Question.
What do you understand by the term human development?
(Class 12 geography, Fundamentals of Human Geography, Chapter - 4. Human Development )
Answer.
The concept of human development was introduced by Mahbub-ul-Haq and Amartya Sen. According to Mehboob-ul-Haq, human development is the development in which people improve their standard of living by increasing their choices. To this end, increase access to quality education, quality health services, and resources available to all populations, regardless of socioeconomic status. Therefore human development is a people-centered development.
People are the real resources of the country as they make use of other resources of the country. A country is known for its people and not for resources like gold. The quality of human resources is what makes a nation great and strong. People neither have a good standard of living nor do they have many options to do anything if they are not healthy and educated. For example, an illiterate person cannot become a doctor or an engineer.
Human development not only empowers people and makes their lives better but also empowers the nation and makes the nation strong and stable.
There are three major areas and four major components to human development.
- The three major areas of human development are access to education, access to health facilities, and access to resources available in the country.
- The four components of human development are equity, sustainability, productivity, and empowerment.
The countries of the world are classified into four categories( very high, high, medium, and low) based on the Human Development Index (HDI) published every year by the United Nations Development Programme.
Regions such as Europe and the Americas performed well in human development because the government in these region invested more in public welfare while regions such as Asia and Africa performed poorly in human development because the government in this region invested more in human development for various reasons (the government's low income, corruption, defense expenditure, political instability, etc.) have not invested much in public welfare.
You may like also:
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon