4. Human Development

NCERT Questions:

1. Choose the right answer from the four alternatives given below:

(i) Which one of the following best describes development?

a) An increase in size

b) A constant in size

c) A positive change in quality

d) Simple change in quality

Ans. c) A positive change in quality

(ii) Which one of the following scholar introduced the concept of human development?

a) Professor Amartya Sen

b) Allen, C Semple

c) Dr Mehboob-ul-Haq

d) Ratzel

Ans. c)  Dr. Mehboob UL Haq

2. Answer the following questions in 30 words:

(i) What are the three basic areas of human development?

Ans.

a) Access to resources: It is taken as an indicator of economic condition and ability of individual to purchase goods of their demands. The indicator used to determine this is per capita income, which shows purchasing power of individuals in terms of dollars.

b) Health: Longevity of people of the country indicates the availability of healthcare services and facilities in the country. Country with higher life expectancy tends to have higher HDI.

c) Education: The adult literacy rate and gross enrolment ratio represents access to knowledge.

(ii) Name the four main components of human development.

Ans.  The four main pillars of human development are the concepts of equity, sustainability, productivity and empowerment.

(iii) How are countries classified on the basis of Human development index?

Ans.  Countries can be classified into four categories on the basis of Human Development Index as:

3. Answer the following questions in not more than 150 words:

(i)  What do you understand by the term human development?

Ans. Dr. Mehul-ul-Haq introduced the concept of human development. He described human development as a development that enlarges people’s choices and improves their lives. People are central to all development under this concept. These choices are not fixed but keep on changing. The basic goal of human development is to create conditions where people can live meaningful lives.

A meaningful life is not just a long one; it must be a life with some purpose. This means that people must be healthy. Be able to develop their talents, participate in society and be free to achieve their goals by full access to resources education and health facilities. There should be no hindrance to a person’s progress due to deprivation of life chances.

Leading a long and healthy life, being able to gain knowledge, and having enough means to be able to live a decent life are the most important aspects of human development. Building peoples capabilities in areas of health, education and access to resources is therefore important in enlarging their choices. If people do not have capabilities in these areas, their choices also get limited.

(iii) What do equity and sustainability refer to within the concept of human development?

Ans. Equity reports to making equal access to opportunities available to everybody. The opportunities available to people must be equal irrespective of their gender, race, income and in the Indian case cast. It aims at providing equal opportunities to all with no special privileges or restrictions to any person or group of persons. It is essential for human development to ensure access to resources in order to fulfil choices and lead a meaningful life.

For example, in any country, it is interesting to see which group the most of the school dropouts belong to. This should then lead to an understanding of the reasons for such behaviour. In India, a large number of women and persons belonging to social and economically backward groups drop out of school. This shows how the choices of these groups get limited by not having access to knowledge. Sustainability can be defined as using resources in a way that fulfil the needs of present generation without compromising on their availability for future generations. Sustainability reports to continuity in the availability of opportunities to have sustainable human development. Each generation must have the same opportunities. All environmental, financial and human resources must be used keeping in mind the future misuse of any of these resources will lead to fewer opportunities for future generations. Example if the key resource – coal is being overused by the present generation, it will lead to its paucity in future.  When adequate coal will not be available to future generation, the power generation capability will be hindered, which in turn will affect several infrastructure, industrial and other activities, which in turn will negatively affect the available choices and quality of life for future generations.

Question Bank:

1. Who introduced the concept of human development?

Ans. Dr. Mehboob-ul- Haq introduced the concept of human development.

2. Define human development.

Ans. Human development is the development that enlarges people’s choices and improves their lives so that they can lead a healthy, meaningful and purposeful life with dignity.

3. Which agency brings out the Human Development Report?

Ans. United Nations Development Programme publishes Human Development Report annually since 1990.

4. What are the approaches of human development?

Ans. Income approach, welfare approach, basic needs approach and capability approach are the four approaches to human development.

5. What does Human Poverty Index measures?

Ans. Human Poverty Index measures the shortfall in human development. It is in non-income measure.

6. What are the two important indices used by UNDP to measure human development?

Ans. The Human Development Index and Human Poverty Index are the two important indices used by the UNDP to measure human development.

7. Which country is ranked number one in HDI?

Ans.  Norway is ranked number one in HDI.

8. Which countries fall in the score of 0.701 to 0.799?

Ans. The high developed countries fall in the 0.701 to 0.799 criteria.

9. What do you mean by growth?

Ans. Growth is quantitative and value neutral. It may be positive or negative. It shows change with reference to time.

10. Name the four pillars of human development.

Ans. Equity, sustainability, productivity, empowerment are the four pillars of Human Development.

11. Which state in India has highest ranking in Human Development index?

Ans. The state of Kerala has the highest rank in Human Development Index (HDI).

12. What are the criteria to measure level of human development?

Ans. The criteria to measure level of human development claims that people must be healthy and educated, be able to develop their talents, participate in society, and be free to achieve their goals.

13. Give difference between Human Development Index and Human Poverty Index.

Ans.

14. Define the concept of human development.

Ans. The concept of human development was introduced by Dr. Mehboob-ul-Haq. Dr Haq has described human development as development that enlarges people’s choices and improves their lives. The basic goal of human development is to create conditions where people can live meaningful lives.

15. Leading long and healthy life is an important aspect of human development. Give an argument to support the statement.

Ans. People must be healthy. Healthy people are able to develop their talents, participate in society and be free to achieve their goals. Access the resources, health and education are the key areas in human development.

Short answer type questions:

1. How the Human Development Index (HDI) does rank the countries?

Ans. The Human Development Index ranks the countries based on their performance in the key areas of health, education and access to resources. These ranking are based on score 0 to 1. That a country owns from its record in the key areas of human development. Each of these dimensions is given away stage of 1/3. The HDI is the sum total of the weights assigned to all these dimensions. The closer a score is to 1 the greater is the level of human development.

2. What are the aspects of human development?

Ans. Leading a long and healthy life, being able to gain knowledge, and having enough means to be able to live a decent life are the most important aspects of human development. Therefore, access to resources, health and education are the key areas in human development.

3. What is meant by sustainability?

Ans. Sustainability refers to continuity in the availability of opportunities. In other words, all generations must have the same opportunities, and for all this, all environmental, financial and human resources must be used keeping in mind the future.

4. What is meant by empowerment?

Ans. It refers to having power to make better decisions and choices in life. This power comes from freedom and capability. Good governance and people oriented policies are required for empowerment of people. The empowerment of socially and economically disadvantaged people is of special importance.

5. What do you mean by Human Development Index?

Ans. Human Development Index measures attainments in human development. It reflects what has been attained in key areas of human development like education, health and standard of living. Its value lies between ‘0’ and ‘1’. ‘0’ shows the lowest level of human development.

6. What do you mean by human poverty index?

Ans. Human poverty index compliment Human Development Index and measures the shortfall in human development. It is in no-income measure.

7. How is Bhutan different and special?

Ans. Bhutan is different and special because it is the only country in the world which has officially proclaimed the Gross National Happiness (GNH) as the measure of the countries progress. It is not willing to bring material growth and technological progress at the cost of happiness of the people.

8. Differentiate between growth and development.

Ans. The difference between growth and development:

9. ‘Equity is one of the most important pillars of human development’. Explain any three human values that are required to give equal access to opportunities to everybody.

It refers to making equal access to opportunities available to everybody.

It refers to making:

a) The opportunities available to people must be equal irrespective of their gender, race, income etc.

b) Everybody should have equal access to knowledge.

10. Why are some people incapable of making the basic choices?

Ans. Very often, people do not have the capability and freedom to make even basic choices. This may be due to their inability to acquire knowledge, their material poverty, social discrimination, inefficiency of institutions and other reasons. This prevents them from leading healthy lives, being able to get educated or to have the means to live a decent life. Building peoples capabilities in areas of health, education and access to resources is therefore important in enlarging their choices. If people do not have capabilities in these areas, their choices also get limited.

For example, an uneducated child cannot make the choice to be a doctor because her/his choice has got limited by lack of education. Similarly, very often poor people cannot choose to take medical treatment for diseases because their choice is limited by their lack of resources.

11. Which examples show how the government expenditure on social sector is an indicator of human development in different area?

Ans. The pattern of government expenditure on social sector is an important indicator of level of human development in a particular region. The political environment of the country and the amount of freedom people have is also important. Countries with high levels of human development invest more in the social sectors and are generally free from political turmoil and instability. Distribution of the countries resources is also far more equitable.

On the other hand, places with low levels of human development tend to spend more on defence rather than social sectors. This shows that these countries tend to be located in areas of political instability and have not been able to initiate accelerated economic development.

12. Why does particular region of the world keep reporting low or high levels of human development? Explain by giving suitable reasons.

Ans. Size of the territory and per capita income are not directly related to human development. Often, small countries have done better than larger ones in human development. Similarly, relatively poorer nations have been ranked higher than richer neighbours in terms of human development.

Example Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago. Have a higher rank than India in the Human Development Index despite having smaller economies.

13. Explain the three major areas that decide the rank of Human Development Index in the world.

Ans. Health: The indicator chosen to assess health is the life expectancy at birth. A higher life expectancy means that people have a greater chance of living longer and healthier lives.

Education: The adult literacy rate and the gross enrolment ratio represent access to knowledge. The number of adults who are able to read and write and the number of children enrolled in schools show how easy or difficult it is to access knowledge in a particular country.

Access to resources: It is measured in terms of purchasing power. Each of these dimensions is given a weightage of 1/3. The Human Development Index is a sum total of the weights assigned to all these dimensions.

Long answer type questions:

1. Compare the social economic conditions of the people in the countries with different human development levels.

Ans. High level of Human Development group has 53 countries. Providing education and healthcare is an important government priority. Countries with higher human development are those were a lot of investment in the social sector has taken place. Altogether, a higher investment in people and good governance has set this group of countries apart from the others. Many of these countries have been the former imperial powers. The degree of social diversity in these countries is not very high. Many of the countries with high human development score are located in Europe and represent the industrialised western world. Yet there are striking numbers of non-European countries also who have made it so to this list.

Countries with medium levels of human development from the largest group, there are 39 countries in the medium level of human development. Most of these countries are countries which have emerged in the period after the Second World War. Some countries from this group were former colonies, while many other have emerged after the breakup of the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1990. Many of these countries have been rapidly improving their human development score by adopting more people oriented policies and reducing social discrimination. Most of these countries have a much higher social diversity than the countries with higher human development score. Many in this group have faced political instability and social up springs at some point of time in their recent history.

As many as 38 countries record low levels of human development. A large proportion of these are small countries which have been going through political turmoil and social instability in the form of civil war, feminine or a high incidence of diseases. There is an urgent need to address the human development requirements of this group through well thought of policies.

2. Explain the four pillars of human development.

Ans. The idea of human development is supported by the concept of equity, sustainability, productivity and empowerment.

a) Equity: Equity refers to making equal access to opportunities available to everybody. The opportunities available to people must be equal irrespective of their gender, race and income and in the Indian case, cast. Yet this is very often not the case and happens in almost every society. For example, in any country, it is interesting to see which group the most of the school dropouts belong to. In India, a large number of women and persons belonging to socially and economically backward groups drop out of school. This shows how the choices of these groups get limited by not having access to knowledge.

b) Sustainability: Means continuity in the availability of opportunities. To have sustainable human development, each generation must have the same opportunities. All environmental, financial and human resources must be used keeping in mind the future. Misuse of any of these resources will lead to fewer opportunities for future generations.

A good example is about the importance of sending girls to school. If a community does not stress the importance of sending girl child to school, many opportunities will be lost to these young women when they grow up. Their career choices will be severely curtailed and this would affect other aspects of their lives. So each generation must ensure the availability of choices and opportunities to its future generations.

c) Productivity: Means human labour productivity, or productivity in terms of human work. Such productivity must be constantly enriched by building capabilities in people. Ultimately, it is people who are the real wealth of nations. Therefore, an effort to increase their knowledge or provide better health facilities ultimately leads to better work efficiency.

d) Empowerment: Empowerment means to have the power to make choices. Such power comes from increasing freedom and capability. Good governance and people oriented policies are required to empower people. The empowerment of socially and economically disadvantaged groups is of special importance.

3. What are the different approaches or ways of looking at the problem of human development?

Ans. Some of the important approaches of looking at human development are:

Income approach: This is one of the oldest approaches to human development. Human development is seen as being linked to income. The idea is that the level of income reflects the level of freedom that an individual enjoys. Higher the level of income, the higher is the level of human development.

Welfare approach: This approach looks at human beings as beneficiaries or targets of all development activities. The approach argues for higher government expenditure on education, health, social secondary and amenities. People are not participants in development, but only passive recipients. The government is responsible for increasing levels of human development by maximising expenditure on welfare.

Basic needs approach: This approach was initially proposed by International Labour Organization (ILO). Six basic needs that are health, education, food, water supply, sanitation and housing were identified. The question of human choices is ignored and the emphasis is on the provision of basic needs of defined sections.

Capability Approach: This approach is associated with Prof. Amartya Sen Building human capabilities in the areas of health, education and access to resources is the key to increasing human development.

4. The Human Poverty Index is more revealing than the Human Development Index. Explain with examples.

Ans. The human development index measures attainments in human development. It reflects what has been achieved in the key areas of human development. Yet it is not the most reliable measure. This is because it does not say anything about the distribution. The Human Poverty Index (HPI) is related to the Human Development Index. This index measures the shortfall in human development. It is a non-income measure. The probability of not surviving till the age of 40, the adult literacy rate, the number of people who do not have access to clean water and the number of small children who are underweight are all taken into account. To show the shortfall in human development in any region often the Human Poverty Index is more revealing than the Human Development Index. Looking at both these measures of human development together gives an accurate picture of the human development situation in a country.

The ways to measure human development are constantly being refined, and newer ways of capturing different elements of human development are being researched. Researchers have found links between the level of corruption or political freedom in a particular region. There is also a discussion regarding a political freedom index and a listing of the most corrupt countries.

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