Quality-adjusted HDI shows gaps in human development across states: CSEP

When quality is factored into health, education, and income, human development levels in Indian states drop sharply, revealing gaps long obscured by the traditional Human Development Index (HDI), a latest study shared by the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) with Business Standard shows.

 

States like Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, which have high scores in traditional HDI and are praised for their success, show some of the largest gaps once quality factors are taken into consideration.

 

New quality-adjusted HDI estimates reveal that in 2021–22, Kerala (-0.22) and Himachal Pradesh (-0.19) had the largest gaps between headline HDI and what people experienced, the study shows.

 

“In education alone, high-performing states record the steepest drop when learning outcomes are combined with schooling years. Economically advanced states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Haryana also show deep income-inequality-adjusted corrections,” the study noted.

 

In contrast, low-income states such as Bihar (-0.12), Assam (-0.15) and Tripura (-0.13) in 2021–22 exhibited much smaller divergences, meaning their HDI rankings better reflect reality.

 

The study further noted that of the three years considered, the divergence between the quality-adjusted HDI and traditional HDI widened from 2011–12 to 2017–18, but narrowed between 2017–18 and 2021–22. Thus, the overall divergence between quality-adjusted HDI and traditional HDI reduced between 2011–12 and 2021–22, though the extent of reduction was not significant.

 

However, for a few states such as Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Punjab, the quality-adjusted HDI ranking declined consistently between 2011–12 and 2021–22.

 

Meanwhile, for states like Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, the quality-adjusted HDI ranking improved overall in 2021–22 relative to 2011–12.

 

“India’s human development challenge is dual in nature — it is not only about expanding access to health, education and economic opportunities, it is also about improving quality. Without embedding quality at the centre of health, education, and income policies, traditional HDI will continue to overstate progress and understate the lived realities of millions,” said Janak Raj, who co-authored the study with Indramani Tiwari.

 

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) introduced the HDI in 1990. However, the HDI focuses only on quantitative aspects such as life expectancy, years of education, and per capita income, ignoring qualitative aspects. To address these concerns, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA) introduced the quality-adjusted HDI for several countries, including India.

 

To address the missing qualitative aspect at the state level, this study computes a quality-adjusted HDI at the state level in India.