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The author is a retired IAS officer. He recently wrote a book, "Human Development in India". Email: gupta_naresh_06@yahoo.co.in Concept of Human Development In 1990, the time had come for a broad approach to improving human well being that would cover all aspects of human life, for all people. The term “human development” is accepted in the development economics literature as an expansion of human capabilities, a widening of choices, an enhancement of freedom and the fulfilment of human rights. Human Development Reports and Measurement The initiation of the above approach marked the beginning of the annual series of Human Development Reports- the first Human Development Report of UNDP was published in 1990. In contrast to the GNP – the only other widely used indicator of a country’s overall development – the Human Development Index (HDI) reflects the average achievements along three dimensions of human development: longevity, educational attainment and command over resources needed for a decent living. However, the HDI does not reflect the deprivation or the distributional aspects of development, particularly inequality. Constructing composite indices to account for gender inequalities for the first time in 1995 took care of it. Second, in 1997, a composite index was proposed and constructed for measuring the multidimensionality of poverty. Third, these composite indices were disaggregated Eradication of poverty has been a major objective of planned development in India. Poor quality of life, deprivation, malnutrition, illiteracy and low human resource development are characteristics associated with poverty. During the 1950s and 1960s, large investments in physical infrastructure were seen as the primary means of development. In fact, until the mid-1960s, the main thrust of development policies all over the world was to accelerate the growth process since the ‘trickle down’ mechanism was supposed to take care of distributional objectives. – Reproduced
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