UNDP said it is inaccurate to compare the ranking across countries since in 2020 the HDI was measured for 189 countries, and this year the value has been calculated for 191 countries.
In line with global trends, in India’s case too, the drop in HDI value in the “medium human development” category from 0.645 in 2020 to 0.633 in 2021 can be attributed to falling life expectancy — 69.7 to 67.2 years.
India’s expected years of schooling stands at 11.9 years, and the mean years of schooling are at 6.7 years. The Gross National Income (GNI) per capita level is $6,590. The report shows that 9 out of 10 countries have fallen behind in human development in the face of multiple crises like Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, and dangerous planetary changes.
For the first time on record, the global HDI value declined, taking the world back to the time just after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A large contributor to the HDI’s recent decline is a global drop in life expectancy, down from 72.8 years in 2019 to 71.4 years in 2021.
Meanwhile, the world suffered a 6.7% increase in gender inequality. As far as the Gender Inequality Index is concerned India with a value of 0.490 is placed at rank 122 out of 170 countries.
However, despite the decline in India’s HDI value, it continues to exceed south Asia’s average human development. “India’s HDI value has been steadily catching up to the world average since 1990 — indicating a faster than the global rate of progress in human development,” the UNDP statement emphasised.
HDI is calculated using four indicators – life expectancy at birth, mean years of schooling, expected years of schooling, and the GNI per capita. The latest report shows that progress globally is in reverse. It is highlighted in the report that ‘Human Development’ has declined for two years in a row — 2020 and 2021, reversing five years of progress. This is in line with the global decline, indicating that human development across the world has stalled for the first time in 32 years.
UNDP Resident Representative in India, Shoko Noda however, draws attention to the fact that compared to 2019, the impact of inequality on human development is lower. UNDP’s analysis shows that India is bridging the human development gap between men and women faster than the world.
