Rajeev Chandrasekhar's official website - Member of Parliament

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
Ministry of Planning 

RAJYASABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2554
TO BE ANSWERED ON 15-12-2011
Un Development Programme

 2554.       SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR: 

Will the PRIME MINISTER be pleased to state:

(a)           whether it is a fact that according to the latest release of the UN development  programme, India ranked  lower  than  its neighbors, Pakistan  and  Sri Lanka,  on multi-dimensional Poverty Index and Gender Inequality Index;

 (b)          If so, the details thereof; and

(c)          The corrective measures that Government proposes to take in this regard?

ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE FOR PLANNING, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES
(DR. ASHWANI KUMAR)

(a) to (c):  The Human Development  Report (HDR) - 2011 titled "Sustainability  and Equity: A better future  for  all" published  by United  Nations  Development  Programme  (UNDP),  places India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka at 129th , 115th  and 74th rank respectively in Gender Inequality Index  (GII).  As regards  Multidimensional  Poverty  Index  (MPI),  the  report  indicates  an MPI value of 0.283 for  India for the reference  year 2005 compared  to an MPI  value of 0.264 for Pakistan for reference year 2007 and 0.021 for Sri Lanka for reference year 2003.

  The data on different component indices and specific parameters  used to compute the Gil and  MPI  are  based  on  various  surveys   conducted   by  national  and  international   agencies following  different  methodology   and  different· reference  periods;  hence  the  indices  are  not strictly comparable across countries. It is clarified that India’s achievement in overall quality of life indicated by Human Development Index (HDI) has improved over years from an HDI value of 0.410 in 1990 to 0.461 in 2000 and further to 0.547 in 2011.

The Government's strategy of achieving  high growth rate, generating  more employment opportunities  and  strengthening   of  social  infrastructure  such  as  public  health  and  education through implementation  of flag hip programmes such as Mahatma  Gandhi  National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Sarva Sikhsha   Abhiyaan (SSA) and poverty alleviation  by providing  wage and self employment, safe drinking water and total sanitation campaign, etc. have impacted the human wellbeing positively and are expected to improve India's  HDI ranking further.

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