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GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, July 8, 2003: According to the Human Development Report (HDR) 2003, social indicators that comprise life expectancy, adult literacy, education and per capita income positioned India as number 127 out of 174 countries. Last year, it ranked 124. The reason for the drop: other countries are performing much better than India in tackling basic human needs.



While India continued to build huge buffer stocks of foodgrains, it failed to tackle the central problem of “hunger.” In fact, the country has earned the dubious distinction of being home to the largest number of hungry people — some 233 million, nearly one-third of world’s hungry people. China, the country with which India is often compared both in domestic and international circles, has achieved remarkable progress in addressing hunger, so has Sri Lanka through its “food stamp” scheme covering 40 per cent of the population.



India has all along maintained huge buffer stocks since the 1970s to “stave off widespread famine,” however the report advised the government to keep food “. . . affordable for poor households, whether through public distribution systems or releases of grain into market.” This is something the Indian government has failed to do in recent years.



Tackling hunger problems requires an all-round development in agriculture, particularly a policy orientation that helps the poorest hungry farmers, not the well-fed rich farmers that take away all the benefits of subsidies and easy credit at soft rates, says the HDR. The report underscores the need for “several pro-poor technologies” that could sustain productivity and increase the employment for rural women.



Aside from hunger, India’s performance in spreading literacy is far from satisfactory, infant mortality has improved, but sanitation leaves much to be desired. In all, India’s progress in achieving social goals is pretty low and not keeping pace with the remarkable strides made in Information Technology and other hi-tech sectors. For the complete Human Development Report 2003, see “source” above.

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