The global index

In other words, going by the evidence presented in the latest UNDP Report, human development in this country, such as it is, seems to be an essentially flawed enterprise that has not touched the lives of millions of Indians, especially if they live in rural areas or happen to be female. Even if the country’s income profile has to continue on an upward trajectory in a sustainable fashion, it would necessitate putting education and gender concerns on the national radar screen as quickly andeffectively as possible.

Such a task assumes even more urgency in an increasingly globalising world — the theme, incidentally, of this year’s UNDP Report. If there has been one development that has put its stamp on the decade that is just about to end, it is the increasing interdependence of the world’s denizens given the “shrinking space, shrinking time and disappearing borders” caused by the processes of globalisation. There is a recognition here of the awesome power of globalisation to bring economic and social benefits to societies, but it is tempered with the realisation that it is too important a phenomenon to be left unmanaged given its potential to cause tremendous damage as well.

Therefore trying to stop the expansion of global markets is bound to be a self-defeating exercise. Instead, the Report argues, it would be far better to find ways to ensure that globalisation works for people, not just profits. Universal values, like a commitment to natural justice and a respect for the human rightsand lives, must govern globalisation if it is to have a human face.

This is the tenth year of the UNDP Human Development Report — an annual project that was conceived and directed by the late economist Mahbub ul Haq. The exercise has its obvious weaknesses. For one, since it is written from a global perspective, it is unlikely to illuminate significantly trends at the local level. The HDI index is arrived at on the basis of three parameters — life expectancy, educational attainment and the capacity to buy basic goods and services.

Some economists have found this an inadequate base on which to compute something as complex as human development and such criticism had prompted the instituting of the Gender Development Index and Gender Empowerment Measure in 1995. Yet, with all its shortcomings, UNDP’s Human Development Report provides some extremely useful pointers on the state of a nation’s development, the hits and the misses.