CBSE Class 12 Geography Human Development Assignment

Growth and development
Growth and development both refer to changes over a period of time

Growth
- It is quantitative
- Value neutral
- May have positive or negative sign
- Change may be either positive[showing an increase] or negative[showing a decrease]

Development
- Qualitative change
- Always value positive
- Development occurs when there is positive change in quality
- Eg the population of a city grows from one lakh to two lakhs over a period of time then growth has taken place but if there is no improvement in facilities like housing and provision of basic services no development has taken place 

Development
Earlier idea-
- measured in terms of economic growth.
- The bigger the economy of the country the more developed it was considered.

Present idea
Development aspects include
a. Quality of life people enjoy
b. The opportunities they have
c. Freedoms they enjoy
New idea of development given by
1.Dr. Mahbub- ul-Haq 2. Dr. Amartya Sen
The concept of human development was introduced by Dr Mahbub-ul-Haq
Human development =development that enlarges peoples choices and improves their lives and create conditions where people can live meaningful lives [life with some purpose]

Basic Goal of development
- To create conditions where people can live meaningful lives.

Important aspects of human development
1. Leading a long and healthy life
2. Being able to gain knowledge
3. Having enough means to be able to live a decent life

Key areas of human development
1. Access to resources
2. Health
3. Education
Pillars of human development
4 pillars
1. Equity
2. Sustainability
3. Productivity
4. Empowerment

Equity-
- refers to making equal access to opportunities available to everybody
- Opportunities available to people must be equal irrespective of gender, race income and caste
- Eg a large number of women and persons belonging to socially and economically backward groups drop out of school

Sustainability
- means continuity in the availability of opportunities
- To have sustainable human development each generation must have the same opportunities. So each generation must ensure the availability of choices and opportunities to its future generations
- Eg if a community does not stress the importance of sending its girl children to school many opportunities will be lost to these young women when they grow up

Productivity
- means human labour productivity or productivity in terms of human work
- Efforts to increase the knowledge of people or providing better health facilities to them ultimately leads to better work efficiency.

Empowerment
- means to have the power to make choices
- It comes from increasing freedom and capability
- Good governance and people oriented policies are required to empower people

APPROACHES TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

1. The income approach
- One of the oldest approaches to human development
- Human development is seen as being linked to income
- Level of income reflects the level of freedom an individual enjoys
- Higher the level of income the higher is the level of human development

2. The welfare approach
- This approach looks at human beings as beneficiaries or targets of all development activities
- Approach argues for higher government expenditure on education health social sector 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

3. Minimum[Basic] needs approach
- This approach was initially proposed by the international labour organisation
- Six basic needs- health, education, food, water supply, sanitation and housing
- The question of human choices is ignored
- Emphasis is on the provision of basic needs of defined sections

4. 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

Measuring human development
- The human development index ranks the countries based on their performance in the key areas of health, Education and access to resources
- Rankings are based on a score between 0 to 1

Health
- Indicator is life expectancy at birth

Education
- Adult literacy rate
- Gross enrolment ratio

Access to resources
- Measure in terms of purchasing power[US dollars]
- Each of these dimensions is given a 1/3 weightage
- The human development index is a sum total of the weights assigned to all these dimension

HDI
- Measures the attainments in human development
- Not a reliable measure as it does not say anything about distribution

HPI[human poverty index]
- Measures the shortfall in human development
- The probability of not surviving till the age of 40
- The adult illiteracy rate
- The no of people who do not have access to clean water
- The number of small children who are underweight
Both these measure together gives an accurate picture of the human development situation in a country

International comparisons

Based on HDI countries classified into four
- Very High
- High HDI
- medium HDI
- low HDI

HIGH HDI
- Lot of investment in social sector
- Good governance
- Former imperial powers
- Social diversity not high

MEDIUM HDI
- Adopting people oriented policies
- Reducing social discrimination

LOW HDI
- Political turmoil
- Civil war
- Famine
- High incidence of diseases

Question. Which is not the reason of low HDI?
a. Political Turmoil, Famine, Social Instability
b. Education, Good Governance, better healthcare
c. Civil war, social discrimination, political turmoil
d. None of these
Answer. b

Question. The shortfalls of human development include
a. underweight children
b. adult literacy
c. access to clean water
d. high life expectancy
Answer.b

Question. Arrange the countries from highest HDI to Lower HDI as per HDI report 2020
1. Norway
2. Ireland
3. Switzerland
4. Hongkong
a. 1-2-3-4
b. 2-3-1-4
c. 1-4-2-3
d. 1-3-4-2
Answer. a

Question. What is the range of measuring human development index?
a. 0 to 1
b. -1 to 1
c. 0 to -1
d. None of the above
Answer. a

Question. What is the weightage given to each indicator in the human development index?
a. 2/3
b. ½
c. 1/3
d. ¼
Answer. c

Question. Consider the following points, evaluate them and choose the correct option
I. If a community does not stress the importance of sending its girl children to school, many opportunities will be lost to these young women when they grow up. Their career choices will be severely curtailed and this would affect other aspects of their lives.
II. Each generation must ensure the availability of choices and opportunities to its future generations.
a. Both statements are true, statement 2 does not explain statement 1 correctly
b. Statements 1 is true but statement 2 is false and statement 2 does not explains the statement 1
c. Both statements 1 and 2 are wrong.
d. Both Statements are correct and related to each other
Answer.d

Question. Increasing freedom is also one of the most effective ways of bringing about development’, who put this idea of development?
Answer. Prof.Amartya Sen

Question. Name the scholar who introduced the concept of human development.
Answer. Dr. Mahbub-ul-Haq

Question. Examine the concept of ‘human development’ as introduced by Mahbub-ul-Haq.
Answer. Human development is described as development that enlarges people’s choices and improves their lives and create conditions where people can live meaningful lives [life with some purpose]

Question. What is human development? Explain with examples the four pillars of human development in the world.
Answer. Human development is described as development that enlarges people’s choices and improves their lives and create conditions where people can live meaningful lives [life with some purpose]
The four pillars of development are

Equity-
- refers to making equal access to opportunities available to everybody
- Opportunities available to people must be equal irrespective of gender, race income and caste
- Eg a large number of women and persons belonging to socially and economically backward groups drop out of school

Sustainability
- means continuity in the availability of opportunities
- To have sustainable human development each generation must have the same opportunities. So each generation must ensure the availability of choices and opportunities to its future generations
- Eg if a community does not stress the importance of sending its girl children to school man opportunities will be lost to these young women when they grow up

Productivity
- means human labour productivity or productivity in terms of human work
- Efforts to increase the knowledge of people or providing better health facilities to them ultimately leads to better work efficiency

Empowerment
- means to have the power to make choices
- It comes from increasing freedom and capability
- Good governance and people oriented policies are required to empower people

Question. Explain the basic needs approach to human development of the world.
Answer.
- This approach was initially proposed by the international labour organisation
- Six basic needs- health, education, food, water supply, sanitation and housing
- The question of human choices is ignored
- Emphasis is on the provision of basic needs of defined sections

Question. ‘‘The Gross National Happiness is the measure of the country’s progress.’’ Evaluate the statement
Answer.
- Bhutan is the only country in the world to officially proclaim the Gross National Happiness (GNH) as the measure of the country’s progress.
- Material progress and technological development are approached cautiously taking into consideration the possible harm to the environment, culture and spiritual life
- GNH encourages to think of spiritual, non-material and qualitative aspects of development

Question. How are countries classified on the basis of human development index?
Answer. Countries can be classified into four groups on the basis of the human development scores earned by them

Question. Analyse any three features of countries with medium levels of human development.
Answer.
- Most of these countries have emerged in the period after the Second World War.
- Some countries from this group were former colonies.
- Many others have emerged after the breakup of the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1990.
- To improve their human development score many of these countries are adopting more people-oriented policies and reducing social discrimination.
- Most of these countries have a much higher social diversity
- Many in this group have faced political instability and social uprising.

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