Human Development in Districts of India, 2019–2021

Abstract

This study measures, for the first time, the level of human development across 707 districts of India as they existed at the time of National Family Health Survey 2019–2021 using an alternative index of human development which uses proportions rather than averages to measure progress in the three core dimensions of human development and employs the concept of human development surface to combine the progress in the three dimensions into a single composite index of human development. The alternative human development index addresses some of the problems that are associated with the conventional human development index. District level estimates of the alternative human development index suggest that human development in India is the poorest in district Supaul of Bihar but the most advanced in district Mahe of Puducherry. The study also reveals that in 78 districts of the country, there is a marked difference in progress in the three dimensions of human development and in 231 districts, the progress is below average in all the three dimensions of human development. The study emphasises the need of estimating human development index at the district level at regular intervals to imbibe the sensitiveness to human development in development planning and programming in the country.