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NCERT 12 Human geography Chap 4: human development

NCERT 12 Human geography Chap 4: human development



  1. Both growth and development refer to changes over a period of time.
  2. Growth is quantitative and value neutral. It may have positive or negative sign.
  3. Development is a qualitative change which is always value positive.
  4. Development occurs when positive growth takes place.
  5. Growth does not mean development always.
  6. The concept of human development was introduced by Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq.
  7.  He described human development as development that enlarges people’s choices and improves their lives. People are central to all development in this concept.
  8. The basic goal of development is to create conditions where people can live meaningful life.
  9. The idea of human-development is supported by   equality, sustainability, productivity and empowerment.
  10. Sustainability means continuity in the availability of opportunities.
  11. Productivity means human labor productivity or productivity in terms of human-work.
  12.  Empowerment means to have the power to make choices. Comes from increasing freedom and capability.
  13. Equity refers to making equal access to opportunities available to everybody.
  14. Approaches to human-development :   
    1. The income approach
    2. The welfare approach
    3. Minimum needs approach
    4. Capabilities approach

  1. Income approach

This is one of the oldest approaches to human-development. Human-development is seen as being linked to income .the idea is that the level of income reflects the level of freedom an individual enjoys. Higher the level of income, the higher is the level of development.

  1. Welfare approach

This approach looks at human beings as beneficiaries or targets of all development activities. The approach

argues for higher government expenditure on

Education, health, social secondary and amenities.

People are not participants in development but only

Passive recipients. The government is responsible for

increasing levels of human development by

Maximizing expenditure on welfare.

  1. Basic needs approach

This approach was initially proposed by the

International Labor Organization (ILO). Six basic

needs i.e.: health, education, food, water supply,

Sanitation and housing were identified. The question

of human choices is ignored and the emphasis is on

the provision of basic needs of defined sections

  1. Capability approach

This approach is associated with Prof. Amartya Sen.

Building human capabilities in the areas of health,

education and access to resources is the key to

increasing human development

Human development Index

  1. The human-development index (HDI) ranks the countries based on their performance in the key areas of health, education and access to resources.
  2. These ranking are based on a score from   0 to 1.
  3. The indicator chosen to assess health is the life expectancy at birth. 
  4. The adult literacy rate and gross enrolment ratio represent access to knowledge.
  5. Access to resources is measured in terms of purchasing power( in U.S dollars )
  6. Each of these dimension is given a weightage of 1/3
  7. The human development index is sum of weights assigned to all these items.
  8. Higher the index, higher development.
  9. The human development index measures attainments in human developments.
  10. The human poverty index is related to the development index.
  11. The human poverty measures   the shortfall in human development.
  12. Countries are classified into three groups on the basis of the human development index .
  13. Score > 0.8 is indication of high development index.
  14. 0.8>Score>0.5 indicate medium level of human development.
  15.   Below 0.5 indicate low level of human development.
  16. Top 10 countries with high value index:  Norway ,Iceland , Australia, Luxemburg, Canada , Sweden ,Switzerland ,Ireland, Belgium, United Sates
  17. Countries those are in middle index values have got later freedom after world-war or formed by dissociation of USSR.
  18. Countries with low values of index have unstable politics or military govt.
  19. Since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been publishing the Human Development Report every year. This report provides a rank-wise list of all member countries according to the level of human development. The Human Development index and the Human Poverty index are two important indices to measure human development used by the UNDP.


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