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Ranking India

AFTER A DECADE of an uneasy relationship with the concept of human development, the Government of India — through the Planning Commission — has prepared the first national human development report. While countries such as Myanmar and the Central African Republic put out their national reports some years ago, India is one major developing country that has until now avoided preparing a country study though some States such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Sikkim have already compiled State reports. The Government's suspicion of the idea of human development, as formulated by the United Nations Development Programme, did have something to do with a ranking system which (earlier) placed India below Pakistan. But it is unfortunate that a country where the economic and social database, in spite of all its shortcomings, is still among the best in the developing world, delayed its own estimation of national and regional levels of human development.

India's first national report confirms the trends presented in the UNDP studies, that the all-India human development index (HDI) has been increasing but slowly. The additional information we now have is of the trend from the early 1980s onwards, the HDI having increased by 26 per cent between 1983 and 1993, rose by 24 per cent between 1993 and 2001. The difference in the two time spans do not permit any inference to be drawn on the success or failure of reforms to make a dramatic difference to the average level of human development in the country. Besides, the HDI is only a number, a composite index of income, longevity and educational status which is a surrogate for a measure of human capabilities; so what matters is the direction in which this index moves and not the percentage increase or decrease. Far more revealing is what the national index masks by way of regional variations of progress since the early 1980s. It is not surprising that among the 15 large States, Kerala, with its achievements in health and education, has consistently been ranked first between 1981 and 2001, which is considerably different from what a ranking based on per capita incomes would show. However, unlike many countries and sub-national entities which would take pride in a high HDI rank, Kerala today is more concerned about how to use its past achievements in human development to expand work and income opportunities. While Bihar, again not surprisingly, ranks the lowest in the league of major States, the surprise must be in the positions of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The former shows a dramatic improvement over two decades while the latter is confined to the lower echelons. This is possibly the result of more rapid improvements in the health and education indicators in Tamil Nadu, though it would be inappropriate to pass any prediction of the long-term potential of either State on the basis of these indices.

The statistics apart, the India report is unusual in one aspect of the agenda it suggests for improving human development in the country. Where most policy prescriptions in this area take the route of greater resource allocation, especially to the health and education sectors, the Planning Commission has suggested improved governance and decentralisation in decision-making and delivery of Government services. Consistent with this prescription is the advocacy of a middle role for the state — neither heavily interventionist nor entirely minimalist. It may be an unexceptional observation but nevertheless requires reiteration, as the India report does, that one requirement for better governance must be reform of regulations and greater accountability of Government staff. Public discourse is often about high-level corruption but it is corruption at the low levels, at the citizen's interface with the Government, which is oppressive and also contributes so much to the low quality of public services, which in turn directly impacts on levels of human development.

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