What Development Promises – Different People, Different Goals
Different persons can have different developmental goals.
What may be development for one may not be development for the other and may even be destructive.
Income and other goals
People are common in their desire for regular work, better wages, and decent price for their crops or other products that they produce.
They also seek things like equal treatment, freedom, security, and respect of others and resent discrimination.
If women are engaged in paid work, their dignity in the household and society increases but if there is respect for women, there would be more sharing of housework and a greater acceptance of women working outside.
Provision of a safe and secure environment is necessary for women to take up a variety of jobs or run a business.
How to compare different countries or states?
Greater income is considered to be one important goal and countries with higher income are considered more developed than others with less income.
Countries have different populations, so comparing total income will indicate the average income of a person.
The average income is the total income of the country divided by its total population.
This criterion is used in classifying countries in World Development Reports, brought out by the World Bank
According to this countries are classified as:
Rich countries: Countries with per capita income of US$ 12236 per annum and above in 2016.
Low-income countries: Those with per capita income of US$ 1005 or less.
Income and other criteria
Haryana has the highest per capita income and Bihar is at the bottom.
So, if per capita income were to be used as the measure of development, Haryana will be considered the most developed and Bihar the least developed state among the three.
Public Facilities
In many areas, children, particularly girls, are not able to go to high school because the government or society has not provided adequate facilities even in modern times.
Kerala has a low Infant Mortality Rate because it has adequate provision of basic health and educational facilities.
Similarly, in some states, health and nutritional status of people of such states is certainly likely to be better because the Public Distribution System (PDS) functions well.
Human Development Report
Human Development Report published by UNDP compares countries based on the educational levels of the people, their health status and per capita income.
Life Expectancy at birth denotes average expected length of life of a person at the time of birth.
Per Capita Income is calculated in dollars for all countries so that it can be compared.
Sustainability of Development
Renewable resources:
Groundwater is an example of renewable resources that is replenished by nature as in the case of crops and plants.
But, these resources may be overused too, if we use more than what is being replenished by rain.
Non-renewable resources:
These resources will get exhausted after years of use because there is a fixed stock of these on earth which cannot be replenished.
Although new sources are discovered and add to the stock, it will get exhausted over time.
