 2003,
which commends the country's significant contribution towards achieving
the first Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of poor
people in the world by 2015, as well as making remarkable progress towards
decentralization in some states.
HDR 2003 highlights that India, home to one in six of the world's people,
has achieved great progress on most fronts. Poverty has been dramatically
reduced and improvements made in education for both males and females.
There has also been tremendous improvement, it says, in gender literacy
gaps, particularly in the states of Madhya Pradesh and to some extent in
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Noting the progress in health and education, the report says the southern
state of Kerala has health indicators similar to those of the US, despite
a per capita income 99 per cent lower than the US, and annual spending on
health of $28 per person!
Despite the apparent signs of India's sustained progress on the human
development index (HDI) and the gender related development index (GDI),
social activists and researchers caution against complacence. They say
there are clear indications in HDR 2003 that India is not doing enough or
doing it fast enough to improve the human condition of its people.
The annual report, brought out by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
since 1990, explores major issues of global concern and the progress made
by countries in human development and well being.
The HDI is a summary measure of three dimensions of human development,
namely living a long and healthy life, being educated and having a decent
standard of living while GDI captures gender inequalities in human
capabilities.
In the HDR list, not only is India ranked a low 127 out of 175 countries
with regard to performance on social indicators such as life expectancy,
literacy and so on, its ranking has also fallen three notches since last
year. K C Pant, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Government of
India, is quick to point out that the country's ranking has fallen mainly
due to the addition of two new nations in this year's list - Bosnia and
Herzegovina and the Occupied Palestinian Territories - and that Botswana
has moved up above India as compared to last year.
However, the fact that India's ranking continues to remain so low
indicates how much more work needs to be done. According to human rights
activist Joseph Gathia of the Delhi-based NGO, Centre of Concern for Child
Labor (CCFCL), the report indicates that a peaceful, social environment is
very
important before we launch major socio-economic programs.
"Indian states which were more communally peaceful have shown better
results in social development. This is clear in the case of Rajasthan and
Madhya Pradesh despite their high poverty levels," he observes. The UNDP
report makes special mention of education policies in these two states
that have delivered results. The states of Kerala, West Bengal and Madhya
Pradesh also find mention for having brought significant improvements as a
result of successful decentralization.
The report shows that in many countries, women, the rural poor and ethnic
minorities do not get their fair share of increased social spending. Data
shows patterns of discrimination in terms of access to education,
healthcare, safe water and sanitation. Referring to the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) the report argues that gender equality is at the
core of whether the goals will be achieved.
By 2015, all 191 United Nations Member States have pledged to: Eradicate
extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote
gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve
maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure
environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for
development.
The MDGs are based on the premise that economic growth alone will not
rescue the world from the poverty that entraps more than one billion
people. Without addressing issues like malnutrition and illiteracy that
are both causes and symptoms of poverty, the goals will not be met,
stresses the report. Referring to the statistics today, it says over 13
million children have died through diarrhoea in the past decade.
Each year, over half a million women - one for every minute of the day -
die in pregnancy and childbirth while more than 800 million suffer from
malnutrition. One clear indicator of the gender crisis is the gap in
mortality rates between men and women. Despite women's biological
advantage, they have higher mortality rates in several countries, mainly
in South and East Asia.
The report mentions the "missing women" phenomenon or females estimated to
have died due to discrimination in access to health and nutrition.
Improvements have occurred in Bangladesh, Pakistan and most Arab States.
Yet, there have been only small improvements in India and deterioration in
China, it points out.
Women activists here have expressed dissatisfaction with the data
regarding gender, dismissing these as old wine in a new bottle. "There is
nothing new in the data on declining sex ratios or discriminatory
practices, resulting in a fatigue of reading," complains Ranjana Kumari of
the Centre for Social Research (CSR), a Delhi-based NGO working on women's
rights.
She feels the report has not clearly outlined the linkages between female
feticide and female infanticide to the declining sex ratios and stresses
the need for more gender-disaggregated data.
According to Gathia, children and elderly people - two major segments of
population - have not been taken into consideration while preparing data
for the report. "About 40 per cent of the population in Asia is under 18
years of age, but the report makes no linkages between adolescents and
development programs," he claims.
On the flipside, there is appreciation that the report has taken to task
rich countries - asking them to honor their commitments to deliver
financing for development. "For a change, the report is looking at the old
debate of fixing the responsibility of developed nations," notes Kumari.
"The voluntary concept has not worked and developed nations look at aid in
terms of trade benefits."
Meanwhile, Pant says that for the first time, India's Tenth Five-Year Plan
has put forward certain quantifiable human development related targets,
especially for poverty, employment and social and environmental
indicators. "These are in many ways more ambitious than the Millennium
targets, but we are committed to ensure their attainment."
� Nitin Jugran
Bahuguna
July 20, 2003
By arrangement with
Womens Feature Service
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