India rubs shoulders with the worst

UN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT

Countries at the bottom of the index better off on health of their children and women.

India has failed to make any improvement in its key development indicators. It has been ranked 128, two places below last year, in the latest United Nations Human Development Report. The downgrade has been explained due to technical reasons rather than any real fall in values.

But irrespective of the ranking, the report shows India clearly falling when its human development ranking is subtracted from its bullish GDP per capita ranking. While India's score was minus nine in the previous report, released in 2006, it is minus 11 in the latest report.

The country's poor performance in child literacy and nutrition is clearly visible as countries with overall rankings and GDP far below India's have fared better. Around 47 per cent Indian children under the age of five are under-weight, 51 per cent have less than average height for their age and 30 per cent are under-weight at birth.

While there is no comparison with China, which has been ranked at 81 and flaunts better performance in most respects, on child literacy and nutrition, India rubs shoulders with Ethiopia, Burundi and Chad, whose overall rankings are 169, 167 and 170, respectively. 
 

INDIA'S PROGRESS AT A GLANCE
	2004	2005
HDI value	0.611	0.619
Life expectancy at birth	63.6	63.7
Adult literacy rate	61	61
Life expectancy index	0.64	0.645
Education index	0.61	0.620
Gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary schools(%)	62.1	63.8
GDP index	0.58	0.59
GDP per capita rank  (PPP US$)*minus HDI rank	-9	-11
HDI rank	126	128
*Purchasing power parity

Ethiopia's 51 per cent children below five are under-height and 15 per cent have lower than average weight at birth. Chad's 45 per cent children have less than average height, 37 per cent are under-weight and 22 per cent are under-weight at birth.

In infant mortality, India has maintained its poor record with 97 deaths per 1,000 live births among the poorest 20 per cent of the population.

This can be compared with 97 deaths per 1,000 live births in Burkina Faso, which has been ranked second-last overall. Bangladesh's infant mortality rate among the poorest 20 per cent of the population is 90 (per 1,000 births). In Pakistan, this figure is 89.

The country has little to take pride for the care it provides its mothers as just 16 per cent births among the poorest 20 per cent population are attended by skilled health personnel.

This is higher than neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, where the figures are five, three and four, respectively.

This figure is 25 per cent for Mozambique, ranked 172 overall, 39 per cent for Burkina Faso, whose overall rank is second from below, and 27 per cent for Sierra Leone, which is at the bottom of the heap.

On adults who can read and write, India is on a par with sub-Saharan Africa, where the figure is 59.3 per cent. The Indian figure is 61.0 per cent, the same as in the previous report.

Mexican co-author of the report, Ricardo Fuentes Nieva, said malnutrition remained a key concern as far as India was concerned. There was no progress in bringing down infant and maternal mortality rates, he said.