APPROACH
The Introduction: Introduce the concept of HDI and India’s latest position
The Body
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- Briefly talk about the difference between HDI and IHDI with IHDI based score of India
- Highlight how IHDI is a better indicator of inclusive growth
The Conclusion: Give an appropriate conclusion in this regard
The Introduction:
The Human Development Index (HDI) and the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) are both used to assess a country’s progress beyond just economic metrics like GDP. In the 2025 HDR report (2023 data), India’s HDI was 0.685, ranking it 130th out of 193 countries. However, the HDI does not reflect how equally these benefits are shared and that requires IHDI assessment.
The Body
Differences between HDI vs IHDI
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- IHDI is computed as a geometric mean of inequality-adjusted dimensional indices. The IHDI accounts for inequalities in HDI dimensions by “discounting” each dimension’s average value according to its level of inequality ( using the Atkinson inequality measure).
- The IHDI value equals the HDI value when there is no inequality across people but falls below the HDI value as inequality rises.
- In this sense, the IHDI measures the level of human development when inequality is accounted for.
Levels of inequality in India
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- Health: The NFHS-V data shows an Infant Mortality Rate of 41.6 per 1,000 live births for STs and 40.7 for SCs, which is higher than the overall rate of 35.0 per 1,000 live births.
- Education: In 2011, the male literacy rate was 81% compared to 65% for females, with this gap narrowing to 84.7% (males) and 70.3% (females) in 2017-18, but still substantial.
- Standard of Living (Income inequality): As per World Inequality Lab data, the top 1% holding nearly 23% of national income and 41% of wealth which is very high.
- In the 2025 HDR (Human Development Report), HDI for India was 0.685 which fell to 0.475 if IHDI based calculations were made (loss of more than 30% due to inequality)
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IHDI as a better indicator for inclusive growth
1. Reflects real distribution: Unlike HDI, IHDI reveals how well development reaches the poorest sections. Thus, IHDI is a more outcome-driven metric rather than policy-driven.
2. Targets inequality: It highlights gaps like, between urban and rural, rich and poor or between men and women. This helps in chalking out more inclusive policies.
3. Better development measure: Especially for a country like India, where only the top earners see improvements, IHDI prompts us to focus on leaving no one behind (the core ethos behind Antyodaya).
The Conclusion
While HDI gives us useful insight into national averages for health, education and income, it falls short in reflecting the deeper structural inequities within the population. The IHDI paints a clearer and fairer picture of development by adjusting for inequality. For a diverse country like India, pursuing growth must mean securing improvements across all demographics and not just averages.
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