India Ranks at 129 Among 189 Countries on HDI: UN Human Development Report 2019

Inequality is the main reason many societies are not functioning today as they are supposed to despite unprecedented progress against traditional development concerns such as poverty, hunger and disease, the UN Human Development Report 2019 has said. This inequality has forced people to take to the streets in mass protests across the globe resulting in violence and political instability, as seen in the case of Hong Kong, Chile, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Bolivia and Venezuela.Inequalities around education, and technology and climate change are widening which could lead to a ‘a new great divergence’ in society at a scale unseen since the Industrial Revolution.

The high incidence of multi-dimensional poverty varying vastly across countries is an issue highlighted by the report. As many as 1.3 billion multi-dimensional poor live across the globe with 41% of them in South Asia alone. Despite its past three decades of rapid development, a reduction in absolute poverty and gains in basic development indicators, India accounts for 28% of the 1.3 billion multi-dimensional poor.This suggests that while more people have escaped poverty, disease and hunger, the basic necessities to thrive have evolved.

Recording marginal improvement, India moved up a spot to rank 129 among 189 countries in human development indicators, the report showed. With a 50% improvement between 1990 and 2018, the Human Development Index (HDI) value increased from 0.431 to 0.647, placing India in the Medium Human Development group. Stating that no other region has seen such rapid progress, UNDP India resident representative Shoko Noda said 27.1 crore Indians had been lifted out of poverty between 2005-06 and 2015-16.Raising concerns over a growing bias in India’s gender social and norms, the report said the country ranked at a low 122 among 162 nations on the 2018 Gender Inequality Index.

How India compares between 1990 and 2018

• Life expectancy at birth went up by 11.6 years
• Mean years of schooling rose by 3.5 years
• Expected years of schooling up by 4.7 years
• Per capita incomes increased by over 250%

Table showing India’s position in relation to top and bottom 5 performers and top performers in the Medium Human Development category