New Delhi(NVI): India ranks 129 out of 189 countries on the 2019 Human Development Index (HDI), marking incremental improvement from the previous year’s ranking 130 out of 189, an official report said.
According to the key findings of the 2019 Human Development Report, released today by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),India’s HDI value increased by 50 percent (from 0.431 to 0.647), which places it above the average for countries in the medium human development group (0.634) and above the average for other South Asian countries (0.642).
South Asia was the fastest growing region (46 percent growth over the period 1990-2018), followed by East Asia and the Pacific at 43 percent.Indonesia and the Philippines both joined the ranks of countries with high human development.
UNDP India Resident Representative Shoko Noda said that for countries like India, which have shown great success in reducing absolute poverty, we hope that the 2019 Human Development Report sheds light on inequalities and deprivations that go beyond income.
“How we tackle old and new inequalities, ranging from access to basic services such as housing to things like access to quality university education, will be critical to whether we achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” she said.
“India’s development initiatives like the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (for financial inclusion) and Ayushman Bharat (for universal health care) are crucial in ensuring that we meet our promise to leave no one behind and fulfil the Prime Minister’s vision of development for all,” she added.
The report which was entitled “Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in the 21st Century” states that China leads the world in installed bandwidth, and India’s share in the world’s installed
But tertiary education rates lag significantly behind wealthier countries, with only 24.5 percent of the tertiary school-aged population in India and 44 percent in East Asia and the Pacific enrolled in higher education.
And although millions throughout the region have escaped multidimensional poverty – none more so than in India, where 271 million were lifted out of poverty from 2005-2006 to 2015-2016 — the incidence of multidimensional poverty varies enormously across countries and is till high.
Out of the 1.3 billion multidimensional poor, 661 million are in Asia and the Pacific, which shares almost half of the multidimensional poor living in 101 countries of the world. South Asia alone shares more than 41 percent of the total number of multidimensional poor. Despite India’s significant progress, it accounts for 28 percent of the 1.3 billion multidimensional poor.
The report also finds that despite progress, group-based inequalities persist on the Indian subcontinent, especially affecting women and girls.
The HDI reveals that India is only marginally better than the South Asian average on the Gender Development Index (0.829 vs 0.828), and ranks at a low 122 (of 162) countries on the 2018 Gender Inequality Index.
The report also notes that more Indian men and women were showing biases in gender social norms, indicating a backlash to women’s empowerment.
HDRO Advisory Board Chair and Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that the report gives us a much broader understanding of the factors shaping unequal life chances, from birth and through life. That wider picture is critical to mitigating inequality on a lasting basis, and achieving fair and inclusive growth.
-sb
