Gendering Human Development: A Working Paper for Computing HDI, GDI and GII for States of India

FOCUS

This working paper was published in 2021 by the National Statistical Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, government of India. It uses the methodology employed by the UN’s Human Development Report Office (HDRO) to compute the Human Development Index, Gender Development Index and Gender Inequality Index, for India and its states and union territories for the years 2011-12 and 2017-18.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite index measuring average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development – a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living. The Gender Development Index (GDI) compares the ratio of female to male HDI values to measure disparities on the HDI by gender. Lastly, the Gender Inequality Index (GII) is a composite measure reflecting inequality in achievement between females and males on three parameters – reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market.

The working paper ranks the states and union territories in these three indices as well as various sub-indices, depending on available data. It aims to promote ‘corrective policies, programmes and schemes’ based on the assessments.

The 59-page publication has four chapters: Introduction (Chapter I), Data Source and Methodology for HDI, GDI and GII (Chapter II), Human Development Index (HDI) and Gender Development Index (GDI)- Estimates for India and the States/UTs: Results and Analysis (Chapter III) and Gender Inequality Index (GII)-Estimates for India and the States/UTs: Results and Analysis (Chapter IV).

    FACTOIDS

  1. India’s Human Development Index (HDI) score increased from 0.635 in 2011-12 to 0.672 in 2017-18. The Gender Development Index (GDI) score also saw a rise from 0.809 in 2011-12 to 0.876 in 2017-18.

  2. The country’s Gender Inequality Index (GII) score dropped from 0.531 in 2011-12 to 0.462 in 2017-18, denoting a reduction in gender disparities.

  3. The increase in India’s HDI score from 2011-12 to 2017-18 can be attributed to progress across three sub-indices: health (from 0.737 to 0.754), education (from 0.515 to 0.545), and income (from 0.675 to 0.739).

  4. States scoring the highest in the HDI in 2017-18 were Delhi (0.839), Chandigarh (0.827) and Goa (0.806). The lowest ranking states were Bihar (0.551), Uttar Pradesh (0.592) and Madhya Pradesh (0.616). The paper notes that most states and union territories recorded an improvement in their 2017-18  HDI scores over 2011-12.

  5. Apart from Arunachal Pradesh, all states and union territories reported improvements in their GDI scores from 2011-12 to 2017-18. States ranking highest in the 2017-18 GDI are Goa (0.994), Himachal Pradesh (0.99) and Chandigarh (0.984). On the other hand, Bihar (0.55), Jharkhand (0.747) and Assam (0.765) scored lowest in this index.

  6. The report ranks Indian states and UTs according to their GII scores – with lower scores depicting lesser inequality. In 2017-18, the states that performed the best in this index were Maharashtra (0.34), Tamil Nadu (0.358) and Andhra Pradesh (0.361). The states with the poorest scores were Arunachal Pradesh (0.789), Nagaland (0.765) and Manipur (0.758).

  7. With a score of  0.849, Kerala ranked highest in the health sub-index of the HDI in the year 2017-18, followed by Delhi (0.842) and Jammu and Kashmir (0.832). Uttar Pradesh (0.692), Chhattisgarh (0.695), and Madhya Pradesh (0.708) ranked lowest.

  8. Chandigarh (0.79), Mizoram (0.757) and Delhi (0.749) ranked highest in the education sub-index. The lowest faring states in the list were Bihar (0.438), Andhra Pradesh (0.464) and Rajasthan (0.493).

  9. In the income sub-index, the states of Goa (0.979), Delhi (0.936) and Sikkim (0.926) ranked highest. On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh (0.603), Manipur (0.632) and Jharkhand (0.634) ranked lowest.

  10. Under the Gender Development Index (GDI), the states and UTs recording the highest scores in the health sub-index for females were Kerala (0.889), Jammu and Kashmir (0.872) and Delhi (0.866). At the same time, the lowest scores were reported by Uttar Pradesh (0.702) and Chhattisgarh (0.717), followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura (0.728 each).

  11. States scoring highest in the education sub-index for females, computed under the GDI, were Chandigarh (0.854), Delhi (0.768),and Mizoram (0.756). Bihar (0.406), Andhra Pradesh (0.451), and Jharkhand (0.471) were the lowest scoring states.

  12. States ranking the highest in the income sub-index of the GDI were Goa (0.885), Sikkim (0.856) and Chandigarh (0.745). The lowest scorers were Bihar (0.118), Jharkhand (0.334) and Assam (0.341).

  13. The states scoring highest in the reproductive health index – which comes under Gender Inequality Index (GII) – are Haryana (0.168) and Maharashtra (0.155), followed by Delhi and Telangana (0.147 each). The lowest faring states are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura (0.044 each).


    Focus and Factoids by Neymat Chadha.


    PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.

AUTHOR

Social Statistics Division, National Statistical Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi

COPYRIGHT

Social Statistics Division, National Statistical Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi

PUBLICATION DATE

2021

TAGS

#health #reproductive-health #education #gender-disparity #gender-inequality #human-development-index

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