Moving one rank above, India stood at 129 among 189 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI) 2019 released on Monday. India ranked 130 in 2018.

The HDI report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) titled --Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in the 21st Century—stated that India’s HDI value increased by 50% (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).

The report noted that the 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.

“In 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%," the report said.

“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. India’s development initiatives like the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (for financial inclusion) and Ayushman Bharat (for universal health care) are crucial in ensuring that we meet our promise to leave no one behind and fulfil the Prime Minister’s vision of development for all," said Shoko Noda, UNDP India Resident Representative.

India being a fast-growing economy and gaining in basic standards and capabilities, however, the picture becomes more complex, the report noted.

Despite India’s significant progress in lifting 271 million people out of poverty from 2005-6 to 2015-16, it accounts for 28% of the 1.3 billion multidimensional poor across the globe. Further, India also significantly lags behind in tertiary education rates from wealthier countries, with only 24.5% of the tertiary school-aged population in India enrolled in higher education, as per the HDI 2019. “India and the rest of South Asia may be vulnerable to a new set of inequalities emerging around higher education and climate resilience," the report stated. Amidst burning women safety issues in India, the HDI report found group-based inequalities persisting in India, especially affecting women and girls.

“India is only marginally better than the South Asian average on the Gender Development Index (0.829 vs 0.828), and ranks at a low 122 (of 162) countries on the 2018 Gender Inequality Index. More Indian men and women were showing biases in gender social norms, indicating a backlash to women’s empowerment," the report noted.

Pointing out social inequalities, the report said, “The Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes underperform the rest of society across human development indicators, including education attainment and access to digital technologies. These groups have suffered from stigma and exclusion for centuries." Shedding light on wage laws in India, the report said that minimum wage laws had been largely ineffective because the overwhelming majority of the workforce has informal contracts and there is little monitoring or culpability for employers.

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