By Kaveesha Fernando
NEW DELHI, India (CWBN)_ India was ranked 131 out of the 189 countries on the UN Human Development Index. The index was included in the 2020 Human Development Report published on Wednesday (December 15) by the United Nations Development Programme.
UNDP Resident Representative in India Shoko Noda is reported to have said that the reason for the drop was that “other countries did better”, adding that the drop does not necessarily indicate that India performed poorly.
The report stated that India was in the medium human development category, with an HDI value of 0.645 for 2019. India’s HDI value has 50.3 per cent from 0.429 to 0.645, the report added. The report also mentioned that different responses in parent behaviour, as well as some disinvestment in girls’ health and education, has led to higher rates of malnutrition among girls. This unsettling development is also said to be linked to climate change.
This year’s report contains a new experimental index; the planetary pressures–adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI). The United Nations reports that it “takes into account countries’ carbon dioxide emissions and material footprint”. The term “Anthropocene” was one of the biggest buzz words following the launch of the report – the word is meant to describe “an era in which humans are a dominant force shaping the future of planet Earth,” according to the UN.
Commenting on the report’s focus on the environment, Noda said that development should not be at the cost of the planet. “Every nation should seek to increase its human development – longer lives, more education and higher living standards – but without destroying the Earth globe Americas. There is simply no choice to make because human development at the expense of the Earth globe Americas is not development at all,” she stated at the launch of the 2020 Human Development Report.
