NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Geography Chapter 4 Important Questions

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic developed and compiled by the United Nations to measure various countries’ levels of social and economic development. The HDI was established to place emphasis on individuals or more precisely; on their opportunities to realize satisfying work and lives. The importance of the human development index is that it is an essential indicator of the overall socio-economic conditions of a nation and its residents. Since it takes into account various parameters to determine the development of those areas, it is an effective way to evaluate the performance of every nation.

The HDI is used to capture the attention of policy-makers, the media and nongovernmental organizations, and to change the focus from the usual economic statistics to human outcomes. It was created to re-emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth.
The HDI is also used to question national policy choices and to determine how two countries with the same level of income per person can have widely different human development outcomes.

For example, two countries may have similar incomes per person, but have drastically differing life expectancy and literacy levels, such that one of the countries has a much higher HDI than the other. These contrasts stimulate debate on government policies concerning health and education to determine why what can be achieved in one country is beyond the reach of the other.
The HDI is also used to highlight differences within countries, between provinces or states, and across genders, ethnicities and other socioeconomic groupings. Highlighting internal disparities along these lines has raised the national debate in many countries.

The terms Growth and Development are used with every aspect of life. There might be some confusion when using the terms as they are often used interchangeably. Growth is just ‘getting bigger’, whereas development is improvement.
Growth can be explained as becoming bigger or larger or having more importance. Growth is termed as a physical change, whereas development is said to be physical as well as social or psychological change. Development also means transformation or improvement.

While growth is related to quantitative improvement, development is related to quantitative as well as qualitative improvement. In terms of economy, we say there was a steady growth in the country’s economy over the last few years. We also say that there was a tremendous growth in the case of hospitals in the region. We also refer to countries as developed and developing country, which means that the country has made great strides in all spheres.

Generally, people do not have the capability and freedom to make even basic choices. This may be due to their inability to acquire knowledge, their material poverty, social discrimination, inefficiency of institutions and other reasons. This prevents them from leading healthy lives being able to get educated or to have the means to live a decent life.

Building people’s capabilities in the areas of health, education and access to resources is therefore, important in enlarging their choices. If people do not have capabilities in these areas, their choices also get limited. For example, an uneducated child cannot make the choice to be a doctor because her choice has got limited by her lack of education. Similarly, very often poor people cannot choose to take medical treatment for disease because their choice is limited by their lack of resources.

Income approach: 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 human development.
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. The government is responsible for increasing levels of human development by maximizing expenditure on welfare.

Basic Needs approach: This approach emphasis on provision of very basic needs like health, education, food, water supply, sanitation, and housing to each individual.
Capability approach: This approach is associated with building human capabilities in the areas of health, education and access to resources is the key to increasing human development.