Class 12 Geography Long Questions with Answers - Human Development

Q. 1. ”A meaningful life is just not a long one, it must be purposeful .” Support the statement with any three suitable arguments.
Ans. This means that people must be healthy, be able to develop their talents, participate in society and be free  to achieve their goals.
For example, an uneducated child cannot make the choice to be a doctor because her choice has got limited by her lack of education. Similarly, very often poor people cannot choose to take medical treatment for disease because their choice is limited by their lack of resources.  In India, a large number of women and people belonging to socially and economically backward groups drop out of school. This shows how the choice of these groups get limited by not having access to knowledge. Therefore, access to resources, health and education are the key areas in human development.

Q. 2. Discuss the spatial patterns of female literacy in India in 2011 and bring out the reasons responsible for it.
Ans. The spatial patterns of female literacy in India in 2011 is discussed below :  
(i) Overall literacy in India was approximately 74.04 per cent in 2011 while female literacy was 65.46 per cent.  
(ii) Total literacy as well as female literacy is higher than the national average in most of the states from South India.  
(iii) There are wide regional disparities in literacy rate across the states of India. There is a state like Bihar which has very low literacy rate 63.82 per cent and there are states like Kerala and Mizoram which have literacy rates of 93.91 and 91.58 per cent, respectively.
The reasons are :  
(i) T he northern states have lesser investment on female child education in comparison to male.  
(ii) The urban areas provide facilities to female with ease than in rural areas.  
(iii) The concern regarding safety and security of girls has caused most parents to disallow their child to study at far away places.

Q.3. Explain why Kerala has a higher level of human development than other states of India.
Ans. “Development is Freedom”, freedom from hunger, poverty, servitude, bondage, ignorance, illiteracy and any other form of domination is the key to human development. Kerala with the composite index value of 0.790 is placed at the top rank on Human Development Index 2011 (India). There are several socio-political, economic and historical reasons for such a state of affairs. Kerala is able to record the highest value in the HDI largely due to its impressive performance in achieving almost hundred per cent literacy (93.91 per cent) in 2011.
A part from the educational attainment, the levels of economic development too has significant impacts on HDI. Efforts to institutionalise the balanced development with its main focus on social distributive justice has been made  by the state.
Kerala has made significant achievements in most of the fields of HDI like free from illness and ailment and living a reasonably long life span are indicative of a healthy life.
Availability of pre and post natal health care 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. Kerala has done reasonably well in these areas.

Q.4. Which factors have caused spatial variations in the levels of human development among the 15 major states in India?
Ans. The factors that have caused spatial variations are:
(i) There are several socio-political, economic and historical reasons for such a state of affairs. Kerala is able to record the highest value of HDI largely due to its impressive performance in achieving near hundred per cent literacy in 2011.
(ii) In a different scenario the states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Assam and Uttar Pradesh have very low literacy. For example, total literacy rate for Bihar was as low as 63.82 per cent during the same year. States showing higher total literacy rates have less gaps between the male and female literacy rates.
(iii) Apart from the educational attainment, the levels of economic development too play significant impact on HDI.
(iv) Economically developed states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Punjab and Haryana have higher value of HDI as compared to states like Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, etc.
(v) Regional distortions and social disparities which developed during the colonial period continue to act as an important factor.

Q. 5. “Development is a mixed bag of opportunities as well as deprivation for India.” Support the statement with suitable examples.
Ans. 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. 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 group. A large segment of female population is the worst sufferers among all. The sex ratio is 943 of females to that of 1000 of males. The state of Haryana has the lowest rate of sex ratio in India and the figure shows a number of 877 of females to that of 1000 of males. There is a wide gender disparity in the literary rate of India: effective literacy rates (age 7 and above) in 2011 were 82.14% for men and 65.46% for women.

Q.6. “Development in general and human development in particular is a complex concept used in Social Sciences.” Justify this statement with suitable arguments.
Ans. No doubt human development is a complex concept because for ages it was though that the development is a substantive concept. Once it is achieved it will address all the socio-cultural and environmental ills of the society. Though development has brought improvement in quality of life but more than one way it has increased regional disparities, social inequalities, discrimination, deprivation and displacement of people.
Considering the gravity and sensitivity of the issues involved, the UNDP in its Human Development Report, 1993 tried to amend some of the implicit biases and prejudices. People participated and their security were the major issues in the Human Development Report of 1993. It also emphasised on progressive democratisation and increasing empowerment of people as minimum conditions for human development. The civil societies should work to building up opinions for reduction in the military expenditure. In a nuclearized world, peace and well-being are major global concerns.