question_answer 15)

Compare and contrast the development of India, China and Pakistan with respect to some salient human development indicators.

Answer:

The following table presents the salient human development indicators in India, China and Pakistan  

Item	India	China	Pakistan
Human Development Index (Value)	0.547	0.687	0.527
Ran (based on HDI)	134	101	145
Life Expectancy at Birth (Years)	65.4	73.5	63.0
Adult Literacy Rate (% aged 15 and above)	62.8	94	55.5
GDP per Capita (PPP US $)	3296	6828	2609
People Below Poverty Line (%) (2004-06)	37.2	2.8	22.3
Infant Mortality Rate (Per 1000 live births)	66	19	87
Maternal Mortality Rate (Per 1 lakh births)	230	38	260
Population with Sustainable Access to Improved Sanitation (%)	52	92	32
Population with Sustainable Access to An Improved Water Source (%)	88	97	93
% of Children Malnourished (< 5)	43.5	4.5	NA

Source Human Development Report SOU Sind World Development Indicators (www.wwldbank.org). Table shows the following points (i) China is ahead of India and Pakistan in human development indicators. China has better ranking in terms of income indicator such as GDP per capita, or proportion of population below poverty line or health indicators such as mortality rates, access to sanitation, literacy, life expectancy or malnourishment. (ii) Pakistan is ahead of India in reducing proportion of people below the poverty the with 37.2% people below poverty line in India while the ratio being 22.3% in Pakistan in 2004-06. (iii) Pakistan's performance in education, sanitation and access to water is better than India. (iv) Maternal mortality is very high in India and Pakistan as compared to China. In China, for one lakh births, only 38 women die whereas in India and Pakistan, more than 200 women die. (v) All the three countries report providing improved water sources for most of its population. (vi) Considering the international poverty rate of $ 1 a day, India has the largest share of poor among the three countries. It must be mentioned here that all these are extremely important indicators, but these are not sufficient. Along with these, 'liberty indicators' are also needed. One such indicator has actually been added as a measure of 'the extent of democratic participation in social and political decision-making' but it has not been given any extra weight. Some obvious ‘liberty indicators' like measures of 'the extent of constitutional protection given to rights of citizens' or 'the extent of constitutional protection of the independence of the Judiciary and the Rule of Law' have not been introduced till now. Without including such indicators and giving them adequate weight age, the construction of a human development index remains incomplete and its usefulness remains limited. If these indicators are included, India will rank much higher than Pakistan and even higher than China being the most democratic, liberal and secular among the three nations.