The UNDP’s HDI consists of four variables, namely life expectancy rate, years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more, expected years of schooling for children of school entering age, and gross national income (GNI) per capita.
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However, Nepal’s performance on this front is better than other South Asian nations, like India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, which have been categorised as countries with “low equality in HDI achievements between women and men”.
However, India is up five places from past year, and now ranks as 130th in the index.
In 2015, India has been placed at 130th position with 0.609 score in the medium human development category.
A breakdown of the data used to calculate the HDI shows annual increases in life expectancy and education levels, but this is not the trend for incomes.
The Report recommends that governments across the world ought to address the imbalance between paid and unpaid work for women – with women performing three times more unpaid (domestic and voluntary) work than men.
But 830 million people are still classified as “working poor”, earning under $2 a day (£1.30).
Sub-Saharan Africa has 500 million people living in multidimensional poverty, that is three of every five in the region, says the report.
The report’s lead author Selim Jahan said: “Human progress will accelerate when everyone who wants to work has the opportunity to do so under decent circumstances”. The country does not fare well on the gender index either. “In addition, work that involves caring for others or voluntarism builds social cohesion and strengthens bonds within families and communities”, the report said.
Clark said when asked by someone in Ethiopia about whether the idea of cheap labour wasn’t a comparative advantage in low-income countries, she made the point that there was a difference between cheap labour and exploitation, with exploitation never to be tolerated.
In 38 countries, including India, Pakistan, Mexico and Uganda, 80 percent women were unbanked. If women have more access and equal opportunity in the world of paid work, wouldn’t that enhance their wellbeing and also lift entire economies and societies?
India’s female literacy rate among youth aged 15-24 years was 74.4 percent as against the male literacy rate of 88.4 percent.
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India’s declining workforce participation of women- from 35 percent in 1990 to 27 percent in 2013 – has also impacted global rates. Norway topped the ranking in the report released by UNDP on Monday. While countries in the region have the highest percentage of tertiary school age population among developing regions, moving towards environmental sustainability and energy efficiency demands new skills, technologies and standards.
