An essay on human development
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The notion of human development essentially addresses the human in development — all those elements which make a person human not only in terms of what she/he needs for basic survival such as food, clothing or shelter, health, etc., but a sense of dignity, what Adam Smith called the ability to mix with others without being ashamed to appear in public.
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Answer:
The notion of human development essentially addresses the human in development — all those elements which make a person human not only in terms of what she/he needs for basic survival such as food, clothing or shelter, health, etc., but a sense of dignity, what Adam Smith called the ability to mix with others without being ashamed to appear in public.
It is the process of enlarging people’s choices. The human development approach looks at income as a means, not as an end, to people’s development, in contrast with the earlier growth models.
It is felt that there is no automatic link between income growth and human progress. HDR, 1990 has the following to say: The term human development here denotes both the process of widening people’s choices and the level of their achieved well-being. It also helps in distinguishing, clearly, between two sides of human development. One is the formation of human capabilities, such as improved health or knowledge; the other is the use that people make of their acquired capabilities.
In contrast with earlier theories and models, the human development approach broadens the concept to not only include issues such as basic needs and income, but also people’s choices — on what people should have to be able to ensure their own livelihood without ending up as mere beneficiaries.
“Human development is, moreover, concerned not only with basic need satisfaction but also with human development as a participatory dynamic process. It applies equally to less developed and highly developed nations”
Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. In principle, these choices can be defined as infinite and change over time. But at all levels of development, the three essential ones are for people to lead a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge and to have access to resources needed for decent standard of living. If these essentials are not available, many other opportunities remain inaccessible. But human development does not end there. Additional choices highly valued by many people, range from political, economic and social freedom to opportunities for being creative and productive, and enjoying personal self-respect and guaranteed human rights.
Human development has two sides. The formation of capabilities — such as improved health, knowledge and skills; and the use people make of their acquired capabilities — for leisure, productive purposes or being active in cultural, social and political affairs. If the scales of human development do not finely balance between the two sides, considerable human frustrations may result.
According to this concept of human development, income is clearly only one of the options that people would like to have, albeit an important one. But it is not the sum total of their lives. Development must, therefore, be more than just the expansion of income and wealth. Its focus must be people. The choices people make, as the development reports have pointed out, is a process which is best understood in the specific contexts of their time and space, for choices change and are specific to cultures.
Some choices may seem irrational. Over the years, various human development reports have laid stress on different aspects of these choices. The question that comes to mind is if the choices are so wide and specific to cultures, is it possible to measure them and is it possible to make comparisons. The report of 1990 does realise the problem of presenting a complex picture of all the choices people make. It says “Too many indicators would produce a perplexing picture — perhaps distracting policy makers from the main trends. The crucial issue therefore is of emphasis”.
In the initial reports, three indicators were considered most important and comparative figures were provided. The three elements, which were considered essential to human life, are longevity, knowledge and a decent living standard. There is no standard mechanism for measuring human development indicators.
For example, longevity can be calculated by longevity at birth as an indicator. For the second indicator, knowledge, literacy figures are the main indicators, though there are debates about what kind of literacy, the quality of it and so on. But literacy is still the beginning and therefore a good indicator.
As for the third element, decent living, it is very difficult to look for indicators. It requires data on access to land, credit, income and other resources. Except for income, data on other indicators is rarely available. And even the indicator of income does not always tell the whole story, especially since incomes are mostly in the national average. However, by actually looking at purchasing power of income helps in assessing the buying power of the money that people have.