Authored by subject matter experts. Content strictly validated against latest NCERT rationalized curriculum and official Board Marking Schemes.
📑 In This Chapter Guide (Table of Contents)
1. What Development Promises: Conflicting Developmental Goals
Development involves ideas about how life can be improved and how people can live better. Two critical truths govern developmental desires:
- Different persons can have different developmental goals: A landless rural laborer seeks more days of work and better wages; a prosperous Punjabi farmer seeks high support prices for crops and cheap migrant labor.
- What may be development for one may be destructive for another: An industrialist seeks more mega-hydroelectric dams for uninterrupted factory electricity; however, dams submerge agrarian lands and displace thousands of local indigenous tribal communities.
2. Income and Other Non-Material Goals
While higher income buys material goods and services, human wellbeing requires crucial non-material goals:
- Equal treatment and dignity in society.
- Freedom of speech, movement, and vocation.
- Personal security and protection against crime.
- A pollution-free environment and safe drinking water.
- Job security, respect, and work-life balance.
Therefore, for development, people look at a mix of goals rather than personal income alone.
3. World Bank vs UNDP Development Measurement Criteria
| Feature | World Bank Criteria (World Development Reports) | UNDP Criteria (Human Development Index - HDI) |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Metric | Per Capita Income (Average Income) calculated in US Dollars ($).
Per Capita Income = Total National Income / Total Population |
Multi-dimensional: Health, Education, and Standard of Living combined. |
| Key Indicators | Strictly economic monetary income per head. |
1. Life Expectancy at birth (Health indicator). 2. Literacy Rate & Gross Enrolment Ratio (Education). 3. Per Capita Gross National Income (GNI). |
| Major Limitation | Hides disparities: A country with a few billionaires and millions living in extreme poverty can show high average per capita income. | Provides a balanced, human-centric evaluation of societal wellbeing. |
4. Kerala vs Haryana: Why Non-Income Indicators Matter
A classic comparative study in NCERT Economics illustrates the limitation of per capita income alone:
- Haryana has a higher Per Capita Income than Kerala.
- Yet, Kerala has a much lower Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), higher Literacy Rate (over 94%), and superior Net Attendance Ratio.
- Why? Kerala invested decades in adequate provision of basic public health clinics, primary schools, and an efficient Public Distribution System (PDS) ration network. Money in your pocket cannot buy a disease-free environment or ensure unadulterated medicines unless public collective systems exist.
💡 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
❓ Define Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Net Attendance Ratio.
Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) indicates the number of children that die before completing one year of age as a proportion of 1,000 live children born in that particular year. Net Attendance Ratio is the total number of children of age group 14 and 15 years attending school as a percentage of total children in the same age group.
❓ Why is the issue of sustainability important for development?
Development achieved by recklessly exhausting finite non-renewable resources (like fossil fuels and groundwater aquifers) is short-lived. Groundwater depletion in northern agrarian plains threatens future crop security. Sustainable development ensures that the economic gains of today do not compromise the survival and prosperity of future generations.
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