NCERT Textbook: Human Development | Geography for UPSC CSE PDF Download

 Page 1


??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ?
Chapter 3
?????
???????????
Sixty years ago, Rekha was born in a family of
small farmer in Uttarakhand. She helped her
mother in household chores. While her brothers
went to school, she did not receive any
education. She was dependent on her in-laws
after she was widowed immediately after
marriage. She could not be economically
independent and faced neglect. Her brother
helped her to migrate to Delhi.
For the first time, she travelled by bus and
train and was exposed to a large city like Delhi.
After a while, the same city which attracted her
with its buildings, roads, avenues and facilities
and amenities disillusioned her.
With greater familiarity of the city, she
could comprehend the paradoxes. The jhuggi
and slum clusters, traffic jams, congestion,
crimes, poverty, small children begging on
traffic lights, people sleeping on footpaths,
polluted water and air revealed another face of
development. She used to think whether
development and underdevelopment coexist?
Whether development help some segments of
population more than the other? Does
development create haves and have nots? Let
us examine these paradoxes and try to
understand the phenomena.
Of all the paradoxes of our times
mentioned in the story, development is the most
significant one. Development of a few regions,
individuals brought about in a short span of
time leads to poverty and malnutrition for many
along with large scale ecological degradation.
Is development class biased?
Apparently, it is believed that
“Development is freedom” which is often
associated with modernisation, leisure, comfort
and affluence. In the present context,
computerisation, industrialisation, efficient
transport and communication network, large
education system, advanced and modern
medical facilities, safety and security of
individuals, etc. are considered as the symbols
of development. Every individual, community
and government measures its performance or
levels of development in relation to the
availability and access to some of these things.
But, this may be partial and one-sided view of
development. It is often called the western or
euro-centric view of development. For a
2022-23
Page 2


??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ?
Chapter 3
?????
???????????
Sixty years ago, Rekha was born in a family of
small farmer in Uttarakhand. She helped her
mother in household chores. While her brothers
went to school, she did not receive any
education. She was dependent on her in-laws
after she was widowed immediately after
marriage. She could not be economically
independent and faced neglect. Her brother
helped her to migrate to Delhi.
For the first time, she travelled by bus and
train and was exposed to a large city like Delhi.
After a while, the same city which attracted her
with its buildings, roads, avenues and facilities
and amenities disillusioned her.
With greater familiarity of the city, she
could comprehend the paradoxes. The jhuggi
and slum clusters, traffic jams, congestion,
crimes, poverty, small children begging on
traffic lights, people sleeping on footpaths,
polluted water and air revealed another face of
development. She used to think whether
development and underdevelopment coexist?
Whether development help some segments of
population more than the other? Does
development create haves and have nots? Let
us examine these paradoxes and try to
understand the phenomena.
Of all the paradoxes of our times
mentioned in the story, development is the most
significant one. Development of a few regions,
individuals brought about in a short span of
time leads to poverty and malnutrition for many
along with large scale ecological degradation.
Is development class biased?
Apparently, it is believed that
“Development is freedom” which is often
associated with modernisation, leisure, comfort
and affluence. In the present context,
computerisation, industrialisation, efficient
transport and communication network, large
education system, advanced and modern
medical facilities, safety and security of
individuals, etc. are considered as the symbols
of development. Every individual, community
and government measures its performance or
levels of development in relation to the
availability and access to some of these things.
But, this may be partial and one-sided view of
development. It is often called the western or
euro-centric view of development. For a
2022-23
24 India : People and Economy
existence of our society. Consequently, the poor
are being subjected to three inter-related
processes of declining capabilities; i.e. (1) social
capabilities – due to displacement and
weakening social ties (social capital),
(2) environmental capabilities – due to pollution
and, (3) personal capabilities – due to
increasing incidence of diseases and accidents.
This, in turn, has adverse effects on their quality
of life and human development.
Based on the above experiences, it can be
said that the present development has not been
able to address the issues of social injustice,
regional imbalances and environmental
degradation. On the contrary, it is being widely
considered as the prime cause of the social
distributive injustices, deterioration in the
quality of life and human development,
ecological crisis and social unrest. Does
development create, reinforce and perpetuate
these crises? Thus, it was thought to take up
human development as a separate issue against
the prevalent western views of development
which considers development as the remedy to
all the ills including human development,
regional disparities and environmental crisis.
Concerted efforts were made to look at
development critically at various times in the
past. But, most systematic effort towards this
was the publication of the First Human
Development Report by United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) in 1990.
Since then, this organisation has been bringing
out World Human Development Report every
year. This report does not only define human
development, make amendments and changes
its indicators but also ranks all the countries
postcolonial country like India, colonisation,
marginalisation, social discrimination and
regional disparity, etc. show the other face of
development.
Thus, for India, development is a mixed
bag of opportunities as well as neglect and
deprivations. There are a few areas like the
metropolitan centres and other developed
enclaves that have all the modern facilities
available to a small section of its population. At
the other extreme of it, there are large rural
areas and the slums in the urban areas that do
not have basic amenities like potable water,
education and health infrastructure available
to majority of this population. The situation is
more alarming if one looks at the distribution
of the development opportunities among
different sections of our society. It is a well-
established fact that majority of the scheduled
castes, scheduled tribes, landless agricultural
labourers, poor farmers and slums dwellers, etc.
are the most marginalised lot. A large segment
of female population is the worst sufferers
among all.  It is also equally true that the relative
as well as absolute conditions of the majority
of these marginalised sections have worsened
with the development happening over the years.
Consequently, vast majority of people are
compelled to live under abject poverty and sub-
human conditions.
There is yet another inter-related aspect
of development that has direct bearings on the
deteriorating human conditions. It pertains to
the environmental pollution leading to
ecological crisis. Air, soil, water and noise
pollutions have not only led to the ‘tragedy of
commons’ but these have also threatened the
? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ?????
“Human development is a process of enlarging the range of people’s choices, increasing their
opportunities for education, health care, income and empowerment and covering the full range of
human choices from a sound physical environment to economic, social  and political freedom.”
Thus, enlarging the range of people’s choices is the most significant aspect of human development.
People’s choices may involve a host of other issues, but, living a long and healthy life, to be educated
and have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living including political freedom,
guaranteed human rights and personal self-respect, etc. are considered some of the non-negotiable
aspects of the human development.
2022-23
Page 3


??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ?
Chapter 3
?????
???????????
Sixty years ago, Rekha was born in a family of
small farmer in Uttarakhand. She helped her
mother in household chores. While her brothers
went to school, she did not receive any
education. She was dependent on her in-laws
after she was widowed immediately after
marriage. She could not be economically
independent and faced neglect. Her brother
helped her to migrate to Delhi.
For the first time, she travelled by bus and
train and was exposed to a large city like Delhi.
After a while, the same city which attracted her
with its buildings, roads, avenues and facilities
and amenities disillusioned her.
With greater familiarity of the city, she
could comprehend the paradoxes. The jhuggi
and slum clusters, traffic jams, congestion,
crimes, poverty, small children begging on
traffic lights, people sleeping on footpaths,
polluted water and air revealed another face of
development. She used to think whether
development and underdevelopment coexist?
Whether development help some segments of
population more than the other? Does
development create haves and have nots? Let
us examine these paradoxes and try to
understand the phenomena.
Of all the paradoxes of our times
mentioned in the story, development is the most
significant one. Development of a few regions,
individuals brought about in a short span of
time leads to poverty and malnutrition for many
along with large scale ecological degradation.
Is development class biased?
Apparently, it is believed that
“Development is freedom” which is often
associated with modernisation, leisure, comfort
and affluence. In the present context,
computerisation, industrialisation, efficient
transport and communication network, large
education system, advanced and modern
medical facilities, safety and security of
individuals, etc. are considered as the symbols
of development. Every individual, community
and government measures its performance or
levels of development in relation to the
availability and access to some of these things.
But, this may be partial and one-sided view of
development. It is often called the western or
euro-centric view of development. For a
2022-23
24 India : People and Economy
existence of our society. Consequently, the poor
are being subjected to three inter-related
processes of declining capabilities; i.e. (1) social
capabilities – due to displacement and
weakening social ties (social capital),
(2) environmental capabilities – due to pollution
and, (3) personal capabilities – due to
increasing incidence of diseases and accidents.
This, in turn, has adverse effects on their quality
of life and human development.
Based on the above experiences, it can be
said that the present development has not been
able to address the issues of social injustice,
regional imbalances and environmental
degradation. On the contrary, it is being widely
considered as the prime cause of the social
distributive injustices, deterioration in the
quality of life and human development,
ecological crisis and social unrest. Does
development create, reinforce and perpetuate
these crises? Thus, it was thought to take up
human development as a separate issue against
the prevalent western views of development
which considers development as the remedy to
all the ills including human development,
regional disparities and environmental crisis.
Concerted efforts were made to look at
development critically at various times in the
past. But, most systematic effort towards this
was the publication of the First Human
Development Report by United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) in 1990.
Since then, this organisation has been bringing
out World Human Development Report every
year. This report does not only define human
development, make amendments and changes
its indicators but also ranks all the countries
postcolonial country like India, colonisation,
marginalisation, social discrimination and
regional disparity, etc. show the other face of
development.
Thus, for India, development is a mixed
bag of opportunities as well as neglect and
deprivations. There are a few areas like the
metropolitan centres and other developed
enclaves that have all the modern facilities
available to a small section of its population. At
the other extreme of it, there are large rural
areas and the slums in the urban areas that do
not have basic amenities like potable water,
education and health infrastructure available
to majority of this population. The situation is
more alarming if one looks at the distribution
of the development opportunities among
different sections of our society. It is a well-
established fact that majority of the scheduled
castes, scheduled tribes, landless agricultural
labourers, poor farmers and slums dwellers, etc.
are the most marginalised lot. A large segment
of female population is the worst sufferers
among all.  It is also equally true that the relative
as well as absolute conditions of the majority
of these marginalised sections have worsened
with the development happening over the years.
Consequently, vast majority of people are
compelled to live under abject poverty and sub-
human conditions.
There is yet another inter-related aspect
of development that has direct bearings on the
deteriorating human conditions. It pertains to
the environmental pollution leading to
ecological crisis. Air, soil, water and noise
pollutions have not only led to the ‘tragedy of
commons’ but these have also threatened the
? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ?????
“Human development is a process of enlarging the range of people’s choices, increasing their
opportunities for education, health care, income and empowerment and covering the full range of
human choices from a sound physical environment to economic, social  and political freedom.”
Thus, enlarging the range of people’s choices is the most significant aspect of human development.
People’s choices may involve a host of other issues, but, living a long and healthy life, to be educated
and have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living including political freedom,
guaranteed human rights and personal self-respect, etc. are considered some of the non-negotiable
aspects of the human development.
2022-23
                     25 Human Development Human Development Human Development Human Development Human Development
of the world based on the calculated scores.
According to the Human Development Report
1993, “progressive democratisation and
increasing empowerment of people are seen as
the minimum conditions for human
development”. Moreover, it also mentions that
“development must be woven around people,
not the people around development” as was the
case previously.
You have already studied the concepts,
indicators and approaches to human
development and methods of calculating the
index in your book, “Fundamentals of Human
Geography.” In this chapter, let us try to
understand the applicability of these concepts
and indicators to India.
?????? ???????????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ?????
India with a population of over 1.20 billion is
ranked 131 among 189 countries of the world
in terms of the Human Development Index
(HDI). With the composite HDI value of 0.645
India finds herself grouped with countries
showing medium human development.
Low scores in the HDI is a matter of serious
concern but, some reservations have been
expressed about the approach as well as
indicators selected to calculate the index values
and ranking of the states/countries. Lack of
sensitivity to the historical factors like
colonisation, imperialism and neo-imperialism,
socio-cultural factors like human rights
violation, social discrimination on the basis of
race, religion, gender and caste, social problems
like crimes, terrorism, and war and political
factors like nature of the state, forms of the
government (democracy or dictatorship) level
of empowerment are some factors that are very
crucial in determining the nature of human
development. These aspects have special
significance in case of India and many other
developing countries.
Using the indicators selected by the UNDP ,
the Planning Commission of India also
prepared the Human Development Report for
India. It used states and the Union Territories
as the units of analysis. Subsequently, each
state government also started preparing the
state level Human Development Reports, using
districts as the units of analysis. Although, the
final HDI by the Planning Commission of India
has been calculated by taking the three
indicators as discussed in the book entitled,
“Fundamentals of Human Geography”, yet,
this report also discussed other indicators like
economic attainment, social empowerment,
social distributive justice, accessibility, hygiene
and various welfare measures undertaken by
the state. Some of the important indicators have
been discussed in the following pages.
Indicators of Economic Attainments
Rich resource base and access to these
resources by all, particularly the poor, down
trodden and the marginalised is the key to
productivity, well-being and human
development. Gross National Product (GNP)
and its per capita availability are taken as
measures to assess the resource base/
endowment of any country. Economic
attainment and the well-being of individuals
depend on economic growth, employment
opportunities and access to assets. Over the
years the per capita income and consumption
Country HDI value Rank
Norway 0.957 1
Germany 0.947 6
USA 0.926 17
UK 0.932 13
Russian Fed. 0.824 52
Malaysia 0.810 62
Sri Lanka 0.782 72
Brazil 0.765 84
China 0.761 85
Egypt 0.707 116
Indonesia 0.718 107
South Africa 0.709 114
India 0.645 131
Bangladesh 0.632 133
Pakistan 0.557 154
Table 3.1 : Human Development Index Table 3.1 : Human Development Index Table 3.1 : Human Development Index Table 3.1 : Human Development Index Table 3.1 : Human Development Index
V V V V Values of India and some other Countries alues of India and some other Countries alues of India and some other Countries alues of India and some other Countries alues of India and some other Countries
Source: UNDP Human Development Report -2020.
2022-23
Page 4


??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ?
Chapter 3
?????
???????????
Sixty years ago, Rekha was born in a family of
small farmer in Uttarakhand. She helped her
mother in household chores. While her brothers
went to school, she did not receive any
education. She was dependent on her in-laws
after she was widowed immediately after
marriage. She could not be economically
independent and faced neglect. Her brother
helped her to migrate to Delhi.
For the first time, she travelled by bus and
train and was exposed to a large city like Delhi.
After a while, the same city which attracted her
with its buildings, roads, avenues and facilities
and amenities disillusioned her.
With greater familiarity of the city, she
could comprehend the paradoxes. The jhuggi
and slum clusters, traffic jams, congestion,
crimes, poverty, small children begging on
traffic lights, people sleeping on footpaths,
polluted water and air revealed another face of
development. She used to think whether
development and underdevelopment coexist?
Whether development help some segments of
population more than the other? Does
development create haves and have nots? Let
us examine these paradoxes and try to
understand the phenomena.
Of all the paradoxes of our times
mentioned in the story, development is the most
significant one. Development of a few regions,
individuals brought about in a short span of
time leads to poverty and malnutrition for many
along with large scale ecological degradation.
Is development class biased?
Apparently, it is believed that
“Development is freedom” which is often
associated with modernisation, leisure, comfort
and affluence. In the present context,
computerisation, industrialisation, efficient
transport and communication network, large
education system, advanced and modern
medical facilities, safety and security of
individuals, etc. are considered as the symbols
of development. Every individual, community
and government measures its performance or
levels of development in relation to the
availability and access to some of these things.
But, this may be partial and one-sided view of
development. It is often called the western or
euro-centric view of development. For a
2022-23
24 India : People and Economy
existence of our society. Consequently, the poor
are being subjected to three inter-related
processes of declining capabilities; i.e. (1) social
capabilities – due to displacement and
weakening social ties (social capital),
(2) environmental capabilities – due to pollution
and, (3) personal capabilities – due to
increasing incidence of diseases and accidents.
This, in turn, has adverse effects on their quality
of life and human development.
Based on the above experiences, it can be
said that the present development has not been
able to address the issues of social injustice,
regional imbalances and environmental
degradation. On the contrary, it is being widely
considered as the prime cause of the social
distributive injustices, deterioration in the
quality of life and human development,
ecological crisis and social unrest. Does
development create, reinforce and perpetuate
these crises? Thus, it was thought to take up
human development as a separate issue against
the prevalent western views of development
which considers development as the remedy to
all the ills including human development,
regional disparities and environmental crisis.
Concerted efforts were made to look at
development critically at various times in the
past. But, most systematic effort towards this
was the publication of the First Human
Development Report by United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) in 1990.
Since then, this organisation has been bringing
out World Human Development Report every
year. This report does not only define human
development, make amendments and changes
its indicators but also ranks all the countries
postcolonial country like India, colonisation,
marginalisation, social discrimination and
regional disparity, etc. show the other face of
development.
Thus, for India, development is a mixed
bag of opportunities as well as neglect and
deprivations. There are a few areas like the
metropolitan centres and other developed
enclaves that have all the modern facilities
available to a small section of its population. At
the other extreme of it, there are large rural
areas and the slums in the urban areas that do
not have basic amenities like potable water,
education and health infrastructure available
to majority of this population. The situation is
more alarming if one looks at the distribution
of the development opportunities among
different sections of our society. It is a well-
established fact that majority of the scheduled
castes, scheduled tribes, landless agricultural
labourers, poor farmers and slums dwellers, etc.
are the most marginalised lot. A large segment
of female population is the worst sufferers
among all.  It is also equally true that the relative
as well as absolute conditions of the majority
of these marginalised sections have worsened
with the development happening over the years.
Consequently, vast majority of people are
compelled to live under abject poverty and sub-
human conditions.
There is yet another inter-related aspect
of development that has direct bearings on the
deteriorating human conditions. It pertains to
the environmental pollution leading to
ecological crisis. Air, soil, water and noise
pollutions have not only led to the ‘tragedy of
commons’ but these have also threatened the
? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ?????
“Human development is a process of enlarging the range of people’s choices, increasing their
opportunities for education, health care, income and empowerment and covering the full range of
human choices from a sound physical environment to economic, social  and political freedom.”
Thus, enlarging the range of people’s choices is the most significant aspect of human development.
People’s choices may involve a host of other issues, but, living a long and healthy life, to be educated
and have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living including political freedom,
guaranteed human rights and personal self-respect, etc. are considered some of the non-negotiable
aspects of the human development.
2022-23
                     25 Human Development Human Development Human Development Human Development Human Development
of the world based on the calculated scores.
According to the Human Development Report
1993, “progressive democratisation and
increasing empowerment of people are seen as
the minimum conditions for human
development”. Moreover, it also mentions that
“development must be woven around people,
not the people around development” as was the
case previously.
You have already studied the concepts,
indicators and approaches to human
development and methods of calculating the
index in your book, “Fundamentals of Human
Geography.” In this chapter, let us try to
understand the applicability of these concepts
and indicators to India.
?????? ???????????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ?????
India with a population of over 1.20 billion is
ranked 131 among 189 countries of the world
in terms of the Human Development Index
(HDI). With the composite HDI value of 0.645
India finds herself grouped with countries
showing medium human development.
Low scores in the HDI is a matter of serious
concern but, some reservations have been
expressed about the approach as well as
indicators selected to calculate the index values
and ranking of the states/countries. Lack of
sensitivity to the historical factors like
colonisation, imperialism and neo-imperialism,
socio-cultural factors like human rights
violation, social discrimination on the basis of
race, religion, gender and caste, social problems
like crimes, terrorism, and war and political
factors like nature of the state, forms of the
government (democracy or dictatorship) level
of empowerment are some factors that are very
crucial in determining the nature of human
development. These aspects have special
significance in case of India and many other
developing countries.
Using the indicators selected by the UNDP ,
the Planning Commission of India also
prepared the Human Development Report for
India. It used states and the Union Territories
as the units of analysis. Subsequently, each
state government also started preparing the
state level Human Development Reports, using
districts as the units of analysis. Although, the
final HDI by the Planning Commission of India
has been calculated by taking the three
indicators as discussed in the book entitled,
“Fundamentals of Human Geography”, yet,
this report also discussed other indicators like
economic attainment, social empowerment,
social distributive justice, accessibility, hygiene
and various welfare measures undertaken by
the state. Some of the important indicators have
been discussed in the following pages.
Indicators of Economic Attainments
Rich resource base and access to these
resources by all, particularly the poor, down
trodden and the marginalised is the key to
productivity, well-being and human
development. Gross National Product (GNP)
and its per capita availability are taken as
measures to assess the resource base/
endowment of any country. Economic
attainment and the well-being of individuals
depend on economic growth, employment
opportunities and access to assets. Over the
years the per capita income and consumption
Country HDI value Rank
Norway 0.957 1
Germany 0.947 6
USA 0.926 17
UK 0.932 13
Russian Fed. 0.824 52
Malaysia 0.810 62
Sri Lanka 0.782 72
Brazil 0.765 84
China 0.761 85
Egypt 0.707 116
Indonesia 0.718 107
South Africa 0.709 114
India 0.645 131
Bangladesh 0.632 133
Pakistan 0.557 154
Table 3.1 : Human Development Index Table 3.1 : Human Development Index Table 3.1 : Human Development Index Table 3.1 : Human Development Index Table 3.1 : Human Development Index
V V V V Values of India and some other Countries alues of India and some other Countries alues of India and some other Countries alues of India and some other Countries alues of India and some other Countries
Source: UNDP Human Development Report -2020.
2022-23
26 India : People and Economy
expenditure in India has increased. As a result
there has been a consistent decline in the
proportion of population living below the
poverty line. The percentage of persons below
the poverty line in 2011-12 has been estimated
as 25.7% in rural areas, 13.7% in urban areas
and 21.9% for the country as a whole.
The data of poverty for the states show that
there are States like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,
Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar,
Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur and
Odisha, Dadra and Nagar Haveli which have
recorded more than 30 per cent of their
population living below the poverty line. Other
states like Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and
Kashmir, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland
Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand
and West-Bengal have recorded between
10 to 20 per cent of their population below
poverty line. Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa,
Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Sikkim,
Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands,
Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep  have below 10
per cent of their population living below poverty
line.  “Poverty is a state of deprivation. In absolute
terms it reflects the inability of an individual to
satisfy certain basic needs for a sustained,
healthy and reasonably productive living.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a
country does not fully reflect the quality of life
of a country. There are other factors like
housing, access to public transport, air, quality
and access to drinking water which also
determine the standard of living. Jobless growth
and rampant unemployment are some of the
important reasons for higher incidences of
poverty in India.
State % of Population
below
poverty line
Andhra Pradesh 9.20
Arunachal Pradesh 34.67
Assam 31.98
Bihar 33.74
Chhattisgarh 39.93
Delhi 9.91
Goa 5.09
Gujarat 16.63
Haryana 11.16
Himachal Pradesh 8.06
Jammu & Kashmir 10.35
Jharkhand 36.96
Karnataka 20.91
Kerala 7.05
Madhya Pradesh 31.65
Maharashtra 17.35
Manipur 36.89
Meghalaya 11.87
Mizoram 20.40
Nagaland 18.88
Odisha 32.59
Punjab 8.26
Rajasthan 14.71
Sikkim 8.19
Tamil Nadu 11.28
Tripura 14.05
Uttarakhand 11.26
Uttar Pradesh 29.43
West Bengal 19.98
Puducherry 9.69
Andaman & Nicobar Islands 1.00
Chandigarh 21.81
Dadra & Nagar Haveli 39.31
Daman & Diu 9.86
Lakshadweep 2.77
All India 21.92
Source: Press Note on Poverty Estimate, 2011-12,
Government of India, Planning Commission, July 2013
Table 3.2 : Poverty in India, 2011-12
Which one of the states in India has the highest proportion of population below poverty line?
Arrange the states on the basis of their percentage of population below poverty line in ascending order.
Select 10 states which have the high proportion of population below poverty line and represent the data by bar
diagram.
2022-23
Page 5


??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ?
Chapter 3
?????
???????????
Sixty years ago, Rekha was born in a family of
small farmer in Uttarakhand. She helped her
mother in household chores. While her brothers
went to school, she did not receive any
education. She was dependent on her in-laws
after she was widowed immediately after
marriage. She could not be economically
independent and faced neglect. Her brother
helped her to migrate to Delhi.
For the first time, she travelled by bus and
train and was exposed to a large city like Delhi.
After a while, the same city which attracted her
with its buildings, roads, avenues and facilities
and amenities disillusioned her.
With greater familiarity of the city, she
could comprehend the paradoxes. The jhuggi
and slum clusters, traffic jams, congestion,
crimes, poverty, small children begging on
traffic lights, people sleeping on footpaths,
polluted water and air revealed another face of
development. She used to think whether
development and underdevelopment coexist?
Whether development help some segments of
population more than the other? Does
development create haves and have nots? Let
us examine these paradoxes and try to
understand the phenomena.
Of all the paradoxes of our times
mentioned in the story, development is the most
significant one. Development of a few regions,
individuals brought about in a short span of
time leads to poverty and malnutrition for many
along with large scale ecological degradation.
Is development class biased?
Apparently, it is believed that
“Development is freedom” which is often
associated with modernisation, leisure, comfort
and affluence. In the present context,
computerisation, industrialisation, efficient
transport and communication network, large
education system, advanced and modern
medical facilities, safety and security of
individuals, etc. are considered as the symbols
of development. Every individual, community
and government measures its performance or
levels of development in relation to the
availability and access to some of these things.
But, this may be partial and one-sided view of
development. It is often called the western or
euro-centric view of development. For a
2022-23
24 India : People and Economy
existence of our society. Consequently, the poor
are being subjected to three inter-related
processes of declining capabilities; i.e. (1) social
capabilities – due to displacement and
weakening social ties (social capital),
(2) environmental capabilities – due to pollution
and, (3) personal capabilities – due to
increasing incidence of diseases and accidents.
This, in turn, has adverse effects on their quality
of life and human development.
Based on the above experiences, it can be
said that the present development has not been
able to address the issues of social injustice,
regional imbalances and environmental
degradation. On the contrary, it is being widely
considered as the prime cause of the social
distributive injustices, deterioration in the
quality of life and human development,
ecological crisis and social unrest. Does
development create, reinforce and perpetuate
these crises? Thus, it was thought to take up
human development as a separate issue against
the prevalent western views of development
which considers development as the remedy to
all the ills including human development,
regional disparities and environmental crisis.
Concerted efforts were made to look at
development critically at various times in the
past. But, most systematic effort towards this
was the publication of the First Human
Development Report by United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) in 1990.
Since then, this organisation has been bringing
out World Human Development Report every
year. This report does not only define human
development, make amendments and changes
its indicators but also ranks all the countries
postcolonial country like India, colonisation,
marginalisation, social discrimination and
regional disparity, etc. show the other face of
development.
Thus, for India, development is a mixed
bag of opportunities as well as neglect and
deprivations. There are a few areas like the
metropolitan centres and other developed
enclaves that have all the modern facilities
available to a small section of its population. At
the other extreme of it, there are large rural
areas and the slums in the urban areas that do
not have basic amenities like potable water,
education and health infrastructure available
to majority of this population. The situation is
more alarming if one looks at the distribution
of the development opportunities among
different sections of our society. It is a well-
established fact that majority of the scheduled
castes, scheduled tribes, landless agricultural
labourers, poor farmers and slums dwellers, etc.
are the most marginalised lot. A large segment
of female population is the worst sufferers
among all.  It is also equally true that the relative
as well as absolute conditions of the majority
of these marginalised sections have worsened
with the development happening over the years.
Consequently, vast majority of people are
compelled to live under abject poverty and sub-
human conditions.
There is yet another inter-related aspect
of development that has direct bearings on the
deteriorating human conditions. It pertains to
the environmental pollution leading to
ecological crisis. Air, soil, water and noise
pollutions have not only led to the ‘tragedy of
commons’ but these have also threatened the
? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ????? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ? ? ?????
“Human development is a process of enlarging the range of people’s choices, increasing their
opportunities for education, health care, income and empowerment and covering the full range of
human choices from a sound physical environment to economic, social  and political freedom.”
Thus, enlarging the range of people’s choices is the most significant aspect of human development.
People’s choices may involve a host of other issues, but, living a long and healthy life, to be educated
and have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living including political freedom,
guaranteed human rights and personal self-respect, etc. are considered some of the non-negotiable
aspects of the human development.
2022-23
                     25 Human Development Human Development Human Development Human Development Human Development
of the world based on the calculated scores.
According to the Human Development Report
1993, “progressive democratisation and
increasing empowerment of people are seen as
the minimum conditions for human
development”. Moreover, it also mentions that
“development must be woven around people,
not the people around development” as was the
case previously.
You have already studied the concepts,
indicators and approaches to human
development and methods of calculating the
index in your book, “Fundamentals of Human
Geography.” In this chapter, let us try to
understand the applicability of these concepts
and indicators to India.
?????? ???????????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ?????
India with a population of over 1.20 billion is
ranked 131 among 189 countries of the world
in terms of the Human Development Index
(HDI). With the composite HDI value of 0.645
India finds herself grouped with countries
showing medium human development.
Low scores in the HDI is a matter of serious
concern but, some reservations have been
expressed about the approach as well as
indicators selected to calculate the index values
and ranking of the states/countries. Lack of
sensitivity to the historical factors like
colonisation, imperialism and neo-imperialism,
socio-cultural factors like human rights
violation, social discrimination on the basis of
race, religion, gender and caste, social problems
like crimes, terrorism, and war and political
factors like nature of the state, forms of the
government (democracy or dictatorship) level
of empowerment are some factors that are very
crucial in determining the nature of human
development. These aspects have special
significance in case of India and many other
developing countries.
Using the indicators selected by the UNDP ,
the Planning Commission of India also
prepared the Human Development Report for
India. It used states and the Union Territories
as the units of analysis. Subsequently, each
state government also started preparing the
state level Human Development Reports, using
districts as the units of analysis. Although, the
final HDI by the Planning Commission of India
has been calculated by taking the three
indicators as discussed in the book entitled,
“Fundamentals of Human Geography”, yet,
this report also discussed other indicators like
economic attainment, social empowerment,
social distributive justice, accessibility, hygiene
and various welfare measures undertaken by
the state. Some of the important indicators have
been discussed in the following pages.
Indicators of Economic Attainments
Rich resource base and access to these
resources by all, particularly the poor, down
trodden and the marginalised is the key to
productivity, well-being and human
development. Gross National Product (GNP)
and its per capita availability are taken as
measures to assess the resource base/
endowment of any country. Economic
attainment and the well-being of individuals
depend on economic growth, employment
opportunities and access to assets. Over the
years the per capita income and consumption
Country HDI value Rank
Norway 0.957 1
Germany 0.947 6
USA 0.926 17
UK 0.932 13
Russian Fed. 0.824 52
Malaysia 0.810 62
Sri Lanka 0.782 72
Brazil 0.765 84
China 0.761 85
Egypt 0.707 116
Indonesia 0.718 107
South Africa 0.709 114
India 0.645 131
Bangladesh 0.632 133
Pakistan 0.557 154
Table 3.1 : Human Development Index Table 3.1 : Human Development Index Table 3.1 : Human Development Index Table 3.1 : Human Development Index Table 3.1 : Human Development Index
V V V V Values of India and some other Countries alues of India and some other Countries alues of India and some other Countries alues of India and some other Countries alues of India and some other Countries
Source: UNDP Human Development Report -2020.
2022-23
26 India : People and Economy
expenditure in India has increased. As a result
there has been a consistent decline in the
proportion of population living below the
poverty line. The percentage of persons below
the poverty line in 2011-12 has been estimated
as 25.7% in rural areas, 13.7% in urban areas
and 21.9% for the country as a whole.
The data of poverty for the states show that
there are States like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,
Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar,
Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur and
Odisha, Dadra and Nagar Haveli which have
recorded more than 30 per cent of their
population living below the poverty line. Other
states like Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and
Kashmir, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland
Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand
and West-Bengal have recorded between
10 to 20 per cent of their population below
poverty line. Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa,
Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Sikkim,
Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands,
Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep  have below 10
per cent of their population living below poverty
line.  “Poverty is a state of deprivation. In absolute
terms it reflects the inability of an individual to
satisfy certain basic needs for a sustained,
healthy and reasonably productive living.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a
country does not fully reflect the quality of life
of a country. There are other factors like
housing, access to public transport, air, quality
and access to drinking water which also
determine the standard of living. Jobless growth
and rampant unemployment are some of the
important reasons for higher incidences of
poverty in India.
State % of Population
below
poverty line
Andhra Pradesh 9.20
Arunachal Pradesh 34.67
Assam 31.98
Bihar 33.74
Chhattisgarh 39.93
Delhi 9.91
Goa 5.09
Gujarat 16.63
Haryana 11.16
Himachal Pradesh 8.06
Jammu & Kashmir 10.35
Jharkhand 36.96
Karnataka 20.91
Kerala 7.05
Madhya Pradesh 31.65
Maharashtra 17.35
Manipur 36.89
Meghalaya 11.87
Mizoram 20.40
Nagaland 18.88
Odisha 32.59
Punjab 8.26
Rajasthan 14.71
Sikkim 8.19
Tamil Nadu 11.28
Tripura 14.05
Uttarakhand 11.26
Uttar Pradesh 29.43
West Bengal 19.98
Puducherry 9.69
Andaman & Nicobar Islands 1.00
Chandigarh 21.81
Dadra & Nagar Haveli 39.31
Daman & Diu 9.86
Lakshadweep 2.77
All India 21.92
Source: Press Note on Poverty Estimate, 2011-12,
Government of India, Planning Commission, July 2013
Table 3.2 : Poverty in India, 2011-12
Which one of the states in India has the highest proportion of population below poverty line?
Arrange the states on the basis of their percentage of population below poverty line in ascending order.
Select 10 states which have the high proportion of population below poverty line and represent the data by bar
diagram.
2022-23
 27 Human Development
??????????? ??? ?? ???????? ???? ??????????? ??? ?? ???????? ???? ??????????? ??? ?? ???????? ???? ??????????? ??? ?? ???????? ???? ??????????? ??? ?? ???????? ????
Life free from illness and ailment and living a
reasonably long life span are indicative of a
healthy life. Availability of pre and post natal
healthcare facilities in order to reduce infant
mortality and post delivery deaths among
mothers, old age health care, adequate nutrition
and safety of individual are some important
measures of a healthy and reasonably long life.
???? ??? ? ??? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ? ??? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ? ??? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ? ??? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ? ??? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ??? ??? ??
The release of toxic and non-biodegradable
wastes from industries and urban sewerages,
and open defecation, etc, have created many
health hazards. The Government of India has
initiated many steps to address these problems
and the Swachh Bharat Mission is one of these.
A healthy mind lives in a healthy body and for a
healthy body, clean environment, particularly,
clean air, water, noise-free ambience and
hygienic surrounding are pre-requisites.
Municipal waste, industrial effluents and
pollutants generated by transport, etc., are
major sources of pollution in urban India. Open
defecation in rural areas and in urban slums
are a major source of pollution. The Government
of India with its flagship programme Swachh
Bharat Mission (SBM) aims at a pollution-free
environment. Its objectives are :
• making India open defecation-free and
achieving 100 per cent scientific
management of municipal solid waste,
construction of individual household latrines
(IHHL), community toilet (CT) seats and
public toilet (PT) seats;
• making provisions for the supply of clean
energy fuel LPG to all households in rural
India to reduce domestic pollution;
• providing potable drinking water to every
household to control the spread of
water-borne diseases; and
• promoting the use of non-convention energy
resources, like wind and solar energy.
State Total Female
literacy literacy
India 74.04% 65.46%
Jammu and Kashmir 68.74 58.01
Himachal Pradesh 83.78 76.60
Punjab 76.68 71.34
Chandigarh 86.43 81.38
Uttarakhand 79.63 70.70
Haryana 76.64 66.77
NCT of Delhi 86.34 80.93
Rajasthan 67.06 52.66
Uttar Pradesh 69.72 59.26
Bihar 63.82 53.33
Sikkim 82.20 76.43
Arunachal Pradesh 66.95 59.57
Nagaland 80.11 76.69
Manipur 79.85 73.17
Mizoram 91.58 89.40
Tripura 87.75 83.15
Meghalaya 75.48 73.78
Assam 73.18 67.27
West Bengal 77.08 71.16
Jharkhand 67.63 56.21
Orissa 73.45 64.36
Chhattisgarh 71.04 60.59
Madhya Pradesh 70.63 60.02
Gujarat 79.31 70.73
Daman & Diu 87.07 79.59
Dadra and Nagar Haveli 77.65 65.93
Maharashtra 82.91 75.48
Andhra Pradesh 67.66 59.74
Karnataka 75.60 68.13
Goa 87.40 81.84
Lakshadweep Is. 92.28 88.25
Kerala 93.91 91.98
Tamil Nadu 80.33 73.86
Puduchhery 86.55 81.22
Andaman & Nicobar Is. 86.27 81.84
Table 3.3 : India Literacy Rates, 2011
Source: Census of  India – 2011 (Provisional)
http://www.censusindia.gov.in
2022-23