Human Development Index - State Level Analysis

In accordance with UNDP Human Development Report, the Planning Commission of India came out with a similar kind of report in 2001. The report analysed human development situation in major states of India which include the then undivided Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

There is a north south divide barring a few exceptions. All the southern Indian states are doing well except Andhra Pradesh. On the other hand most of northern states except Punjab and Haryana are doing badly in human development index. These northern states are given an accronym “BIMARU” (whcih stands for Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh).

Apart from north-south divide, there exists a east - west divide also. Western states like Gujarat and Maharashtra are doing fairly well in comparison to eastern states - Orissa, and Assam. Both these states are below national average. West Bengal is exactly positioned at the national average. Therefore there is a need to pay a greater attention to those states which are not doing well in HDI. An efforts should be made in these states to improve human development index.

Development Radars are diagrammatic representation of progress in HDI prepared, separately for rural and urban areas on eight distinct social indicators for two points of time, i.e. early 1980 and early 1990. Development Radars were constructed for all the states. The indicators have been included with a view to reflect attainments on three critical dimensions of well being - longevity, education and command over resources.

At the same time development radar (DR) highlights the progress in meeting out the basic human needs of accessibility to safe drinking water and shelter. The social indicators selected for the construction of Development Radars (DR) are:

  1. Per-capita consumption expenditure.
  2. Incidence of poverty as captured by the head count ratio.
  3. Access of safe drinking water.
  4. Proportion of households with pucca houses.
  5. Literacy rate for the age group of 7 years and above.
  6. Intensity of formal education (indicators based on weighted enrolment in successive classes adjusted for non enrolled children in the age group of 6-18 years).
  7. Life expectancy at the age of one year.
  8. Infant mortality rates.

The indicators scale through a magnitude from zero to five. Here, zero corresponding to least achievement while five given to maximum achievement.