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S. D. Naik

West & Central India Human Development Report Publishers: Oxford University Press, New Delhi Price: Rs 495

Though Maharashtra stands second in the country in terms of economic development, the fruits of development have not been distributed equally.

Since the publication of the first Human Development Report (HDR) of UNDP in 1990, under the inspiration and leadership of its architect, Mahbub ul Haq, the emphasis of discussion on development worldwide has shifted from economic growth to all aspects of human life. Human development is about enlarging people's choices, choices that are created by expanding human capabilities and functioning. Apart from more income, the `human development index' also takes into account other things the poor desire, such as adequate nutrition, safe water at hand, better medical services, more and better schooling for their children, cheap transport, adequate shelter, continuing employment, secure livelihood, and so on.

Over the last few years, many countries have been bringing out their own national human development reports with UNDP support. The number of such countries today exceeds 100. In India, the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has made laudable efforts to bring out regional reports on human development. This volume focusing on West and Central India comes as a sequel to the India HDR and the South India HDR. It provides comprehensive micro-level information on economic and social development in the States of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan over the last quarter of a century, including the disaggregated data collected from the newly created State of Chhattisgarh.

Based on qualitative surveys of 11,188 households spread over 562 villages from 63 districts across these States, the report provides: (a) socio-economic profiles and detailed secondary data focusing on literacy and education, health, and demographic characteristics; (b) detailed data on human development indicators with special focus on gender disparity, levels of living, employment and wages; morbidity, disability, nutrition, and effectiveness of public services and health; and (c) information on village level infrastructure and development.

The analysis brings out the wide inter-State variations in the economic indicators such as the per capita income and the percentage of poor as also the human development indicators such as the life expectancy at birth, literacy, education, health and demographic aspects. For instance, among these four States, the per capita income of Maharashtra at 1990-91 prices was the highest at Rs 3,696 whereas that of Madhya Pradesh was the lowest at Rs 1,726. Gujarat had a per capita income of Rs 2,585, higher than the all-India average of Rs 2,226 and Rajasthan Rs 1,943, lower than the national average.

Among the four States studied in this volume, Madhya Pradesh is the most economically backward with 42.5 per cent population living below the poverty line. The only States, which are economically more backward than Madhya Pradesh, are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa. Madhya Pradesh also ranks quite low in terms of human development index (HDI). According to the HDI rank compiled by Pant and Pal, it comes 12th among Indian States. The overall literacy in the State is 44.2 per cent — 58.42 per cent among males and 28.85 per cent among females. Crude birth and death rates in the State are higher than the national average and there is a low female age at marriage.

The study also confirms the relative backwardness of Rajasthan compared to other States in India in terms of living standards, education and health. The percentage of population below the poverty line in the State is 35.15. Rajasthan has low literacy. Rural female literacy is only 11.59 per cent. Sex ratio at 910 females per 1000 males in the state is much below the national average. The State ranks 10th in terms of the HDI, only slightly better than Madhya Pradesh.

Gujarat is among the better performing States, both in terms of economic development and human development. On both counts, it ranks fifth among the Indian States. The overall literacy rate in the State is 61.3 per cent, much above the national average of 52.11 per cent. The male literacy rate stands at 71.3 per cent and the female literacy rate is 47.6 per centMaharashtra ranks second in India, in terms of per capita income and the CMIE index for economic development. The overall literacy rate in the State is 64.9 per cent; in respect of education, the State is ahead of the northern States, but lags behind the southern States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The percentage of population below the poverty line was 29.3 per cent in 1987-88. While the State ranks second in terms of economic development, in terms of poverty it ranks eighth. The State's HDI rank is 4.

The findings of the report once again highlight not only the huge inter-State disparities in economic development and per capita incomes but also the wide inter-district disparities within each State in income, literacy rates and human development indicators. The urban-rural divide is also evident in all the States covered in the report. It is also seen that investment in human capital is supportive of the economic development process.

Such investments are manifest in basic health services, clean drinking water, literacy, education and development skills especially to enhance productivity of the `informal' sectors of the economy, support to women and child development, welfare of the handicapped, special efforts for the disadvantaged sections of society, including the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes, and the care of the aged.

It may be noted that some of the data used in the report is relatively old. For instance, the poverty ratios are for the year 1987-88 based on the 43rd round of National Sample Surveys (NSS), though these ratios are now available up to 1999-2000 based on the 55th round of NSS. The data on these ratios for 1993-94 was available even two years back. Similarly, the data on literacy, sex ratio, life expectancy at birth, crude birth and death rates etc. is based on 1991 census. The report is rich in statistical analyses of various facets of development and would prove to be a valuable source of information for government, policy makers and research workers. It will facilitate effective region-specific and group-specific policy formulation at the grassroots.

Picture by Paul Noronha

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