Tamil Nadu Human Development Index
- Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. But human development is also the objective, so it is both a process and an outcome.
- Human development implies that people must influence the processes that shape their lives. In all this, economic growth is an important means to human development, but not the end.
- Human development is the development of the people through building human capabilities, by the people through active participation in the processes that shape their lives and for the people by improving their lives.
- It is broader than other approaches, such as the human resource approach, the basic needs approach and the human welfare approach.
- The composite Human Development Index (HDI) integrates three basic dimensions of human development. Life expectancy at birth reflects the ability to lead a long and healthy life. Mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling reflect the ability to acquire knowledge. And gross national income per capita reflects the ability to achieve a decent standard of living
- To measure human development more comprehensively, the Human Development Report also presents four other composite indices.
- The Inequality-adjusted HDI discounts the HDI according to the extent of inequality. The Gender Development Index compares female and male HDI values.
- The Gender Inequality Index highlights women’s empowerment. And the Multidimensional Poverty Index measures nonincome dimensions of poverty
Human development—a people-centred approach
- Human development is about acquiring more capabilities and enjoying more opportunities to use those capabilities. With more capabilities and opportunities, people have more choices, and expanding choices is at the core of the human development approach. But human development is also a process.
- Anchored in human rights, it is linked to human security. And its ultimate objective is to enlarge human freedoms. Human development is development of the people through the building of human resources, for the people through the translation of development benefits in their lives and by the people through active participation in the processes that influence and shape their lives.
- Income is a means to human development but not an end in itself. The human development approach in the 1990 Human Development Report also introduced a composite index, the Human Development Index (HDI), for assessing achievements in the basic dimensions of human development. Those dimensions of human development are to lead a long and healthy life, measured by life expectancy at birth; to acquire knowledge, measured by mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling; and to achieve a decent standard of living, measured by gross national income per capita.
Life Expectancy at Birth
- The indicator of life expectancy at birth is used to measure the realised achievement in the health dimension, that is, ‘to be able to live a long life’.
- The life expectancy at birth denotes the number of years that a child can expect to live at the time of birth, given the agespecific mortality rates in the population.
- The life expectancy, however, is an indicator of very long-term improvement in health.
Mean Years of Schooling
- Mean Years of Schooling (MYS) is one of the two indicators used to measure educational achievement in HDRs by UNDP.
- It replaced the literacy rate as an indicator under the education dimension in 2010. MYS indicates the average number of completed years of education of a country’s population.
- Usually, MYS is estimated for populations aged 25 years and older, which is also the indicator used in the calculation of the HDI by UNDP
Expected Years of Schooling
- EYS is a measure of the number of years of schooling a child at the start of his or her education is expected to receive, if current rates of enrolment are maintained throughout the child’s life.
Income Per Capita
- Income per capita is considered as an ‘indirect’ indicator of human development. The first HDR of UNDP (1990) observes that an indicator of ‘command over resources needed for a decent living’ requires data on access to land, credit, income and other sources.
- In 2010, instead of GDP per capita, Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is taken as the indicator.
- For allowing cross-country comparison, the GNI per capita of the countries was adjusted by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) ratios.
Facts Related to Tamil Nadu
Employment, Income and Poverty Employment Trends
- Bulk of the increase in income from industry is from construction sector. So is the bulk of employment
- Only State other than Gujarat where the share of registered manufacturing has increased by more than two percentage points.
- Only State where the share of construction in the State income has increased
District Level Poverty and Incomes
- High income districts like Kanyakumari and Erode have more than three times the incomes of low income districts like Ariyalur and Perambalur.
- Other low income districts like Villupuram, Thiruvannamalai, Theni and Thiruvarur have per capita incomes less than half of highest income districts.
- Some overlap is seen between the share of agricultural labourers in the district and the extent of rural poverty in Thiruvannamalai, Thiruvarur, Cuddalore, Ariyalur, Villupuram and Nagapattinam.
Literacy and Education
- Total literacy rate in Tamil Nadu has shown an increasing trend over the years, increasing from 62.66% in 1991 to 80.33% in 2011.
- The dropout rates of different categories of students show a downward trend. SC students have comparatively lower dropout rates
- The improvement in the dropout rates could be attributed to the various State’s welfare programs
- Both completion and repetition rates have improved over time for both boys and girls and across categories
- Infrastructure, School quality accompanied by improved outcome (pass percentages)
Higher Education
- Gross Enrollment Rate is in higher education is 43% (2013-14)
- Tamil Nadu ranks first among all Indian States in context of the number of universities, Technical universities. Colleges are dominated by the Private Unaided colleges, forming 88.5% of all colleges in the State
- Massive expansion with regard to technical education over the decade (2001-2011)
- Parallel to the case of engineering education, we can find a private sector led rapid expansion of the medical education too.
- The State Skill Development Mission (TNSDM) acts as a single agency to conduct training programs for qualifications up to 12th std. and accredits training Institutions.
- The Community College promotes job-oriented, work related, skill-based and life-coping education.
Standard of living: Per Capita Income
- Top 5 – Kanyakumari, Kancheepuram, Tiruppur, Virudhunagar, Tiruvallur
- Bottom 5-Ariyalur, Perambalur, Thiruvarur, Villupuram, Theni
Life Expectancy at Birth
- Top 5 –Chennai, Kanyakumari, Coimbatore, Thoothukudi, Krishnagiri
- Bottom 5-Tiruppur, The Nilgiris, Theni, Nagapattinam, Madurai
Literacy Rate
- Top 5 – Kanyakumari, Chennai, Thoothukudi, The Nilgiris, Kancheepuram
- Bottom 5-Dharmapuri, Ariyalur, Villupuram, Erode, Salem
GER- Primary
- Top 5 -The Nilgiris, Ramanathapuram, Perambalur, Pudukottai, Tiruvarur
- Bottom 5-Tiruppur, Ariyalur, Chennai, Tiruvanamalai, Cuddalore
GER – Secondary
- Top 5 –Dharmapuri, Nagapattinam, Perambalur, Thanjavur, Krishnagiri
- Bottom 5-Erode, Karur, Villupuram, Chennai, Tiruvanamalai
Conclusion of State HDI
- Progress made in the State has been accompanied by demographic changes, along with improvements in literacy levels and reductions in total fertility rate.
- In addition to core human development parameters, the inter-district variations across other critical parameters for ensuring sustained improvements in overall well-being such as gender inequality, child development, multidimensional poverty and food security indices.
- Districts like Kanyakumari, Thoothukudi and Coimbatore seem to be faring well in many of the indices, while those like Ariyalur, Perambalur and Villupuram perform poorly.
- Although some marginal changes are observed over time with the inclusion of Virudhunagar district in the top five districts, regional variations have more or less persisted over the decade.
- Despite sustained overall improvements, the chapter observes sharp inter-district differences across various dimensions of human development.
- Some of the districts with low levels of human development also rank low across other indices.
- Gender inequalities in well-being persist in the State across all three dimensions.
- Despite being one of the better performing states in terms of human development, there are significant inter-district and intra-district disparities even in the high HDI districts.
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