July 17, 2000
The author is the former Professor of Economics, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
India has inched up 4 slots to rank 128 in the Human Development Index according to the United Nations Development Programme. The three components of the HDI are income, health and education. These three, while being essential also serve the needs of global capital. They are compatible with a healthy and educated work force which can first produce an endless stream of goods and then be given the income to consume it. But there are other equally essential needs of human beings such as harmony and happiness. The UNDP ignores these needs. In fact there is evidence to show that three provisions promoted by UNDP are actually creating human discord. The provision of health, education and income is somehow incomplete as also is the Human Development Index.
The fundamental problem is how to define "human" in the Human Development Index. UNDP logic is that expansion of capabilities - health, education and income - enable human beings to live the life that they may like. A person who is more enabled is also more "developed".
INNER PEACE
The difficulty with this concept is two-fold. First, the capabilities that are developed may not be the ones that a person desires. What use is the capability of playing football for a person who desires to sing the songs of Tagore? School education opens some pathways but also closes others. A schoolboy would hardly be enabled to memorise the hymns of Rig Veda - a capability which requires years of training in a particular mould. The provision of formal school "education" disables his desire of memorising the Rig Veda. UNDP defines "education" as enrolment in the Macaulayan education system. It does not define education as the capability to think. Thus "education" can be as disabling in some areas as it may be enabling in others.
Second, opportunities may not be available to use the capabilities that are developed. What good is the capability of playing football if there is no playing field around? A capability without opportunity is like a pressure cooker which is waiting to burst.
Both these problems can lead to human discord despite high ranking in the Human Development Index. There is plenty of evidence in this direction. Compare the figures for the United States and India for some indicators other than health, education and income. Take cigarette consumption. It may be considered as a proxy for mental tension in which the people live. The adult American on the average smokes 2,372 cigarettes-a-year. The corresponding figures for the average Indian is a meagre 117 cigarettes. If cigarette smoking were to be taken as an indicator of "human discord", India would rank nearly 20 times higher than the United States.
Similarly, the figures for recorded drug offences for the United States are not given. But taking Canada as a proxy, they stand at 207.2 per lakh population there as against 2.2 in India. Nearly two hundred times higher consumption of cigarettes and drug offenses is an indicator that the lives of those people - despite the expansion of the much lauded capabilities - are not leading to an peace with their inner selves.
The social indicators are similarly stacked against the United States. Consider the number of crimes recorded per lakh population. India stands at 600 crimes with United States far behind at 5,367. Or, take rapes recorded per lakh population: India has 5 against United States' 97. These indicate that the capabilities are not finding a socially harmonious mode of expression. They burst in acts of crime and violence.
DISCARD UTILITY
The conclusion is that expansion of capabilities is leading to human discord both within and without. More capable human beings are less in tune with their inner self as well as have less opportunities to express themselves socially in a harmonious manner.
It was contended that it is not sufficient for human beings to have access to income or goods. The goods are of use only if they can be put to use. It is no use having a book if one does not have the capability of reading. The television has a limited utility if one's life span is short or one has gone blind due to inadequate nutrition. Thus, instead of merely looking at the income, or even the distribution of income, we should also look at the capabilities which are necessary to put the goods to use. Along with the books that are available one should look at the level of education; and along with the television one should also look at the health status. Thus, UNDP developed the Human Development Index based on the three criteria of income, education and health.
The underlying idea of "human" being, however, remains unchanged. The basis of capabilities-as-development continues to be that more consumption - in the form of goods along with the capabilities required to put them to use - is what begets happiness. This is what the "income" component of the Human Development Index captures. This is the infamous theory of utility with forms the bedrock of all classical and even modern welfare economics. A utilitarian believes that a person who has more goods - even if they come along with more discord - is more developed. So also UNDP believes that more goods-with-capabilities - even if they come along with greater discord - still constitute "human development".
It is time for us to outgrow utility. Eco-nomists will have to grapple with questions of the inner self of "human" beings and social organisation. They will have to examine how to enable human beings to live in harmony with their inner selves and with less crimes and suicides. Until we do that, replacement of incomes by capabilities as a measure of human development will only be jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
LIMIT EDUCATION
How are we, then, to measure "human" development as distinct from either economic growth or capabilities? My suggestion would be, let us develop proxies for "happiness". Aids, crime, drugs, rapes and suicides would all be accepted as indicators of unhappiness. UNDP should build a human "happiness" index. Data on many of these proxy indicators is already available. More can be collected. We should build a Human Development Index which directly capture human happiness instead of assuming that capabilities will necessarily lead there. And, on the basis of these data, as our preliminary investigations show, India beats United States in any measure of "human" development. Giving India a rank of 128 is nothing less than crookedness.
It is indeed sad that our government, instead of challenging the false premises of the UNDP is busy toeing its line. Some states have come out with their own Human Development Reports. Our Planning Commission is planning to bring out a similar report for India. So overpowering is the intellectual bankruptcy that sarkari economists compete with each other to see who will document human discord better.
This is not to argue that expansion of capabilities is not desirable. The argument is only that instead of a blank uniform education compulsorily imparted to all, we must let the parents decide what education suits their children. Secondly, only so much expansion of capabilities should be encouraged by the government for which opportunities for effectuation are available. What else is planning about?
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