In an effort to ensure relevance to emerging realities and to cast important light on challenges that persist, three new indices were introduced in 2010 in the UNDP’s Human Development Report.
The three indices introduced in 2010 measurement are the Inequality-adjusted HDI, gender inequality index and multi-dimensional poverty index. Speaking at the occasion, UNDP’s resident representative Patrice Coeur-Bizot stated that there was a need to introduce new indices to update the report according to prevailing conditions in the world.
The inequality-adjusted HDI discounts average human development for inequalities in health, education and income in 139 countries. India’s HDI for 2010 is 0.519. However, when the value is discounted for inequality, the HDI falls to 0.365, a loss of 30 per cent due to inequality in the distribution of dimension indices, the report says.
The gender inequality index measures disparities in the work force, health and empowerment that adversely affect women. “In India nine per cent of parliamentary seats are held by women and 27 per cent of women have a secondary or higher level of education. India ranks at 122 out of 138 countries while Bangladesh and Pakistan are ranked at 116 and 112 respectively on this index,” the report stated.
The third newly-introduced index, the multi-dimensional poverty index identifies serious overlapping deprivations in health, education and living standards, which is estimated to affect 1.7 billion people, or one third of the population of 104 developing nations.