Chapter 3 Human Development Solutions
Question - 1 : - Choose the right answers of the followings from the given options:
1.(i) Which one of the following is India’s rank in terms of Human Development Index among the countries of the world in 2011?
Answer - 1 : -
(a) 126
(b) 134
(c) 128
(d) 129
Answer
(b) 134
Question - 2 : - Choose the right answers of the followings from the given options:
1.(ii) Which one of the following states of India has the highest rank in the Human Development Index?
Answer - 2 : -
(a). Jamil Nadu
(b) Punjab
(c) Kerala
(d) Haryana
Answer
(c) Kerala
Question - 3 : - Choose the right answers of the followings from the given options:
1.(iii) Which one of the following states of India has the lowest female literacy?
Answer - 3 : -
(a) Jammu and Kashmir
(b) Arunachal Pradesh
(c) Jharkhand
(d) Bihar
Answer
(d) Bihar
Question - 4 : - Choose the right answers of the followings from the given options:
1.(iv) Which one of the following states of India has the lowest female child sex ratio 0-6 years?
Answer - 4 : -
(a) Gujarat
(b) Haryana
(c) Punjab
(d) Himachal Pradesh
Answer
(b) Haryana
Question - 5 : - Choose the right answers of the followings from the given options:
1.(v) Which one of the following Union Territories of India has the highest literacy rate?
Answer - 5 : -
(a) Lakshadweep
(b) Chandigarh
(c) Daman and Diu
(d) Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Answer
(a) Lakshadweep
Question - 6 : - Define Human Development.
Answer - 6 : -
“Human development is a process of enlarging the range of people’s choices, increasing their opportunities for education, health care, income and empowerment and covering the full range of human choices from a sound physical environment to economic, social and political freedom.”
Question - 7 : - Give two reasons for low levels of Human Development in most of the Northern States of India.
Answer - 7 : -
Kerala with the composite index value of 0.638 is placed at the top rank. There are several socio-political, economic and historical reasons for such a state of affairs. Kerala is able to record the highest value in the HDI largely due to its impressive performance in achieving near hundred per cent literacy (90.92 per cent) in 2001. Apart from the educational attainment, the levels of economic development too play significant impacts on HDI. Lack of awareness and opportunities for education and lack of job opportunities are the reasons for poor development and low HDI ranking in the Northern states of India.
Question - 8 : - Give two reasons for declining child sex ratio in India.
Answer - 8 : -
The main underlying causes is the social attitude of the people which results from the cultural fabric of the country , where there is general preference for male child. People tend to have male children and also there are illegal practices of female infanticide and in modem times pesticides rampant. The states with highest per capita income have lowest child sex ratio because these states have facilities of pre natal sex determination resulting sex selective abortion resulting in low child sex ratio. Also after the birth of female child, the negligence on health care of the female child leads to higher infant mortality rates for female kids resulting in low child sex ratio.
Question - 9 : - Discuss the spatial patterns of female literacy in India in 2001 and bring out the reasons responsible for it.
Answer - 9 : -
Overall literacy in India is approximately 65.4 per cent (2001) while female literacy is only 54.16 per cent. Total literacy as well as female literacy is higher than the national average in most of the states from south India. There are wide regional disparities in literacy rate across the states of India. There is a state like Bihar which has veiy low (47.53 per cent) literacy and there are states like Kerala and Mizoram which have literacy rates of 90.92 and 88.49 per cent respectively.
Kerala is able to record the highest value in the HDI largely due to its impressive performance in achieving near hundred per cent literacy (90.92 per cent) in 2001. In a different scenario the states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Assam and Uttar Pradesh have very low literacy. For example, total literacy rate for Bihar was as low as 60.32 per cent during the same year. States showing higher total literacy rates have less gaps between the male and female literacy rates. For Kerala, it is 6.34 per cent, while it is 26.75 per cent in Bihar and 25.95 per cent in Madhya Pradesh.
Apart from the spatial variations, percentage of literates in the rural areas and among the marginalized sections of our society such as females, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, agricultural labourers, etc. is very low. It is worth mentioning here that though, there has been improvement in the percentage of literates among the marginalized section yet the gap between the richer and the marginalized sections of the population has increased over the years.
Question - 10 : - Which factors have caused spatial variations in the levels of Human Development among the 15 major states in India?
Answer - 10 : -
India has been placed among the countries with medium human development index. It has human development index of 134. Kerala with the composite index value of 0.638 is placed at the top rank followed by Punjab (0.537), Tamil Nadu (0.531) Maharashtra (0.523) and Haryana (0.509). States like Bihar (0.367), Assam (0.386), Uttar Pradesh (0.388), Madhya Pradesh (0.394) and Odisha (0.404) are at the bottom among the 15 major states in India.
There are several socio-political, economic and historical reasons for such a state of affairs. Kerala is able to record the highest value in the HDI largely due to its impressive performance in achieving near hundred per cent literacy (90.92 per cent) in 2001. States like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Assam and Uttar Pradesh have very low literacy. States showing higher total literacy rates have less gaps between the male and female literacy rates.
Apart from the educational attainment, the levels of economic development too play significant impacts on HDI. Economically developed states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Punjab and Haryana have higher value of HDI as compared to states like Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, etc.
Regional distortions and social disparities continue to play an important role in the Indian economy, polity and society. In India, social divisions of caste, religion, sex plays an important role in the access of the particular social group to various life chances, hence alter their standing in the human development index. It is found that states with wider variations in social group like Uttar Pradesh tend to have lower Human development index due to communal tensions, differential resource distribution to people of different social groups.