UP fails to improve human development index ranking in 27 years

Uttar Pradesh failed to improve its Human Development Index (HDI) ranking over a period of 27 years, according to a report compiled by SBI research. The report is based on sub-national human development index data for Indian states from 1990 to 2017.

However, the state has improved its human development index value from 0.39 in 1990 to 0.59 in 2017. The HDI is an average of the sub-national values of three dimensions --education, health and standard of living.

Explaining further, an official of SBI research said, “The HDI is the geometric mean of normalised indices for each of the three dimensions or indicators of education, health and standard of living.”

The report states that the education indicator is measured with the variables ‘mean years of schooling of adults aged 25+’ and ‘expected years of schooling of children aged 6’, while the health indicator is measured with the variable of ‘life expectancy at birth’ and the standard of living indicator is measured considering the ‘gross national income per capita’.

The SBI research official said that despite strides undertaken in HDI value by the 25 major states of the country, “UP along with neighbouring Bihar was still among the bottom three states with respect to HDI ranking”. “Both these states have failed to change their ranking over 27 years,” he said.

However, he added, the silver lining was that the most populous state of the country, with almost 17% population share, had improved its HDI value. “The compound annual growth rate in HDI value in 2017 over 1990 is 14%,” he said.

The report also mentions that states that were among the worst performing in HDI during the 1990s had been doing well on the social parameter since 2014.

“States like Rajasthan, UP, Odisha and MP have seen the biggest jump in HDI value among the 25 major states, although not in terms of ranking,” said the official.

Meanwhile, the HDI value of India rose from 0.427 to 0.64 -- an increase of nearly 50% -- in this period. However, the country is still ranked among the lowest in the Asian and developing economies -- 130 among 189 countries.