Human Development Index (HDI) India report

The world recognizes India’s economic growth and its progress on millennium development goals, yet the Human Development Report 2010 says that India’s 400 million citizens are still stuck in poverty and the country has to do a lot more to make significant progress on Human Development Indices.

According to 2010 HDR report India stands at the 119th position on the Human Development Index (HDI). Though India has jumped one position during the last five years, it continues to have high absolute poverty of people living below $1.25 per day along with high incidence of multidimensionality which is characterized by lack of access to health, education and living standards.

As per the report, about 1.75 billion people live in multi-dimensional poverty and 1.44 billion live below absolute poverty in the world. While Norway, Australia and New Zealand lead the world in HDI achievement, Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe figure at the bottom of the pile among 169 countries in HDI – a composite national measure for health, education, and income.

Parallel to the advancements in the field of science and technology and many other spheres, India needs to work a lot to fight poverty and related challenges, says the report.

UN has come up with a report that suggests India is making some progress in reducing poverty. The report that tracks the progress of the international organization’s long-term goals, shows India’s poverty rate is expected to fall to 22% by 2015 from 51% in 1990.

Amidst all the poverty deaths, rising number of malnourished children in poverty stricken areas like Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Bundelkhand etc the report seems a travesty. The poverty rate though is measured by assessing the number of people who live below $1.25 a day, a threshold set by the World Bank, which is equal to Rs. 56.

The report says the improved conditions in India prove that global poverty has reduced. It concludes that by 2015 the number of people classified as living on less than $1.25 a day in developing countries will drop to less than 900 million from around 1.4 billion in 2005. Of these, the report expects around 320 million will be lifted from poverty in India and China.

The report also talks about the improved maternal health conditions, as it has declined by 63 per cent, 57 per cent and 53 per cent respectively in Eastern, South-Eastern and Southern Asia. Despite the healthcare and medical advancements, South Asia still has the second highest level of maternal mortality among all regions with 280 deaths per 100,000 live births.

The report overall shows a positive picture about meeting the poverty reduction target, aimed at reducing the number of the world’s poor between 1990 and 2015. Still many nations needs to do a lot more for people, where they are weaned of basic amenities like sanitation facility, clean water to drink, access to basic education and healthcare. However, the report sees fall in poverty rate below 15 per cent by 2015, indicating that the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target can be met.

Rank	State/Union Territory	HDI
Very High human development
1	Kerala	0.921
2	Chandigarh	0.892
3	Lakshadweep	0.796
4	Mizoram	0.790
5	Delhi	0.750
6	Goa	0.617
7	Nagaland	0.770
8	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	0.766
9	Daman and Diu	0.754
10	Pondicherry	0.748
11	Manipur	0.707
Medium Human Development
12	Maharashtra	0.689
13	Sikkim	0.684
14	Himachal Pradesh	0.652
15	Punjab	0.605
16	Tamil Nadu	0.570
17	Haryana	0.552
18	Uttarakhand	0.490
19	West Bengal	0.492
20	Gujarat	0.527
21	Dadra and Nagar Haveli	0.618
22	Arunachal Pradesh	0.617
23	Tripura	0.608
24	Jammu and Kashmir	0.529
25	Karnataka	0.519
26	Meghalaya	0.585
-	All India	0.547
27	Andhra Pradesh	0.473
28	Rajasthan	0.434
29	Assam	0.444
30	Chhattisgarh	0.358
31	Jharkhand	0.376
Low human development
32	Uttar Pradesh	0.380
33	Madhya Pradesh	0.375
34	Orissa	0.362
35	Bihar	0.367