India has showed no progress in its ranking among countries on the human development index, according to the latest Human Development Report, for the year 2007, released today by the United Nations Development Programme. However India’s average annual growth rates for literacy, life expectancy and income have been moving up slowly.
India continues to rank 134 among 182 countries. But, between 1980 and 2007, has seen a rise in life expectancy at birth by approximately eight years, in adult literacy by 25 percentage points and an increase in combined gross school enrolment by 20 percentage points. GDP per capita also increased by 199 per cent. This marks a slow annual human development growth rate of 1.33 per cent.
India ranked 134 among 182 countries in 2007, the same as the ranking for 2006, which was released last year. Pakistan moved up one rank to 141, China moved up seven ranks to 92 and Bangladesh moved up two ranks to 146, compared to last year’s rankings.
As for the human development index, India started with 0.427 in 1980, moved to 0.453 in 1985, 0.489 in 1990, 0.511 in 1995, 0.556 in 2000, 0.596 in 2005, 0.604 in 2006 and was at 0.612 in 2007. There has been a 1.36 per cent increase between 2000 and 2007, according to the UNDP report.
China, ranked at 99, progressed from a mere 0.533 in 1980 to 0.772 in 2007. Pakistan languishes at 0.572, while Bangladesh is at 0.543. Bhutan is better off at 0.619.
The authors of the report, however, point out that progress in basic HDI for India has been consistent over the past 27 years. The country registered progress in most of its underlying indicators between 1980 and 2007, like life expectancy at birth, adult literacy and combined gross enrolment.
The report also measures India on the Human Poverty Index (HPI) and finds it ranks 88th among 135 countries.
| HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX (Indicators for 2007) | ||||||
| Country | HDI Value | Rank | Life expectancy at birth (years) | Adult literacy rate (% aged 15 and above) | Gross enrolment ratio in education (%) | GDP per capita (PPP $) |
| India | 0.612 | 134.000 | 63.400 | 66.000 | 61.000 | 2,753.000 |
| China | 0.772 | 92.000 | 72.900 | 93.300 | 68.700 | 5,383.000 |
| Bhutan | 0.619 | 132.000 | 65.700 | 52.800 | 54.100 | 4,837.000 |
| Pakistan | 0.572 | 141.000 | 66.200 | 54.200 | 39.300 | 2,496.000 |
| Nepal | 0.553 | 144.000 | 66.300 | 56.500 | 60.800 | 1,049.000 |
| Sri Lanka | 0.759 | 102.000 | 74.000 | 90.800 | 68.700 | 4,243.000 |
The HPI measures severe deprivation in health by the proportion of people who are not expected to survive to age 40. Education is measured by the adult illiteracy rate.
On adult literacy, India scores 34 per cent, while in the number of people having no access to an improved water source, it scores a respectable 11 per cent. In the matter of underweight children (under five years) India scores 46 per cent, along with Bangladesh (48), East Timor (46) and Yemen (46).
