Class 12 NCERT chapter 4 Human Development

           Human Development 

Human development is defined as the process of enlarging people's freedoms and opportunities and improving their well - being .

Growth and Development  

• Both growth and development refer to change over a period of time .
• The difference is that growth is quantitative and vale neutral .
• it may have a positive or a negative sign .
• Development means a qualitative change which is always value positive . 
• Development occurs when positive growth take place .yet, positive growth does not always lead to development .
• It occurs when there is a positive change in quality .

For many decades a country 's level of development was measured only in terms of its economic growth.

• This meant that the bigger the economy of the country .the more developed it was considered .
• Even though this growth did not really mean much change in the lives of most people 

Inclusive idea of development 

• The quality of people enjoy in a country
• The opportunities they have 
• Freedoms they enjoy.

1. These ideas were clearly spelt out for the first time in the late eighties and early nineties 

2. The works of two South Asian economists ,Mahbub- ul - Haq and Amartya sen are important in this regard.

3. The concept of human development was introduced by Dr Mahbub -ul-Haq in 1990.

4. Dr Haq described human development a development that enlarge people 's choices and improves their lives .

5. These choices are not fixed but keep on changing . the basic goal of development is to create conditions where people can live meaningful lives. 

6. A meaningful lives is that people must be healthy ,be able to develop their talent participate in society and be free to achieve their goals .

7. Access to resources , health and education are the key areas in human development 

Overall understanding of human development .

• Very often ,people do not have the capability and freedom to make even basic choices .
• This may due to their inability to acquire knowledge their material poverty , social discrimination and other reasons .

The four pillars of human development 

• The idea of human development is supported by the concepts of equity , sustainability productivity and empowerment .

Equity 

It refers to making equal access to opportunities available to everybody .

• The opportunities available to people must be equal irrespective of their gender , race income and in the Indian case ,caste. 

Sustainability

It means continuity in the availability of opportunities .

• All environmental ,financial and human resources must be used keeping in mind the future .
• Misuse of any of these resource will lead to fewer opportunities for future generations .

Productivity 

It means human labour productivity 

• It is people who are the real wealth of nations.

Empowerment 

It means to have the power to make choices .

• Such power from increasing freedom and capability .
• The empowerment of socially and economically disadvantaged groups is of special important.

Approaches to human development 

There are many ways for looking at the problem of human development 

a) Income Approach

• This is one of the oldest approaches to human development .
• Human development is seen as being linked to income .
• Higher the level of income , the higher is the level of human development .

b)Welfare Approach 

• This approach looks at Human beings as beneficiaries.
• The government is responsible for increasing level of human development activities.

c)Basic needs approach 

• This approach was initially proposed by the international labour organization.
• Six basic needs i.e. health , education, food, water supply ,sanitation, and housing were identified.

d)Capability Approach .

• This approach is associated with prof. Amartya Sen.
• Building human capabilities in the areas of heath education and access to resources is key to increasing human development .   

Measuring human development 

• The human development index (HDI) ranks the countries based on their performance in the key areas of health , education and access to resources. 
• These ranking are based on a score between 0 to1 that a country earns from its record in the key areas of human development .
• A life expectancy means that people have a greater chance of living longer and healthier lives.
• Access to resources in measured in terms of purchasing power .

Health ,Education and Access to resources 

• Each of these dimensions is given a weightage of 1/3 .
• The human development index is a sum total of the weights assigned to all these dimensions .

Human development report 

• The closer a score is to one , the greater is the level of human development 
• Score of 0.93 would be considered very high while 0.268 would mean a very low level of human development .

Limitations of the human development index 

• The human development index measures attainments in human development 
• it reflects what has been achieved in the key areas of human development

 The human poverty index 

This index measures the shortfall in human development 

• It is a non-measure 
• Often the human poverty index is more revealing than the human development index.

Human development index        Together gives an accurate picture of the human development situation 

               +                            =   in a country . 

Human poverty index 

International comparisons.

International comparisons of human development are interesting . 

• Size of the territory and per capita income are not directly related to human development . 
• Smaller countries have done better than large ones in human development. 

Ex:- Srilanka, Trinidad and Tobago higher rank than India  in the human development. index despite having smaller economies. 

Countries can be classified into four groups on the basis of the human development scores earned by them. 

Countries with very high humans development 

• Which have score of over 0.800
• This group includes 51 countries

 Countries with high human development. 

• This group includes 55 countries. 
• Providing education and health care is an important government priority . 

Countries with medium  level of human development .

• There are 39 countries in the medium level of human development. 
• Some countries from this group were former colonies while many others have  emerged after the break up if the erst While soviet union in 1990 . 
• Most of these countries have  a much higher social diversity  than the countries have a much higher social diversity than the countries with higher human development  scores. 

Countries with Low level of human development 

• As many as 38countries record low levels of human development .

International comparisons of human development 

• Low or high levels of human development depends upon pattern of government . expenditure on the social sector 
• The political environment of the country . 
• The amount of freedom people have is also important .