Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday challenged Pakistan to declare a war on poverty, unemployment, and other social disabilities in South Asia – ‘let’s see who wins, India or Pakistan’. India’s composite Human Development Index (HDI) is 0.609 as against Pakistan’s 0.538. India ranks 130 worldwide in HDI, while Pakistan’s ranking is worse at 147. According to UNHDR 2015, with respect to life expectancy at birth, India is at 68 years and Pakistan is at 66.2. However, the adult mortality rate in India is higher at 198.5 compared to Pakistan’s 172. The infant mortality rate for India is 41.4 and that of Pakistan is 69. In terms of education, the expected years of schooling in India are 11.7 as against 7.8 in Pakistan. The adult literacy rate is 62.8 for India and 54.7 for Pakistan. Here’s how the two countries stack up, according to UNHDR 2015.
The Human Development Index (HDI) was created to emphasise that people and their capabilities should be the final criteria for deciding and assessing the development of a country, and not just economic growth alone. According to the United Nations, “The Human Development Index is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions.”
