A new generation of inequality emerging: Human Development Report

Yuvavani.com

A new generation of severe inequalities in human development is emerging in the society, says the latest edition of Human Development Report. 

“…A new generation of severe inequalities in human development is emerging, even if many of the unresolved inequalities of the 20th century are declining. Under the shadow of the climate crisis and sweeping technological change, inequalities in human development are taking new forms in the 21st century”, says the report released by UNDP in New Delhi and New York simultaneously. 

However, Shoko Noda, UNDP Chief in India says that India has improved its rank in the index but India has to do a lot to get better position in the index.

Releasing the report “Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in 21st century” in New Delhi she said that India ranks 129 out of 189 countries on the 2019 Human Development Index, marking incremental improvement from the previous year’s ranking (130 of 189). 

This steady progress caps nearly three decades of rapid development, which have seen a dramatic reduction in absolute poverty, along with gains in life expectancy, education, and access to health care. The Asia-Pacific region, which has witnessed the steepest rise globally in human development, leads the world in access to broadband internet but continues to grapple with widespread multidimensional poverty, especially in India and the rest of South Asia, and may be vulnerable to a new set of inequalities emerging around higher education and climate resilience, according to the report.

The Human Development Report (HDR) also says that as the gap in basic standards is narrowing, with an unprecedented number of people escaping poverty, hunger and disease, the necessities to thrive have evolved. The next generation of inequalities is opening up, particularly around technology, education, and the climate crisis. 

According to the report’s Human Development Index (HDI), no other region has experienced such rapid human development progress. South Asia was the fastest growing region (46 percent growth over the period 1990-2018), followed by East Asia and the Pacific at 43 percent. India’s HDI value increased by 50 percent (from 0.431 to 0.647), which places it above the average for countries in the medium human development group (0.634) and above the average for other South Asian countries (0.642).  Elsewhere in the region, Indonesia and the Philippines both joined the ranks of countries with high human development. 

South Asia also saw the greatest leap in life expectancy and years of schooling. For India, between 1990 and 2018, life expectancy at birth increased by 11.6 years, mean years of schooling increased by 3.5 years and expected years of schooling increased by 4.7 years. Per capita incomes rose by over 250 percent. Beyond these gains in basic standards and capabilities, however, the picture becomes more complex.

“For countries like India, which have shown great success in reducing absolute poverty, we hope that the 2019 Human Development Report sheds light on inequalities and deprivations that go beyond income. How we tackle old and new inequalities, ranging from access to basic services such as housing to things like access to quality university education, will be critical to whether we achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”, says Noda.

“This is the new face of inequality,” says UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner in New York. “And as this Human Development Report sets out, inequality is not beyond solutions. Inequality is about the unequal distribution of wealth and power: the entrenched social and political norms that are bringing people onto the streets today, and the triggers that will do so in the future unless something changes. Recognizing the real face of inequality is a first step; what happens next is a choice that each leader must make,” he said.

Describing the ‘next generation’ of inequalities likely to drive achievement further along the development spectrum, the report notes for example that in countries with very high human development, subscriptions to fixed broadband are growing 15 times faster and the proportion of adults with tertiary education is growing more than six times faster than in countries with low human development.

The region is in the vanguard of technological transformation. From 1987 to 2007 little changed in the global ranking of installed bandwidth potential, but at the turn of the millennium things started to change, with the expansion of bandwidth in East and North Asia. The report states that China leads the world in installed bandwidth, and India’s share in the world’s installed bandwidth potential equals that of Germany, Brazil and France. 

But tertiary education rates lag significantly behind wealthier countries, with only 24.5 percent of the tertiary school-aged population in India and 44 percent in East Asia and the Pacific enrolled in higher education.

And, although millions throughout the region have escaped multidimensional poverty – none more so than in India, where 271 million were lifted out of poverty from 2005/6 to 2015/16 -- the incidence of multidimensional poverty varies enormously across countries and is till high. Out of the 1.3 billion multidimensional poor, 661 million are in Asia and the Pacific, which shares almost half of the multidimensional poor living in 101 countries of the world. South Asia alone shares more than 41 percent of the total number of multidimensional poor. Despite India’s significant progress, it accounts for 28 percent of the 1.3 billion multidimensional poor.

Four in ten people in South Asia still lack access to sanitation facilities. And the report warns that the poorest communities remain vulnerable to climate change. Poor people are expected to be more exposed to droughts for warming scenarios above the 1.5°C rise in temperature in several countries in Asia. The rural poor in poor countries are at risk of a double shock: a negative impact on livelihoods and spikes in food prices resulting from drops in global yields.

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