NEW DELHI: India’s ranking on the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) improved by one position in 2022 to 134 out of 193 countries ranked compared to 135 out of 191 countries in 2021, said the UN report released on Thursday.
On the Gender Inequality Index (GII) 2022, India has been ranked at 108 out of 193 countries with a score of 0.437, said the latest human development index report. Its rank was 122 out of 191 countries with a score of 0.490 in the GII-2021.
“This shows a significant jump of 14 ranks on the GII in 2022 as compared to GII-2021,” said the Women and Child Development Ministry.
“Over the last 10 years, India’s rank in GII has become consistently better, indicating progressive improvement in achieving gender equality in the country. In 2014, this rank was 127, which now has become 108,” the ministry said.
However, the country has also one of the largest gender gaps in its labour force participation — a 47.8% difference between women (28.3%) and men (76.1%).
“After a drop in HDI value in 2021 and following a flat trend over the past few years, India’s HDI value has increased to 0.644 in 2022, placing the country at 134 out of 193 countries and territories,” the report said.
In 2022, India saw improvements across all HDI indicators — life expectancy, education and GNI per capita. Life expectancy rose from 67.2 to 67.7 years; expected years of schooling reached 12.6; mean years of schooling increased to 6.57 and GNI per capita saw an increase from $6,542 to $6,951.
“India has shown remarkable progress in human development over the years. Since 1990, life expectancy at birth has risen by 9.1 years; expected years of schooling have increased by 4.6 years, and mean years of schooling have grown by 3.8 years,” said Caitlin Wiesen, resident representative, UNDP India.
The GII measures gender inequalities in three key dimensions — reproductive health, empowerment and labour market. The country’s GII value of 0.437 is better than the global average of 0.462 and the South Asian average of 0.478, the report said. “India’s performance in reproductive health is better than other countries in the medium human development group or South Asia. India’s adolescent birth rate in 2022 was 16.3 (births per 1,000 women aged 15-19), an improvement from 17.1 in 2021,” it said.
“This is an outcome of the decisive agenda set by the government for ensuring women empowerment through policy initiatives aimed at their long-term socio-economic and political development,” the WCD ministry said.
The report said inequality is rising again globally. “The widening human development gap revealed by the report shows that the two-decade trend of steadily reducing inequalities between wealthy and poor nations is now in reverse,” said UNDP administrator Achim Steiner.