Widening divide muddies India’s growth

India has been ranked among top 10 global countries on income gain but widening disparity between rich and poor and gender inequality have been identified as major challenges in a United Nations report released on Thursday.

Updated on: Nov 5, 2010, 01:30:58 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India has been ranked among top 10 global countries on income gain but widening disparity between rich and poor and gender inequality have been identified as major challenges in a United Nations report released on Thursday.

The Human Development Report 2010 said India gained 15 positions on global Human Development Index (HDI) because of a high income growth since 1970. However, on overall HDI, Nepal, being the second fastest HDI gainer globally, did much better.

The Real Wealth of Nations report had incorporated the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and Gender Inequality Index (GII) along with Gross Domestic Production (GDP) in the methodology devised by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq to measure HDI.

“Economic growth has been impressive but inequality is on the rise,” said Partice Coeur-Bizot, UN representative in India. The report showed that there was a 30% loss in India’s HDI value when adjusted for inequality.

Around 55% Indians are poor as per MPI and the country has been ranked 122 among 138 countries on global GII. Of the total poor on MPI in India, a majority of who live in rural India, 47% are tribals.

The report highlighted what has been high on the political stage with Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi speaking about priority to bridge rich-poor divide on Wednesday at the AICC session. “I feel we have a long way to go (to provide a decent living to all),” said Sayeeda Hamid, Planning Commission member, in-charge of health.

The world’s biggest job programme National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme got special mention for improving income in rural India but the report said the extent of gains of economic liberalisation for the society as a whole needed careful investigation. Limited reach of public health among the poor and teacher absenteeism in public schools were cited as major constraints.

South Asia indicators

South Asia continued to be poor on overall HDI indicators with half of world’s poor are in the region.

Pakistan, Bangladesh and 8 states in India among worst in the world in health and education indicators.

South Asia is characterised by relatively weaker female empowerment with an inequality loss of 35% compared to 16% in developed countries.

Nepal is the world’s third fastest HDI mover.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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