NCERT Class 12 Geography Part 1 Chapter 4: Human Development YouTube Lecture Handouts

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Growth and Development

  • Both growth and development refer to changes over a period of time. The difference is that growth is quantitative and value neutral. It may have a positive or a negative sign.
  • Development means a qualitative change which is always value positive. This means that development cannot take place unless there is an increment or addition to the existing conditions
  • Development – economic growth, quality of life, opportunity and freedom.
  • A man of vision and compassion, Pakistani economist Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq created the Human Development Index in 1990. According to him, development is all about enlarging people՚s choices in order to lead long, healthy lives with dignity. UNDP has used his concept of human development to publish the Human Development Report annually since 1990. development that enlarges people՚s choices and improves and create meaningful lives.
  • Prof Amartya Sen saw an increase in freedom (or decrease in unfreedom) as the main objective of development.
  • Leading a long and healthy life, being able to gain knowledge and having enough means to be able to live a decent life are the most important aspects of human development.
  • Therefore, access to resources, health and education are the main key elements
  • Very often, people do not have the capability and freedom to make even basic choices. This may be due to their inability to acquire knowledge, their material poverty, social discrimination, inefficiency of institutions.
  • an uneducated child cannot make the choice to be a doctor because her choice has got limited by her lack of education

4 Pillars of Human Development

  • concepts of equity, sustainability, productivity and empowerment
  • Equity refers to making equal access to opportunities available to everybody across caste, greed, race, gender
  • Sustainability means continuity in the availability of opportunities across generations
  • Productivity here means human labour productivity or productivity in terms of human work. Such productivity must be constantly enriched by building capabilities in people
  • Empowerment means to have the power to make choices. Such power comes from increasing freedom and capability – good governance and people oriented policy

Approaches to Human Development

  1. Income Approach This is one of the oldest approaches to human development. Human development is seen as being linked to income. The idea is that the level of income reflects the level of freedom an individual enjoys. Higher the level of income, the higher is the level of human development.
  2. Welfare Approach This approach looks at human beings as beneficiaries or targets of all development activities. The approach argues for higher government expenditure on education, health, social secondary and amenities. People are not participants in development but only passive recipients. The government is responsible for increasing levels of human development by maximising expenditure on welfare.
  3. Basic Needs Approach This approach was initially proposed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) . Six basic needs i.e.. : health, education, food, water supply, sanitation, and housing were identified. The question of human choices is ignored and the emphasis is on the provision of basic needs of defined sections.
  4. Capability Approach This approach is associated with Prof. Amartya Sen. Building human capabilities in the areas of health, education and access to resources is the key to increasing human development.

Measuring HDI

Illustration: Measuring HDI
Illustration: Measuring HDI
  • The human development index (HDI) ranks the countries based on their performance in the key areas of health, education and access to resources. These rankings are based on a score
  • between 0 to 1
  • The indicator chosen to assess health is the life expectancy at birth. A higher life expectancy means that people have a greater chance of living longer and healthier lives.
  • The adult literacy rate and the gross enrolment ratio represent access to knowledge
  • Access to resources is measured in terms of purchasing power
  • Each of these dimensions is given a weightage of 1⟋3.
  • 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 is related to the human development index. This index measures the shortfall in human development. It is a non-income measure. The probability of not surviving till the age of 40, the adult illiteracy rate, the number of people who do not have access to clean water, and the number of small children who are underweight
  • The Human Development index and the Human Poverty index are two important indices to measure human development used by the UNDP
  • Aggregation formula for HDI =

International Comparisons

  • Bhutan is the only country in the world to officially proclaim the Gross National Happiness (GNH) as the measure of the country՚s progress. Material progress and technological developments are approached more cautiously taking into consideration the possible harm they might bring to the environment or the other aspects of cultural and spiritual life of the Bhutanese. This simply
  • means material progress cannot come at the cost of happiness. GNH encourages us to think of the spiritual, non-material and qualitative aspects of development.
  • Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago have a higher rank than India in the human development index despite having smaller economies. Similarly, within India, Kerala performs much better than Punjab and Gujarat in human development despite having lower per capita income
  • Top nations – Norway, Iceland, Australia, Luxemburg, Canada – healthcare, education, investment in social sector
  • Medium index – around 88 nations- most emerged after WWII and were former colonies – people oriented policies and reduced social discrimination
  • Low Index – around 32 nations – political instability, conflicts, ethnic clashes, civil war, diseases, famines
  • Countries with high levels of human development invest more in the social sectors and are generally free from political turmoil and instability
  • Places with low levels of human development tend to spend more on defence rather than social sectors

Manishika