Brief notes on Human Development Index of welfare

Considering quality of Life Index, the United Nations was the first to prepare and publish Human Development Indian Economic Development and Elementary Statistics not be simply added. Moreover, basic literacy can have a natural zero for minimum and 100 for maximum, thus there exists no natural minimum or maximum values for other indicators.

For comparison, each of the levels should be normalized. Prof. Morris chose the best and worst levels in each of the three cases. In the case of positive indicators of life expectancy and basic literacy, the best is shown by the maximum and worst by the minimum.

While in case of negative indicator of infant morality, the best is denoted by the minimum and the worst by the maximum. For converting the actual levels of a positive variable into normalised indicators, first the minimum values are subtracted from the actual values and then the gap is divided by the range. For positive indicators, the formula is:

Actual Value – Minimum Value

Achievement Level

Maximum Value – Minimum Value For negative indicator of infant mortality, actual value has to be subtracted from the maximum value and the gap if any has to be divided by the range. The formula is

Minimum Value – Actual Value

Achievement Level =

Maximum Value – Minimum Value

If a nut shell, three indicators are averaged to give what is called the Physical quality of Life Index (PQLI).

PQLI = (1/3) (LEI + IMI + BLI)

Choice of Minimum and Maximum Values

In case of life expectancy and infant mortality, there exist no natural minimum and maximum values. The conversions from values to indices are linear. Put the/actual value of these indicators of the country in the expression and get the reasonable indices as Physical Quality of Life Index.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX

Considering quality of Life Index, the United Nations was the first to prepare and publish Human Development Index in the year 1990. Human Development Index studies the following three basic human aspects:

(i) Living a long life or Longevity (LEI).

(ii) Being knowledgeable on Educational Attainment (Index EAI).

(iii) Standard of living on real per capita GDP (SLI).

These three indices can be expressed as

HDI = (1/3) (LEI + EAI + SLI)

Let us discuss these three aspects.

(i) Longevity (LEF):

Longevity means life expectancy at birth. It refers to the number of years a newly born baby is expected to live. Life expectancy in India at present is 63 years.

(ii) Educational Attainment (EAI):

It means education attained by the people of the country on an average basis. The constituents of educational attainment are expressed through the following two variables:

(a) Adult literacy rate (ALR)

(b) Gross enrolment ratio (GER)

(a) Adult Literacy Rate (ALR):

The rate or the percentage of people aged 15 and above who can understand, read and write a short and simple statement in their everyday life are known as literate.

It implies that every literate must be capable of reading and writing certain sentences. If someone is able to sign but not capable of reading and writing simple statement is not literate. Thus, capability of reading only or writing only does not make a person literate. Literacy is the symbol of the quality of the people.

(b) Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER):

Gross Enrolment Ratio refers to the number of students enrolled at different levels of education. It is the percentage of population of different age groups engaged in educational pursuit.

The education level consists of primary, secondary and tertiary level. Basic elements of education are provided at primary level. Secondary level education is studied at middle and secondary level. University level education is studied under tertiary level.

General enrolment ratio shows the percentage population enrolled at primary, middle, secondary and university level. The higher GER indicates higher quality of life. It will be the sincere effort of every economy to increase general enrolment ratio as far as possible.

(iii) Real GDP Per Capita or Standard of Living (SLI):

It is considered as a measure of the standard of living of the people of a country. In order to calculate human development index we are required to study and analyze longevity, educational attainment and real GDP per capita.