EDUCATION

1. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS
A. Human Development Index (HDI): - Growth in national income (GNP) or per
capita income considered above as indicator of economic growth does not
represent a true and adequate measure of welfare and economic development of
the people of a country. Therefore, a need was felt to put forward an index which
should truly and correctly reflect the level of economic welfare and economic
development of a nation.
Thus, Human Development Report (1997) states, “Income is clearly only one
option that people would like to have, though an important one. But it is not
the sum total of their lives. Income is also a means, with human development,
the ends.” Human development index is a composite measure of three aspects of
good life and well-being. Three questions were raised regrading what people want
in order to have a good and cherished life.
Answers Provided Were: -
1. People want to lead a long and healthy life.
2. They want to be educated and to acquire knowledge, and
3. They want to have access to resources so that they enjoy a decent standard of
living. In other words, they want to have a per capita income which is high
enough to ensure them a decent standard of living.
The concept of human development has been development by a number of
economists, prominent among who are Dr. Mehbub- Ul- Haq and Nobel Laurate Dr.
Amartya Sen Explaining the concept of human development, Prof. Amartya Sen
writes, “ The process of widening people’s choices and level of well-being
they achieve are the core of the notion of human development. But
regardless of the level of development, the three essential choices for people
are to lead a long and healthy life to acquire knowledge and have access the
resources needed for a decent standard of living. Human Development does
not ends there, however, other choices highly valued by many people range
from political, economic and social freedoms to opportunities for being
creative and productive and enjoying self-respect and guaranteed human
rights.”
It is clear from this that in the concept of human development Prof. Amartya Sen
would like to include the social, economic and political freedoms as well as human
rights they enjoy in a country. Therefore, the latest Human Development Report
consider and assess performance of the countries in respect of these questions of
freedoms and human rights along with the three indicators or criteria.
Indicators of Human Development Index: -
The there criteria or indicators which represent different aspects of good life or the
three goals of human development are:
1. Longevity: - It is measured by life expectancy at birth. Life expectancy at birth
means how many years a newly born infant can hope to live in this world. This
represents element of health in the human Development.
2. Education or Knowledge: - It is measured by the weighted averaged of adult
and mean years of schooling. For this 2nd
/3rd
weight is given to adult literacy and
1st
/3rd
weight is given to the mean years of schooling.

2. 3. Standard of living: - It is measured by real per capita income of a country at
purchasing power parity (PPP) prices, that is adjusted for purchasing power of
currencies of different countries.
Let us explain how Human Development Index (HDI) is estimated for different
countries. There are three goals of development, namely, better health as
measured by life expectancy birth, better education or knowledge as measured
by literacy rate and standard of living as measured by per capita income
measured in terms of purchasing power parity prices in US dollars. To construct
human development index, fixed minimum and maximum values are token for
each variable or comment included in the index.
For example, for life expectancy at birth the range is 25 to 82 years, for literacy
rate the range is 0% to 100% and for per capita income the range is $ 100 to $
40,000 in terms of (PPP) US Dollar. The value of each component of human
development index is calculated by using the following formula-
HDI for individual component =
If the actual value of an individual variable in HDI of country is equal to the
minimum is equal to the maximum value, the index of that component will be equal
to one.
B. Human Poverty Index (HPI)- The Human Poverty Index was an indication of
poverty of community in a country, developed by the United Nations to complement
the Human Development Index and was first replied as part of the Human
Deprivation Report in 1997. It is considered to better reflect the of deprivation
countries compared to the HDI. In 2010 it was supplanted by the UN’s Multi-
dimensional Poverty Index.
The HPI concentrates on the deprivation in the three essential elements of human
life already reflected in the HDI: longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of
living. The HPI is derived separately for developing (HPI-1) and group of select
high-income OECD countries (HPI-2) to better reflect socio-economic differences
and also the widely different measures of deprivation in two groups-
For Developing Countries (HPI-1)
The Human Development Reports website summarize this as “A composite index
measuring deprivations in the three basic dimensions captured in the human
development index – a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent
standard of living.” The formula for calculating is:
 HPI-1=
: Probability at birth of not surviving to age 40(times 100)
: Adult illiteracy rate.
: Arithmetic average of 3 characteristics.
1. The percentage of the population without access to safe water.
2. The percentage of the population without access to health services.
3. The percentage of malnourished children under five.
Actual Value – Minimum Value
Maximum Value – Minimum Value

3. For Selected High-Income OECD Countries (HPI-2) –
The human development reports website summaries this as “A composite index
measuring deprivations in the four basic dimensions captured in the human
development index- a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of
living- and also capturing social exclusion.” The formula for calculating it is:
 HPI-2=
: Probability at birth of not surviving to age 60(times 100).
: Adults lacking functional literacy skills.
: Population below income poverty line (50% of median adjusted
household disposable income)
: Rate of long-term unemployment (lasting 12months or more)
C. Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)-
According to Amartya Sen, economic development needs to be defined in terms of
‘entitlement’ and ‘capability’. By entitlement we mean a set of alternative commodity
bundles that an individual can command through the totality of rights and
obligations that on facts.
Thus, entitlement generates ‘capabilities’ that represent a person’s achieve various
functions combinations.
In other words, capability is essentially one of the freedoms. And by economic
development Sen suggests capability expansion or expansion of freedoms. For
instance, poverty is a failure to achieve certain minimum capabilities. Un-freedoms
like hunger, malnutrition, poverty, poor health, economic insecurity, poor schooling
and health care, etc generate inequalities. Despite remarkable growth, a vast
section of population of the contemporary society is deprived of basic freedoms.
One such un-freedom is gender bias.
Through HDI incorporates some aspects of human development, inequalities in
opportunities between men and women are missed out in HDI. Because of gender
bias in health care, mortality rates of women are high compared to men. It is the
adverse sex ratio as observed in Asia and North Africa which is attributed to
‘missing women’ concept. Above all, in respect of allocation of health care,
schooling, food and nutrition, the neglect of women is rampant. All these reflect
gender related inequality.
With the advancement of economic progress as well as social progress, such clear-
cut bias against women should have declined. Unfortunately, such trend is on the
raise. Capability deprivation results in gender inequality. Through sex-selective
abortion, female foetuses are eliminated so that no female child born. In 1998, as a
result, for the world as a whole, shortfall of women relative to man exceeded 100
million. This is called ‘missing women’.
The 2012 World Development Report puts this figure to 3.9million in low income
countries. Substantive freedoms that a male member enjoys are denied of female
member. For example, women eat less and get little medical attention. Educational
gender gap is also perceptible. Women have no or little power or authority over any
household decision making process. Outside the home, women are politically
marginalised. All these reflect gender disparity.
To measure the extent of this disparity or inequality, the UNDP in 1995 took a new
initiative to construct an index called ‘gender-related development index’ (GDI). In

4. addition, in order to close this gap, women used be empowered. To measure the
extent of empowerment of women, the UNDP devised ‘gender empowerment index’
(GEI) also in 1995.
The HDI measures achievements in human development in terms of three
indicators, but ignores differences between men and women. Gender differentials in
achievement are studied with the index called GDI. Like the HDI, GDI measures
achievements in the same three dimensions and variables in respect of men and
women.
These Three Dimensions May Now Be Recapitulated: -
i. A long healthy life, as measured by expectancy at birth.
ii. Knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy rate and combined primary,
secondary and tertiary gross enrolment ratio. And
iii. Estimated earned income measured by US$.
Before calculating GDI, an index requires to be created for each of these dimensions.
To, calculate these dimension indices, minimum and maximum values for female
and male indices in each dimension are calculated in accordance with the following
formula: -
Dimension Index= Actual Value – Minimum or Maximum Value – Maximum Value.
The gender disparity, lower the GDI. Countries that have achieved some success in
expanding capabilities for both men and women will have higher GDI. A country having a
GDI less than 0.500 indicates larger gender disparity.
How is GDI Constructed?
In HDI, the life expectancy index at birth of a country is calculated. But in the case of GDI,
life expectancy at these are combined in a way that ‘penalises’ differences in achievement
between men and women. The index thus obtained is called ‘equally distributed life
expectancy index’.
The Formula Of This Index Is: -
Equally Distributed Index=
{[Female Population Share (Female Index 1-E)] + [Male Population Share (Male Index
1- E)]}
‘E’ measures the inequality aversion. In the GDI, ‘E’ is assumed to be equal to 2. If
E=0 then GDI equals HDI. As E tends to infinity widens.
The calculation procedure of GDI involves the following four steps: -
i. Calculating The Equally Distribution Life Index: -
Out of 102.9 crore Indian population in 2001 census, male members (53.2
crore) exceeded female members. Life expectancies at birth for Indian women
and men were 66.9 years and 63.9 years.

5. ii. Calculating The Equally Distributed Education Index: -
First. The adult literacy rates for women and men are determined. Secondly, the
combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrolment ratios for women and
men are calculated.
Now, we will calculate the education index for both women and men. To do this,
two-thirds weight to adult literacy index and one-third weight to the across
enrolment index are assigned to obtained both female and male education
indicates.
Education Index= 2/3(Adult Literacy Index) + 1/3(Gross Enrolment Index)
Female Education Index= 2/3(0.537) + 1/3(0.753) = 0.551
Male Education Index= 2/3(0.753) + 1/3(0.660) = 0.722
iii. Calculating The Equally Distributed Income Index: -
Finally, female and male index income(based on PPP US$) is calculated.
Income Index
=
Log (Actual Value) – Log (Minimum Value)
Log (Maximum Value) – Log (Minimum Value)
FEMALE
Estimated Earned Income ($) = 1474
Income Index = 0.449
MALE
Estimated Earned Income ($) = 4723
Income Index = 0.643