India continues to rank relatively low in terms of human development, placing 134th out of 187 countries according to the 2011 Human Development Report. While India has made progress increasing life expectancy and years of schooling, it still lags behind many of its neighbors. Female representation in Indian politics remains very low at just 10.7% in parliament, and India has a higher rate of multidimensional poverty than indices of income poverty alone would suggest.

1. HDI: INDIA STILL LAGGING
India continues to rank more towards the bottom of the ladder in terms of the
human development index (HDI), even as it seems to perform better than most of its
neighbouring countries. According to the Human Development Report, 2011, released
on Wednesday, India is defined as being in the medium human development
category and is ranked 134 out of 187 countries.
The report this time also draws a link between environment sustainability, equity
and human development. According to the report, the most disadvantaged people
carry a "double burden of deprivation" by being more vulnerable to wider effects of
environmental degradation. For instance, in developing countries at least six in ten
people experience one environmental deprivation and four in ten experience two or
more. However, it also concludes that recent progress in HDI has come at the cost of
global warming with those countries advancing the fastest in HDI showing fastest
growth in carbon dioxide emissions as well.
Compiled by Ruhi Tewari
ruhi.t@livemint.com
HDI indicators for top and bottom five countries
India's rank has risen by one in the last five years
HDI Life Expected Mean Gross Change in
rank expectancy years of years of national HDI rank
2011 at birth schooling schooling* income between
(in years) per capita 2006-11
(constant
2005 PPP $)
1 Norway 81.1 17.3 12.6 47,557 0
2 Australia 81.9 18 12 34,431 0
3 Netherlands 80.7 16.8 11.6 36,402 5
4 US 78.5 16 12.4 43,017 -1
5 New Zealand 80.7 18 12.5 23,737 0
134 INDIA 65.4 10.3 4.4 3,468 1
183 Chad 49.6 7.2 1.5 1,105 -2
184 Mozambique 50.2 9.2 1.2 898 0
185 Burundi 50.4 10.5 2.7 368 0
186 Niger 54.7 4.9 1.4 641 0
187 Congo 48.4 8.21 3.5 280 0
India's HDI trends since 1980 Life expectancy at birth
(in years)
Between 1980 and 2011, India's life 66
expectancy at birth increased by 10.1
64
years while mean years of schooling
increased by 2.5 years 62
55.3 65.4
60
58
56
54
1990 2000 2010
1980 2011
Schooling
Expected years of schooling Gross national income per capita
Mean years of schooling* (constant 2005 PPP $)
3,500
12 10.3
3,000
10
6.5 2,500
8
896 2,000
6 1,500
3,468
4 1,000
2
4.4 500
1.9 0
0
1990 2000 2010 1990 2000 2010
1980 2011 1980 2011
India's HDI indicators relative to some of its neighbours
While India falls in the broad category of medium human development countries, its neighbours
such as Pakistan and Bangladesh are considered as low human development countries
HDI Life Expected Mean Gross HDI
rank expectancy years of years of national value
at birth schooling schooling* income
2011 (in years) per capita
(constant
2005 PPP $)
134 INDIA 65.4 10.3 4.4 3,468 0.547
145 Pakistan 65.4 6.9 4.9 2,550 0.504
146 Bangladesh 68.9 8.1 4.8 1,529 0.5
157 Nepal 68.8 3.2 8.8 1,160 0.458
South Asia 65.9 9.8 4.6 3,435 0.548
India's gender inequality index (GII)** for 2011 relative to its neighbours
While India fares
Maternal Adolescent Female Population Labour
better than its mortality fertility seats in with at least force
neighbours on most ratio rate Parliament secondary participation
counts, female (number of (number of (%) education rate
representation in maternal births per (%) (%)
politics here remains deaths per
1,00,000
1000 women
aged 15-19)
abysmally low live births) Female Male Female Male
INDIA 230 86.3 10.7 26.6 50.4 32.8 81.1
Pakistan 260 31.6 21 23.5 46.8 21.7 84.9
Bangladesh 340 78.9 18.6 30.8 39.3 58.7 82.5
Nepal 380 103.4 33.2 17.9 39.9 63.3 80.3
South Asia 252 77.4 12.5 27.3 49.2 34.6 81.2
Multidimensional poverty index (MPI)***
MPI shows that income poverty tells only a part of the deprivation story and that individuals living
above the poverty line may also suffer deprivations in education, health and other living conditions.
For instance, for India the MPI headcount is 12.1 percentage points higher than income poverty
Head count Intensity of deprivation
Those suffering multiple average % of deprivation
(in %) deprivations experienced by people in
INDIA multidimensional poverty
Pakistan 53.7 52.7
Bangladesh 49.4 53.4
Nepal 57.8 50.4
64.7 54
Population vulnerable Population in severe Population below
to poverty poverty income poverty line
vulnerable to multiuple deprivations
16.4 28.6 41.6
11 27.4 22.6
21.2 26.2 49.6
15.6 37.1 55.1
*Average year of adult education (25 year and above) ** GII reflects gender based inequalities in three dimensions-
reproductive health, empowerment and economic activity ***MPI identifies multiple deprivations in the same households in
education, health and standard of living
Graphics by Ahmed Raza Khan/Mint Source: Human Development Report, 2011