Human Development Reports Impact on Indian Policy Making

Abstract

Addressing human development in India is of vital importance since a large portion of the population is living below the poverty line, and income inequalities are rising by the day. It is estimated that nearly one third of Indians live on less than 20 Rupees per day. Disparities exist across States, along rural/urban lines and across groups. More than 60 percent of women are chronically poor. The percentage of poor among Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes remains high. Many people are excluded from access to basic services. Therefore it is highly essential to understand the impact of Human Development Reports on the policy choices of Indian state. Introduced in the 1990s as an alternate development paradigm that treats people as the real wealth of nations, the human development approach has become the prevailing development paradigm for the past 25 years. Human Development Reports have impacted Indian policy since the beginning of the 1990s. Around that time, the Global human development Reports, and the introduction of the human development paradigm in the Government of India’s 8th Five Year Plan inspired some States in India to independently take up preparation of state human development Reports. The human development paradigm since then has been institutionalised in the development agenda in India, strongly impacting policy and planning decisions both at national, state and district level.