Overview
• words ‘growth’ and ‘development’ are not new to you. Look around you, almost everything that you can see [and many that you cannot] grows and develops.
• This chapter discusses concept of human development as it pertains to nations and communities.
Growth and Development
• Growth and development are both terms that allude to changes through time, but distinction between two is that growth is quantifiable while development is qualitative. As a result, progress is always beneficial.
• Growth can be good, negative, or neutral, and it is not always associated with progress.
• When there is a good change in one’s traits, this is known as development. Previously, economic growth and country development were viewed as one, but now they are analysed separately.
Human Development
• Dr. Mahbub-ul-Haq first proposed this notion in 1990. Human growth is defined as a process that broadens people’s choices and improves their lives, allowing them to live more meaningful life.
• This implies that people may develop their talents, participate in society, and pursue their goals freely. Prof. Amartya Sen believes that fundamental goal of development is to expand freedom. ability to make choices leads to growth, and social and political institutions play a key part in this process.
• Building people’s health, education, and fair access to resources promotes their freedom and expands their options.
Four Pillars of Human Development
• notions of four pillars of development underpin concept of human development:
(1) Equity: It refers to everyone having equal access to opportunities, regardless of their gender, colour, wealth, or caste.
(2) Sustainability: It implies that possibilities will continue to be available in future, allowing future generations to benefit from current available resources.
(3) Productivity: It refers to human labour that must be enhanced by development of human skills.
(4) Empowerment: This is defined as ability to make decisions based on increased freedom and competence.
Approaches to Human Development
[a] Income Approach [b] Welfare Approach [c] Basic Needs Approach [d] Capability Approach
• There are four ways of looking at or approaching problems of human development. Some of important approaches are:
(1) Income Approach: This theory connects development to income since it argues that one’s level of freedom is determined by one’s income.
(2) Basic Needs Approach: emphasis of this method is on meeting six fundamental needs: health, education, food, water, sanitation, and shelter.
(3) Welfare Approach: government is responsible for providing fundamental services such as health, education, and utilities to citizens under this system.
(4) Capability Approach: This approach is connected with Prof. Amartya Sen and strives to promote human development by building human capacities in health, education, and resource access.
Measuring Human Development
• Following are ways of measuring human development:
(1) Human Development Index: Human development is quantified using Human Development Index [HDI], which assigns a score from 0 to 1 to nations based on their performance in important categories such as health, education, and resources availability. It’s sum of weights given to health, education, and resource access. Life expectancy at birth is an indicator of access to health, adult literacy rate and gross enrollment ratio are indicators of access to knowledge, and resources are assessed in terms of purchasing power.
(2) Human Poverty Index: This is related to human development index. This index measures shortfall in human development. This is non-income measure. probability of not surviving till age of 40, adult literacy rate, number of people not having access to clean drinking water, and number of small children who are underweight are all taken into account to show shortfall in human development in any region. This index is more revealing than human development index.
• Gross National Happiness: It is a different way of measuring human development, and Bhutan is only country in world that uses GNH to track its growth. GNH promotes development that is both qualitative and sustainable.
• United Nations Development Programme: Since 1990, United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] has published Human Development Report, which uses Human Development Index and Human Poverty Index to measure progress.
International Comparisons
• When analysing human development of different nations, it becomes clear that territorial size and per capita income are unrelated to human development.
• nations are divided into four categories for comparative purposes based on their human development scores.
Very High Level of Human Development
• It includes all countries with a score of more than 0.800. This category consists of 66 nations.
• Norway, Australia, Netherlands, United States, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Germany, & Sweden are among top ten nations with a very high value index.
• This group of countries prioritizes education and healthcare as significant government priorities, and they invest heavily in social sector.
High Level of Human Development
• This is made up of countries with scores ranging from 0.700 to 0.799. There are 53 of them.
• These nations have a high degree of human development due to good administration and significant investments in social sector.
Medium Level of Human Development
• There are 37 nations in this category, with scores ranging from 0.550 to 0.699.
• Many of these nations were once colonies, and they now face political unrest as well as a wide range of socio-economic issues.
Low Level of Human Development
• There are 33 nations in this category, all having a score below 0.549. These nations are experiencing political unrest, social unrest, civil conflict, hunger, & disease outbreaks.
• Culture, religion, & community are not predictors of human growth, according to internal comparisons. Rather, distribution of resources, pattern of government spending on social sector, political climate, amount of freedom individuals have, and amount of freedom they have all play a key part in human development.