India rose by one rank in the Human Development Index this year. The country ranks 130 out of total 189 countries measured, the HDI value of India increased 0.64 this year from 0.636 last year. This puts India in medium human development category. Human Development Index (HDI) is very comprehensive index which is prepared, primarily on the basis of education, health, and standard of living. To measure health it factors life expectancy at birth, for education it means years of schooling and for standard of living its gross national income per capita. “Today’s Indian school-age children can expect to stay in school for 4.7 years longer than in 1990. India’s gross national income (GNI) per capita increased by a staggering 266.6% between 1990 and 2017,” the report said.
India improved significantly in every area of human development index in post economic liberalization period. Healthy GDP growth has enabled the government to collect more taxes and spend it on welfare like health education. The country has HDI value of 0.427 in 1990 while in 2018 it has reached 0.64, almost 50 percent increase. This indicates that millions of Indians had been lifted out of poverty in post economic liberalization period due to economic growth and government spending on health and education. This would also be a slap on the face of the left leaning critics of economic liberalization. UN director for India praised government programs like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Swachh Bharat, Ayushman Bharat which will improve country ranking in the upcoming years. “Development schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Swachh Bharat, and Make in India, are aimed at universalizing school education and health care. These will be crucial in ensuring that the upward trend of human development accelerates and also for achieving the Prime Minister’s vision of development for all and the key principle of the Sustainable Development Goals—to leave no one behind,” said Francine Pickup, country director, UNDP India.
The report highlighted socio-economic inequalities faced by women in the country. The poor condition of women in the country takes India’s HDI score low, therefore government schemes on gender empowerment are need of the hour. “For a country that has made such remarkable progress, pockets of deprivation continue to prevent millions of people from fulfilling their true potential. Women especially continue to have a lower HDI than men, primarily because of fewer opportunities in education and at work,” Pickup said in an interview. Inequality came out as main hindrance in the path of making a great leap forward in human development. The value of India’s Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) falls to 0.468, a 26.8 per cent decrease, far worse than the global average decrease in the global HDI value due to inequality at 20 per cent. One decade of crony capitalism during UPA year certainly contributed in the increased inequality in the country. Corruption, tax evasion, black money, benami properties were tools of the rich people to remain rich and this was the main reason behind increased inequality. Modi government took steps to crackdown black money, shell companies, tax evasion, benami properties. These steps resulted in substantial increase in the number of taxpayers, The number of total Income tax Return (ITR) filers has gone up to 6.92 crores compared to 5.61 crores in 2016-2017 due to demonetization, which indicates whopping growth by 26%. This financial year GST is expected to drive growth in number of taxpayers. The increased tax collection could be used for universalizing school education and financing Modicare. Universalizing school education and healthcare combined with good GDP growth will certainly help the county in improvement of HDI value.