PhD Research Scholar, Department of Economics, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India (190006)
Online published on 12 February, 2015.
The concept of human development is very rich and vast. UNDP which popularized this new development paradigm has been at the forefront to further add to the enrichment and vastness of the subject. There is hardly any aspect in economic, social, political and cultural life of human beings which is not included in the overall pervasive subject of human development. There are only few indices available to measure the concept of human development. These include human development index, gender development index and human poverty index. The most important index which has captured the attention of intellectuals and policy planners throughout the world is human development index. The first human development report brought out by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1990 started with a simple, but far reaching statement, ‘People are the real wealth of nation’. The basic objective of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives, to be educated and to have an access to resources needed for a decent standard of living. In principle these choices can be infinite and change over time.
The state of Jammu and Kashmir is the 19th populous state with 12,541,302, persons and constitutes approximately 1% of the country‘s population. With 67.16 percent literacy rate but contrarily, it is the 6th educationally backward state of the country. Sex ratio places the state at 27th rank having 889 females per thousand males (census 2011). The present study would try to examine the key components of human development status of J&K on certain indicators viz. health, education and the issues related to poverty and income.
Human development, Human Development Index, health status, education, well being, deprivation, welfare, poverty and income
