UNDP Human Development Index 2022

UNDP Human Development Index 2022

India has been ranked 132 out of 191 countries in the recently released Human Development Report 2021-22 by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Last year the country was ranked 131st

Key Points

• This year’s report is titled “Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping Our Future in a Transforming World”.
• India’s HDI value during 2021 was 0.633, lower than the world average of 0.732. In 2020 also, India recorded a decline in its HDI value (0.642) as compared to the pre-Covid level of 2019 (0.645).
• Gross National Income (GNI) per capita: India’s GNP per capita (2017 PPP) at $6,590.
• India’s Life expectancy at birth: In 2021, India’s life expectancy at birth was recorded at 67.2 years.
• India’s Life expectancy at birth: The decline in India’s HDI from 0.645 in 2018 to 0.633 in 2021 can be attributed to falling life expectancy at birth.
• Access to knowledge: The expected years of schooling in India is 11.9 years and the average years of schooling is 6.7 years.

Top 5 countries

Switzerland has been ranked first in the report of the United Nations Human Development Index. It is followed by Norway, then Iceland, Hong Kong and Australia in fifth place.

India’s Neighbours

Sri Lanka has been ranked 73rd in the Human Development Index. With this China is ranked 79th, Bhutan 127th, Bangladesh 129th, Nepal 143rd and Pakistan 161st.

What is Human Development Index?

The HDI is an average measure of basic human development achievements in a country measured by UNDP. It is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.

Definition of Human Development Index

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical tool used to measure a country’s overall achievement in its social and economic dimensions. The social and economic dimensions of a country are based on the health of people, their level of education attainment, and their standard of living.

Origin of HDI

Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq created HDI in 1990 which was further used to measure the country’s development by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Calculation of the index combines four major indicators: life expectancy for health, expected years of schooling, mean of years of schooling for education, and Gross National Income per capita for standard of living.

Every year UNDP ranks countries based on the HDI report released in their annual report. HDI is one of the best tools to keep track of the level of development of a country, as it combines all major social and economic indicators that are responsible for economic development.

Criticism of the Human Development Index (HDI)

Critics argue that the HDI assigns weights to certain factors that are equal tradeoffs when these measurements may not always be equally valuable. For example, countries could achieve the same HDI through different combinations of life expectancy and GNI per capita. This would imply that a person’s life expectancy has an economic value.

An additional year of life would add to the GNI and thus be different in countries with different GNI per capita.

It also correlates factors that are more common in developed economies. For example, a higher level of education would tend to lead to higher GNI per capita. Critics argue the benefit or lack thereof of including two highly correlated values when perhaps one would be a better indicator of a country’s well-being.

The HDI also fails to take into account factors such as inequality, poverty, and gender disparity. A country with a high value for GNI per capita would indicate a developed country, but what if that GNI is reached by marginalizing certain genders or ethnic classes? And what if that GNI is achieved by a small percentage of the population that is wealthy and, therefore, ignores the poor?

Furthermore, the values of the factors that make up the HDI are bound between 0 and 1. This means that certain countries that already have high GNIs, for example, have little room to improve in terms of GNI score even if their GNI continues to grow and improve. This same parameter affects the logic of the life expectancy score.

Why Is the Human Development Index (HDI) Controversial?

The HDI is controversial because it is highly influential yet considered to be deeply flawed. The United Nations itself even admits that the HDI is not “a comprehensive measure of human development” and that the index is slow to reflect recent policy changes and improvements to the lives of a nation’s citizens.

What Are the Biggest Criticisms of the HDI?

The HDI was designed to measure development not just in terms of how much money people have but also in terms of education and length of life. The problem is not everyone is happy about the choice of indicators nor the way they are aggregated.

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