India climbed one spot to 130 out of 189 countries in the
latest human development rankings released on September 14 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India's HDI value for 2017 is 0.640, which put the country in the medium human development category. between 1990 and 2017 India's HDI value incased from 0.427 to 0.640, an increase of nearly 50 per cent -and an indicator of the country's remarkable achievement in lifting millions of people out of poverty.
HDI 2018: key findings
Norway, Switzerland. Australia,
Irelead and Germany lead the ranking, while Niger, the Central African Republic, South Sudan. Chad and Burundi have the lowest
scores in the HDI's measurement of national achievements in health, education and income
The overall trend globally is toward continued human development improvements, with many countries moving up through the human development categories categories, out of the 189 countries for which the HDI is calculated, 59 countries are today in the very high human development group and only 38 countries fall in the low HDI group. Just eight years ago in 2010, the figures were 46 and 49 countries respectively.
Movements in the HDI are driven by changes in health, education and income. Health has improved considerably as shown by life expectancy at birth, which has increasedby alm seven years globaly with Sub Saharan Afmia
and South Asia showing the greatest progress, each experiencing increases of about 11 years since 1990. And
today's school-age children can expect to be in school for3.4 years longer than those in 1990.
Average HDI levels have risen significantly since 1990-22per cent globally and 51 per cent in least developed countries -reflecting that on average people are living longer, are more educated and have greater income. But there remain
massive differences across the world in people's well-being.
A child born today in Norway, the country with the highest HDI, can expect to live beyond 82 years old and spend almost 18 years in school. While a child born in Niger, the country with the lowest HDI, can expect only to live to 60 and spend just five years in school. Such striking differences can be seen again and again.
A closer look at the HDI's components sheds light on the
unequal distribution of outcomes in education, life expectancy and income within countries. the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) allows one to compare level
of inequality within countries, and the greater the inequality the more a country's HDI falls.
While significant inequality occurs in many countries in
cluding in some of the wealthiest ones, on average it take a bigger toll on countries with lower human development levels. Low and medium human development countries lose
respectively 31 and 25 per cent of their human development level from inequality, while for very high human development countries, the average loss is 11 per cent.
One key source of inequality within countries is the gap in opportunities, achievements and empowerment between women and men. Worldwide the average HDI for women is six percent lower than for men, due to women's lower income and educational attainment in many countries.
Overall, women's share of parliamentary seats remains low
although it varies across regions, from 17.5 and 18 1 per cent in South Asia and the Arab States, respectively; to 29 per
cent in Latin America and Caribbean and OECD countries.
Violence against women affects alls societies, and in some regions childhood marriage and high adolescence birth rates undermine the opportunities for many young women and girls. In South Asia, 29 per cent of women between the ages of 20 and 24 were married before their 18th birthday.
Key messages
Shifting the focus towards quality of Human Development
Most people today live longer, are more educated and have more access to goods and services than ever before. Even in low human development countries people's human development opment has improved significantly. But the quality of human development reveals large deficits. Living longer does not automatically mean more years spent enjoying life. Being in school longer does not automatically translate into equivalent capabilities and skills.
So shifting the focus towards the quality of human develpment will be important in monitoring future progress.
Investment in Humgn Security Essential
progress is not linear or guaranteed, and crises and challenges can reverse gains. Countries experiencing conflict show HDI losses, which can be felt for generations. Investment human security to break cycles of vulnerability and conflict is essential to reduce vulnerabilities and sustain progress
High Inequality is Fundamental challenge
persistently high inequality is a fundamental challenge to
staining future progress in human development When the HDI adjusted for inequalities, the global HDI value fall 20 percent.
disparities beteeen Women and Men Needs attention
disparities between women and men in realizing their full
potential stand as a great barrier to human development pro-
gress, holding back half the world's population. Women have
alower HDI value than men across regions and face particulararriers to empowerment all through life.
Adopt Sustainable Ppatterns
n and Consumption patterns
Adopt sustainable production and consumption patterns
Progress in human development cannot be sustained without addressing environmental degradation and climate
change, which the recent progress on the HDI has exacerbated. For human development to become truly sustainable, the world needs to break with business- as-usual approaches and adopt sustainable production and consumption patterns.
HDI 2018: India's Performance
according to the 2018 findings, between 1990 and 2017, India's HDI value increased from 0-427 to 0640, an almost S0 per cent increase, which is "an indicator that millions have when lifted out of poverty. At the same time, in what signals the glaring inequality in the country, the HDI value declines
by more than a fourth when adjusted for inequality.The value
of India's Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) falls to 0.468, a 26,8
per cent decrease, far worse than the global average decrease in the global HDI value due to inequality at 20 per cent.
26.8 per cent of India's FIDI value is lost on account of inequalities a greater loss than for most of its South Asian neighbours (the average loss for the region is 26.1 percent)
This onfirms that inequality
remains a challenge for India as it
progresses economically, though the Governmer of India and various
state governments have, through a variety of social protection meas-
ures, attempted to ensure that the
gains of economic development are
shared widely and reach the farthest first.
Despite considerable progressat the poliey and legislative levels,
women in India remain signifi-
cantly less politically, economically
and socially empowered than men.
For instance, women hold only 11.6
per cent of parliamentary seats, and
only 39 per cent of adult women
have reached at least a secondary
level of education as compared to 64 per cent males.
Female participation in the
labour market in India is 27.2 per
cent compared to 78.8 for men.
Still, India performs better than its
neighbours Bangladesh and Pakistan, ranking 127 out 160 countries the Gender Inequality Index.
Measuring Human Development
The Human Development
Index (HD) is a composite index
focusing on three basic dimen-
sions of human development: the
ability to lead a long and healthy
life, measured by life expectancy at
birth; the ability to acquire knowl-
edge, measured by mean years of
schooling and expected years of schooling, and the ability
to achieve a decent standard of living, measured by gross national income per capita.
To measure human development more comprehensively, the Human Development Report presents four other compos-ite indices:
1 The Inequality-adjusted HDIdiscounts the HDl according to the extent of inequality. The Gender Development
Index compares female and male HDI values.
2 The Gender Inequality Index highlights women's empowerment.
3 and the Multidimensional Poverty Index measures non-income dimensions of poverty
The 2018 Statistical Update retains all the composite ind
ces from the family of human development indices--the HDI,
the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI),
the Gender Development Index (GDI), the Gender Inequality
Index (GID) and the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). The methodology used to compute the first four indices is the same as the one used in the 2016 Report.
Colour-coded Dashboards:
The 2018 Statistical Update
expands the number of colour-co dashboards to five (qual-ity of hum an development, life-course gender gap, women's empowerment, environmental sustainability and socioeco-
nomic sustainability).
