DEVELOPMENT

✅ What Development Promises — Different People, Different Goals

 Question- What development or progress is likely to mean to different persons and

what are their aspirations?
 Each one of them seeks different things — things that are most important for them,
i.e., that which can fulfil their aspirations or desires.
 At times, two persons or groups of persons may seek things which are conflicting.
 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.
 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.
 Two things are quite clear:
o One, different persons can have different developmental goals.
o Two, what may be development for one may not be development for the other;
it may even be destructive for the other.

✅ Income and Other Goals

 People desire regular work, better wages, and decent price for their crops or other
products. In other words, they want more income.
 Besides seeking more income, people also seek things like equal treatment, freedom,
security, and respect of others.
 They resent discrimination.
 All these are important goals.
 In some cases, these may be more important than more income or consumption
because material goods are not all that you need to live.
 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.
 Similarly, there are many things that are not easily measured but they mean a lot to
our lives.
 These are often ignored, but it will be wrong to conclude that what cannot be
measured is not important.
 If I get a job in a far off place, before accepting it I would try to consider many factors
apart from income, such as facilities for your family, working atmosphere, or
opportunity to learn.
 A job may give me less pay but regular employment that enhances your sense of
security, while another job may offer high pay but no job security and leave no time
for my family.
 This will reduce my sense of security and freedom.
 For development, people look at a mix of goals.
 If women are engaged in paid work, their dignity in the household and society
increases.
  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.

✅ National Development

 If individuals seek different goals, then their notion of national development is also
likely to be different.
 It is very important to keep in mind that different persons could have different as well
as conflicting notions of a country’s development.

✅ How to Compare Different Countries or States?

 If development can mean different things, how come some countries are generally
called developed and others underdeveloped?
 When we compare different things, they could have similarities as well as differences.
 Let us look at students in the class itself — how do we compare different students?
 They differ in height, health, talents and interests.
 The healthiest student may not be the most studious one. The most intelligent student
may not be the friendliest one.
 The criterion we use depends on the purpose of comparison.
 We use different criteria to choose a sports team, a debate team, a music team or a
team to organise a picnic.
 Usually, we take one or more important characteristics of persons and compare them
based on these characteristics.
 There can be differences about what are important characteristics that should form the
basis of comparison .

✅ Income as a Criterion

 For comparing countries, income is considered to be one of the most important

attributes.
 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.
 Whatever people like and should have, they will be able to get with greater income.
 So, greater income itself is considered to be one important goal.

✅ What is the Income of a Country?

 The income of a country is the income of all the residents of the country.
 This gives us the total income of the country.
 However, for comparison between countries, total income is not a useful measure.
  Since countries have different populations, comparing total income will not tell us
what an average person is likely to earn.
 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.

✅ World Bank Classification

 In World Development Reports brought out by the World Bank, this criterion is used
in classifying countries.
 Countries with per capita income of US$ 63,400 per annum and above in 2023 are
called high income or rich countries, and those with per capita income of about US$
2400 or less are called low-income countries.
 India comes in the category of low middle income countries because its per capita
income in 2023 was just about US$ 10030 per annum.
 The rich countries, excluding countries of Middle East and certain other small
countries, are generally called developed countries.

📘 Income and Other Criteria

 When we looked at individual aspirations and goals, we found that people not only
think of better income but also have goals such as security, respect for others, equal
treatment, freedom, etc. in mind.
 Similarly, when we think of a nation or a region, we may, besides average income,
think of other equally important attributes.
 For eg: Haryana has the highest per capita income and Bihar the lowest.
 On average, a person in Haryana earned Rs 2,64,729 in one year, whereas in Bihar, a
person earned around Rs 47,500.
 So, if per capita income were to be used as the measure of development, Haryana
would be considered the most developed and Bihar the least.
 In Kerala, out of 1000 children born, 6 died before completing one year of age,
whereas in Haryana, the proportion was 28 — nearly three times more.
 The per capita income of Haryana is more than that of Kerala.
 This data pertains to 2018 — not very long ago — when our metro cities were already
developed with high-rise buildings and malls.
 The problem does not end with Infant Mortality Rate.
 About one-third of the children aged 15–17 years in Bihar are not attending school in
secondary classes.

📘 Public Facilities
 Question- How is it that the average person in Haryana has more income than in
Kerala but lags behind in crucial areas?
 Money in pocket cannot buy all the goods and services needed to live well.
 Income alone is not a completely adequate indicator of material goods and services
that citizens use.
  For example, Money cannot buy us a pollution-free environment or unadulterated
medicines unless we shift to a community that already has these.
 Money may also not protect us from infectious diseases unless the whole community
takes preventive steps.
 For many important things in life, the best and cheapest way is to provide goods and
services collectively.
 In many areas, children, especially girls, cannot go to high school because the
government or society has not provided adequate facilities.
 Kerala has a low Infant Mortality Rate because it provides basic health and
educational facilities.
 In some states, the Public Distribution System (PDS) functions well and thus the
health and nutritional status of people in such states is likely to be better.

📘 Human Development Report

 Income is important but inadequate to measure development.
 We need a small number of the most important things — health and education
indicators are among them.
 These are widely used with income as a measure of development.
 The Human Development Report published by UNDP compares countries based on
educational levels, health status, and per capita income.
 India and its neighbours can be compared using this report (2023–24).
 It is surprising that Sri Lanka, a small country, is ahead of India in every respect,
while India has a low world rank.
 Though Nepal and Bangladesh have lower per capita income than India, they are
better in life expectancy.
 Many improvements have been suggested in calculating HDI.
 By prefixing “Human” to Development, the report clarifies that what is important is
what happens to citizens.
 It is people, their health, and their well-being that matter most.

📘 Sustainability of Development

 Suppose a country is currently developed.

 We would like this level to be maintained or increased for future generations.
 Since the mid-20th century, scientists have warned that the present type and levels of
development are not sustainable.
 Groundwater is a renewable resource, replenished by nature like crops and plants.
 However, it can be overused — if usage exceeds replenishment by rain, the resource
is overused.
 Non-renewable resources get exhausted after a few years.
 We have a fixed stock on Earth, which cannot be replenished.
 Though new sources may be discovered, these too will eventually get exhausted.
 Environmental degradation has consequences that do not respect boundaries.
 This issue is no longer region- or nation-specific — our future is linked.
 Sustainability of development is a new area where scientists, economists,
philosophers, and social scientists work together.
 As members of society and individuals, we must ask where we want to go, what we
wish to become, and what our goals are.