Development

"Development of people involves multidimensional aspects of development involves, social, political & economical aspects of life."

1.0Introduction

(1) The idea of development or progress has always been with us. We have aspirations or desires about what we would like to do and how we would like to live. Similarly, we have ideas about what a country should be like. (2) Development involves thinking about these questions and about the ways in which we can work towards achieving these goals. This is a complex task and, in this chapter, we shall make a beginning at understanding development.

2.0Development Aspects :- Different people, Different goals

At times, two persons or groups of persons may seek things which are conflicting. (i) A girl expects as much freedom and opportunity as her brother, and that he also shares in the household work. Her brother may not like this. (ii) To get more electricity, industrialists may want more dams. But this may submerge the land and disrupt the lives of people who are displaced - such as tribals. They might resent this and may prefer small check dams or tanks to irrigate their land.

So, two things are quite clear: one, different persons can have different developmental goals and two, what may be development for one may not be development for the other. It may even be destructive for the other. Lets see the table and development goals.

DEVELOPMENTAL GOALS OF DIFFERENT

3.0Income and other goals

What people desire are regular work, better wages, and decent price for their crops or other products that they produce. In other words, they want more income.

For development, people look at a mix of goals (i) Besides seeking more income, one way or the other, people also seek things like equal treatment, freedom, security, and respect of others. They resent discrimination. All these are important goals. (ii) In fact, in some cases, these may be more important than more income or more consumption because material goods are not all that you need to live. (iii) Money, or material things that one can buy with it, is one factor on which our life depends. But the quality of our life also depends on non-material things mentioned above. However, it will be wrong to conclude that what cannot be measured is not important.

Consider another example-

(i) If you get a job in a far-off place, you would like to consider many factors, apart from income, such as facilities for your family, working atmosphere, or opportunity to learn. In another case, a job may give you less pay but may offer regular employment that enhances your sense of security. Another job, however, may offer high pay but no job security and also leave no time for your family. This will reduce your sense of security and freedom. (ii) It is true that if women are engaged in paid work, their dignity in the household and society increases. However, it is also the case that if there is respect for women there would be more sharing of housework and a greater acceptance of women working outside. A safe and secure environment may allow more women to take up a variety of jobs or run a business. Hence, the developmental goals that people have are not only about better income but also about other important things in life.

4.0National development

• It is very important to keep in mind that different persons could have different as well as conflicting notions of a country's development. However, can all the ideas be considered equally important? Or, if there are conflicts how does one decide?
• What would be a fair and just path for all? We also have to think whether there is a better way of doing things. Would the idea benefit a large number of people or only a small group? National development means thinking about these questions.

5.0How to compare different countries or states?

For comparing countries, their income is considered to be one of the most important attributes. (i) Countries with higher income are more developed than others with less income. This is based on the understanding that more income means more of all things that human beings need. So, greater income itself is considered to be one important goal. (ii) What is the income of a country? Intuitively, the income of the country is the income of all the residents of the country. This gives us the total income of the country. (iii) However, for comparison between countries, total income is not such a useful measure. Since, countries have different populations, comparing total income will not tell us what an average person is likely to earn. (iv) Hence, we compare the average income which is the total income of the country divided by its total population. The average income is also called per capita income.

Per Capita Income :- Per capita income is national income divided by population size. Per capita income is known as average income and compare the wealth of different populations of different country.

6.0Criterion used by World Bank in Classifying Countries

In World Development Reports, brought out by the World Bank, this criterion of average income is used in classifying countries. (i) Countries with per capita income of US$ 49,300 per annum and above in 2019, are called rich countries and those with per capita income of US$ $2500$ or less are called low-income countries. (ii) India comes in the category of low middle-income countries because its per capita income in $2019$ was just US$ $6700$ per annum. The rich countries, excluding countries of Middle East and certain other small countries, are generally called developed countries.

Per capita income 2021 per annum

World Bank : The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects.

Average Income Table- 1 Comparison of two countries

While 'averages' are useful for comparison, they also hide disparities. Will you be equally happy to live in both these countries? Are both equally developed? Perhaps some of us may like to live in country B if we are assured of being its fifth citizen but if it is a lottery that decides our citizenship number then perhaps most of us will prefer to live in country A. Even though both the countries have identical average income, country $A$ is preferred because it has more equitable distribution.

In this country people are neither very rich nor extremely poor. On the other hand, most, citizens in country B are poor and one person is extremely rich. Hence, while average income is useful for comparison it does not tell us how this income is distributed among people.

Table-2 Per capita income of select states

Let us examine this through an example-

• We find that of the three, Haryana has the highest per capita income and Bihar is at the bottom. This means that, on an average, a person in Haryana earned Rs $1,80,174$ in one year whereas, on an average, a person in Bihar earned only around Rs 34,409 . So, if per capita income were to be used as the measure of development, Haryana will be considered the most developed and Bihar the least developed state of the three.

Table-3 Some comparative data on Haryana, Kerala and Bihar

• In Table 3, in Kerala, out of 1000 children born, $10$ died before completing one year of age but in Haryana the proportion of children dying within one year of birth was 30.
• The per capita income of Haryana is more than that of Kerala ,but the Infant Mortality Rate is higher than Kerela, similarly ,half of the children aged 14-15 in Bihar are not attending school beyond Class 8 which shows that Kerala has better educational development.

Infant Mortality Rate (or IMR) : indicates the number of children that die before the age of one year as a proportion of 1000 live children born in that particular year.

Literacy Rate : measures the proportion of literate population in the 7 and above age group.

Net Attendance Ratio : is the total number of children of age group 14 and 15 attending school as a percentage of total number of children in the same age group.

7.0Conclusion:

(i) Per Capita Income is not the only criterion for development. According to Table No. 2 Haryana is on the top, but according to Table No. 3 Kerala leads the development table (ii) Per Capita Income is not the only criterion for development, but it is one of the most important criterions for development. Bihar stands at No. 3 in Table No.2, has the lease Per Capita Income, also stands at No. 3 in Table 3 because lacks in Medical and Educational facilities as lacks in Per Capita Income.

8.0Public facilities

How is it that the average person in Haryana has more income than the average person in Kerala but lags behind in these crucial areas? The reason is - money in your pocket cannot buy all the goods and services that you may need to live well. So, income by itself is not a completely adequate indicator of material goods and services that citizens are able to use. For example, normally, your money cannot buy you a pollution-free environment or ensure that you get unadulterated medicines, unless you can afford to shift to a community that already has all these things. Money may also not be able to protect you from infectious diseases, unless the whole of your community takes preventive steps.

Outcome of the study of the two tables -

(i) For development - per capita income is not the only criteria, other things also matter. Haryana leads in per capita income but Kerala is more developed because it excels in other factors. (ii) Though income is not the only criteria, but it is one of the most important criteria. Bihar, as it lacks in per capita income it over all lacks in development. Because for overall development you need education, health etc. for these schools, hospitals are required, and to build them money is required.

Kerala is the most literate state in India, with 93.91% literacy. Bihar is the least literate state in India, with a literacy of 63.82%. Kerala has a low Infant Mortality Rate because it has adequate provision of basic health and educational facilities. Similarly, in some states, the Public Distribution System (PDS) functions well. If some PDS shop, i.e. ration shop, does not function properly in such places, the people there are able to get the problem rectified. Health and nutritional status of people of such states is certainly likely to be better.

9.0Human Development Report

Health and education indicators, such as the ones we used in comparison of Kerala and Maharashtra, are among them. Over the past decade or so, health and education indicators have come to be widely used along with income as a measure of development. For instance, Human Development Report published by UNDP compares countries based on the educational levels of the people, their health status and per capita income. It would be interesting to look at certain relevant data regarding India and its neighbours from Human Development Report 2019.

Table 4. Some data regarding India and its neighbours for 2019

(i) Life Expectancy at birth denotes, average expected length of life of a person at the time of birth. (ii) Per Capita Income is calculated in dollars for all countries so that it can be compared. It is also done in a way so that every dollar would buy the same amount of goods and services in any country. (iii) Literacy Rate The level of education in a country with respect to population.

Isn't it surprising that a small country in our neighbourhood, Sri Lanka, is much ahead of India in every respect and a big country like ours has such a low rank in the world? Table 4 also shows that though Nepal and Bangladesh have low per capita income than that of India, yet they are better than India in life expectancy. Many improvements have been suggested in calculating HDI and many new components have been added to the Human Development Report but, by pre-fixing Human to development, it has made it very clear that what is important in development is what is happening to citizens of a country. It is people, their health, their wellbeing, that is most important.

10.0Sustainability of Development

Groundwater is an example of renewable resources. These resources are replenished by nature as in the case of crops and plants. However, even these resources may be overused. For example, in the case of groundwater, if we use more than what is being replenished by rain then we would be overusing this resource.

Non-renewable resources are those which will get exhausted after years of use. We have a fixed stock on earth which cannot be replenished. New sources in this way add to the stock. However, over time, even this will get exhausted.

The availability of ground water and natural resources can be understood with the help of the following examples.

Example 1: Groundwater in India

"Recent evidence suggests that the groundwater is under serious threat of overuse in many parts of the country. About 300 districts have reported a water level decline of over 4 metres during the past 20 years. Nearly one-third of the country is overusing their groundwater reserves. In another 25 years, 60 per cent of the country would be doing the same if the present way of using this resource continues. Groundwater overuse is particularly found in the agriculturally prosperous regions of Punjab and Western U.P., hard rock plateau areas of central and south India, some coastal areas and the rapidly growing urban settlements."

Example 2: Exhaustion of Natural Resources

Look at the following data for crude oil.

Table Crude Oil Reserves

The table gives an estimate of reserves of crude oil (column1). More important, it also tells us for how many years the stock of crude oil will last if people continue to extract it at the present rate. The reserves would last only 50 years more. This is for the world as a whole. However, different countries face different situations. Countries like India depend on importing oil from abroad because they do not have enough stocks of their own. If prices of oil increase this becomes a burden for everyone. There are countries like USA which have low reserves and hence want to secure oil through military or economic power. The question of sustainability of development raises many fundamentally new issues about the nature and process of development. (i) Consequences of environmental degradation do not respect national or state boundaries; this issue is no longer region or nation specific. Our future is linked together. Sustainability of development is comparatively a new area of knowledge in which scientists, economists, philosophers and other social scientists are working together. In general, the question of development or progress is perennial. At all times as, a member of society and as individuals we need to ask where we want to go, what we wish to become and what our goals are. So, the debate on development continues.

11.0Glossary

• BMI - Body Mass Index .
• HDI - Human Development Index.
• Child Mortality - The child mortality rate is the number of deaths each year, expressed either per 1000 children in this age group.
• Net Attendance Ratio - is the total number of children of age group 14 and 15 attending school as a percentage of total number of children in the same age group.
• Average Income -The average income is defined as the income that is earned by per person in each area for a period.

12.0MIND MAP