We have failed our children

Mains Paper: 2 | Social Justice 
Prelims level: Human Capital Index
Mains level: While ‘Right to Education’ vastly expanded enrolment of children, not enough attention was paid to the quality of the schools, the teachers and the instruction. 

Context 

• According to some surveys, most people living in India report that they are happy. 
• The sense of contentment is despite the fact that jobs are scarce, the air is polluted, the water is unfit for drinking, the roads (except select national highways) are terrible, the law and order situation is alarming, and mob violence and mob justice seem to be the new normal.
• In approximately 49 crore children born and living in India who can claim a birth year in the 21st century.

Education and Health

• The World Bank publishes the World Development Report every year. 
• The 2019 report has constructed the HCI for 157 countries. 
• It is a measure of “the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18”. 
• The index is measured in terms of the productivity of the next generation of workers relative to the benchmark of complete education and full health. 
• An economy in which a child born today can expect to achieve complete education and full health will score a value of 1 on the index.”

Crucial highlights about the data 

• Singapore occupies the first rank with an HCI of 0.88.
• The first 10 countries score over 0.80. They are Singapore, Republic of Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Finland, Ireland, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands and Canada. 
• The ranks of the Big Five are good but not great: the United Kingdom (HCI 0.78) is at 15, France (0.76) at 22, the United States (0.76) at 24, Russia (0.73) at 34 and China (0.67) at 46.
• Ninety-six out of the 157 countries have an HCI score of over 0.51, which is a measure of the progress made by humankind as a whole.

Head Buried in Sand

• Among the remaining 61 countries that have an HCI of 0.50 or lower is India.
• India’s HCI is 0.44 and rank is 115. 
• That places India in the bottom third of the world. 
• The Government of India has decided to ignore the HCI and will continue to undertake its pathbreaking programme for human capital development aiming to rapidly transform quality and ease of life for all children.
• Nobody has accused the NDA government of being solely responsible for the low HCI. 
• All governments since Independence bear responsibility. What upset me is the unwillingness to admit to the shortcomings.
• The HCI is not a number plucked out of the air. It is based on six factors, each getting a score. In the case of India, given the average household income, the probability of a child surviving to the age of 5 is satisfactory at 0.96. The adult survival rate is reasonable at 0.83.
• What pulls India down are the ‘Learning adjusted years of school’ and ‘Fraction of children under 5 not stunted’. The score on the former is 5.8 years at school. On the latter, it is 0.62, meaning that 38 per cent of children under 5 years of age have a low height-for-age.

Cruel Negligence

• The HCI must be read along with the Global Hunger Index (GHI) published by Deutsche Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide.
• One out of seven children in India is undernourished; two out of five are stunted (low height-for-age); and one out of five is wasted (low weight-for-height). 
• The cause is undernutrition. On the one hand we have mountains of wheat and paddy and, on the other, we are unable to provide enough food to each child. 
• At the prodding of the National Advisory Council, the UPA acknowledged the need for State intervention and devised the MGNREGA and the Right to Food Security law. 
• The result is low HCI, high GHI (score 31.1, indicating ‘serious hunger’) and a low rank of 139 among 189 countries in the Human Development Index.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

UPSC Prelims Questions: 

Q.1) Consider the following statements with reference to Global Human Capital Index:
1. The index captures the full human capital potential profile of a country among five distinct age groups.
2. India ranks lowest among the BRICS countries.
3. It is released by World Economic Forum.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: D

UPSC Mains Questions:
Q.1) While ‘Right to Education’ vastly expanded enrolment of children, not enough attention was paid to the quality of the schools, the teachers and the instruction. Critically examine the statement.