IANS
New Delhi: India
ranks a low 134 among 187 countries in terms of the human development
index (HDI), which assesses long-term progress in health, education and
income indicators.
According
to a UN report released on Wednesday, although placed in the "medium"
category, India's standing is way behind scores of economically less
developed countries, including war-torn Iraq as well as the Philippines.
India's ranking in 2010 was 119 out of 169 countries.
Sri
Lanka has been ranked 97, China 101 and the Maldives 109. Bhutan,
otherwise respected for its quality of life, has been placed at 141,
behind India.
Pakistan
and Bangladesh are ranked 145 and 146 in the list of countries that is
headed by Norway and in which the Democratic Republic of Congo is at the
very bottom.
The other two countries in South Asia, Nepal and Afghanistan, occupy ranks 157 and 172.
According to the "UN Human Development Report 2011: Sustainability and Inequality", India's HDI is 0.5 compared to 0.3 in 2010.
Rural
Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said year-on-year comparisons were
not practical. "Any change in development indicators should be measured
over a longer period of time," he said.
UN
official Seeta Prabhu said: "The HDI for 2011 would be the same if the
2010 methodology was adopted and the sample size was the same. As many
as 18 new countries were included in the survey this time."
She said India's gender inequality index was 0.6, the highest in South Asia.
But
stating that India had made "significant progress" on HDI, UNDP Country
Director Caitlin Wiesen said: "This trajectory may be threatened by
environmental risks and inequality."
The
UN report said that India had the world's largest number of
multidimensionally poor, more than half of the population, at 612
million.
However, the report appreciated India's progress in improving forest cover and protecting biodiversity.
"India
is one of the seven developing countries like Bhutan, China, Costa
Rica, Chile, El Salvador and Vietnam which have recently transitioned
from deforesting to reforesting," said the report.
India
increased its reforestation rate from 0.2 per cent a year between 1990
and 2000 to 0.5 per cent a year between 2000 and 2010.
"We need to link environmental issues with the livelihoods of deprived sections," said Ramesh while releasing the report.
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