The Human Development Index (HDI) is
a composite statistic of Life Expectancy,
Education and Per Capita Incomes. This
index is used for ranking the countries as against the traditional model of
ranking them merely by Per Capita Incomes.
Haq, used the services of many developmental
economists to produce the UNDP Reports and these included the Indians Meghnad
Desai and Sudhir Anand apart form others. These economists worked in
conjunction with Amartya Sen who supplied the underlying framework for the HDI.
Amartya Sen was initially against the idea but later he went on to help develop
the HDI.
The HDI index released in 2014 ranked
187 countries on the basis of HDI.
In the HDI Norway stood number 1 in
the world, while the USA was ranked at 5. The ranks of our neighboring
countries and that of India are given below.
Country Rank
Sri Lanka 73
China 91
Maldives 103
India 135
Bhutan 136
Bangladesh 142
Nepal 145
Pakistan 146
Burma 150
Afghanistan 169
India can take consolation that it is
better off than Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Burma and Afghanistan but it is
far behind Sri Lanka.
After being independent for so many years
India could not raise the education levels and life expectancy rapidly enough
and this speaks about the failure of our various Governments.
Our political parties are more intent
on criticizing each other than on national development. Everything is conveniently
segmented by the politicians so that a particular category is given promises. At
one time they say, the employees would be benefited, at another time they say
that the farmers would be benefited, at yet another time they say that a
particular religion or a caste would be benefited.
They never say that they would help
all sections of the people who are at a low level of development irrespective
of what caste, or grouping, religion or region they belong to. (Modi did say
that in meetings but no one even noticed it). In a country poor people who
cannot fend for themselves have to be helped by the state be they of any origin
or beginnings. They are Indians and are therefore entitled to the Government’s
help and no categorization is needed for this, the only indicator being
poverty.
Why have our political parties become
so bankrupt in thinking? I have never seen any political party in the
opposition genuinely praising the party in Government for some good steps
taken. This holds good for all political parties. Is it that all the steps
taken by the Governments are always faulty and absolutely nothing is good in
them? I find that the parties are utterly selfish and they are a blot on
democracy. The worrying thing is that they in fact reflect the thinking of our
people whom I can only conclude are utterly selfish.
During the time of Nehru, there were
MP’s who would challenge the party when they opposed the issue which the party
supported. But such MP’s do not exist now. They are extremely eager to toe the
party line and are ready to support even a murder by their own party men. With
experience the working of Democracy should improve but in our case the opposite
seems to have happened.
The favorite saying of politicians is
“law would take its own course”. But who does the investigation? It is the
police or other bodies which work under the politicians. Courts can only decide
on the matter depending on the material placed before them. If the material is faulty
they cannot deliver justice. And who collects the evidence but the
investigative agencies? How would they go against those who they work under?
Coming to law who make the laws? It
is the parliament itself. They have every right to amend the law when justice
is delayed. Why has the parliament not legislated regarding the number of
hearings in a case by amending the necessary laws? In most cases the witness
would tend to forget with time the exact events that have happened at the time
of the crime and he can easily be misled to give a wrong testimony just because
of the time lag. People do not clearly remember what happened say 5 years ago.
And why has it not legislated for
stringent punishment to those who give wrong evidence in the courts thereby totally
misleading the judges? There is a section 193 in the IPC for this, but I am yet
to see a case where this section is imposed and punishment meted out. When our
legal system is made so dependent on the investigative agencies for evidence,
is it not the responsibility of the Government to bring in laws and strengthen
the independence of the agencies?
There is something seriously wrong about how laws are enforced in our country. It is not the laws but their enforcement that is the concern. Unless Governments rise above party and political considerations and strengthen the hands of law enforcement agencies it is unlikely that things would improve.
