Bihar Human Development Index | BPSC Preparation: All subjects - BPSC (Bihar) PDF Download

Human Development Index

• Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. But human development is also the objective, so it is both a process and an outcome.
• Human development implies that people must influence the processes that shape their lives. In all this, economic growth is an important means to human development, but not the end.
• Human development is the development of the people through building human capabilities, by the people through active participation in the processes that shape their lives and for the people by improving their lives.

Human development Index

• It is broader than other approaches, such as the human resource approach, the basic needs approach and the human welfare approach.
• The composite Human Development Index (HDI) integrates three basic dimensions of human development. Life expectancy at birth reflects the ability to lead a long and healthy life. Mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling reflect the ability to acquire knowledge. And gross national income per capita reflects the ability to achieve a decent standard of living
• To measure human development more comprehensively, the Human Development Report also presents four other composite indices.
• The Inequality-adjusted HDI discounts the HDI according to the extent of inequality. The Gender Development Index compares female and male HDI values.
• The Gender Inequality Index highlights women’s empowerment. And the Multidimensional Poverty Index measures nonincome dimensions of poverty.

Human development—a people-centred approach

• Human development is about acquiring more capabilities and enjoying more opportunities to use those capabilities. With more capabilities and opportunities, people have more choices, and expanding choices is at the core of the human development approach. But human development is also a process.
• Anchored in human rights, it is linked to human security. And its ultimate objective is to enlarge human freedoms. Human development is development of the people through the building of human resources, for the people through the translation of development benefits in their lives and by the people through active participation in the processes that influence and shape their lives.
• Income is a means to human development but not an end in itself. The human development approach in the 1990 Human Development Report also introduced a composite index, the Human Development Index (HDI), for assessing achievements in the basic dimensions of human development. Those dimensions of human development are to lead a long and healthy life, measured by life expectancy at birth; to acquire knowledge, measured by mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling; and to achieve a decent standard of living, measured by gross national income per capita.

Life Expectancy at Birth

• The indicator of life expectancy at birth is used to measure the realised achievement in the health dimension, that is, ‘to be able to live a long life’.
• The life expectancy at birth denotes the number of years that a child can expect to live at the time of birth, given the age specific mortality rates in the population.
• The life expectancy, however, is an indicator of very long-term improvement in health.
• For state of Bihar life expectancy at birth is about 68.1

Mean Years of Schooling

• Mean Years of Schooling (MYS) is one of the two indicators used to measure educational achievement in HDRs by UNDP.
• It replaced the literacy rate as an indicator under the education dimension in 2010. MYS indicates the average number of completed years of education of a country’s population.
• Usually, MYS is estimated for populations aged 25 years and older, which is also the indicator used in the calculation of the HDI by UNDP

Literacy

In Absolute Numbers– 5,96,75,607
Male– 3,99,78,955
Female– 1,97,96,652
Percentage of Total Population - 69.83%
Male– 70.32%
Female– 53.57%
Percentage of Urban Population- 81.9%
Male– 89.9%
Female– 72.6%
Percentage of Rural Population- 53.9%
Male– 67.1%
Female– 39.6%
Highest Literacy Rate– Gaya – 75.59%
Lowest Literacy Rate- Purnia, 52.49%

Expected Years of Schooling

• EYS is a measure of the number of years of schooling a child at the start of his or her education is expected to receive, if current rates of enrolment are maintained throughout the child’s life.

Income Per Capita

• Income per capita is considered as an ‘indirect’ indicator of human development. The first HDR of UNDP (1990) observes that an indicator of ‘command over resources needed for a decent living’ requires data on access to land, credit, income and other sources.
• In 2010, instead of GDP per capita, Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is taken as the indicator.
• For allowing cross-country comparison, the GNI per capita of the countries was adjusted by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) ratios.
• For Odisha state per capita income is about 63,200 (2017-18).