India Human Development Report 2011: Towards Social Inclusion

By Planning Commission, OUP Oxford, New Delhi, 568 pages, 2011

Questioning whether certain sections of Indian society suffer from multiple deprivations, the National Human Development Report 2011 evaluates whether the social indicators of the excluded groups are converging or diverging with the rest of the population.

The Report addresses three critical issues: (i) Do different social groups like the SCs, STs, and Muslims get excluded from the development process? (ii) Has India experienced inclusive growth in the true sense? (iii) How are flagship programmes/schemes of the government dealing with some of these concerns?

Rich in data and analyses, this Report examines: human development index and profile for India and its states; economic attainment of the population, especially in terms of the two major sources of income-employment and assets; availability, access, and absorption of food and state of hunger and malnutrition; health indicators vis-à-vis inputs, processes, and outcomes; achievements and challenges in education; state of support infrastructure such as roads, electricity, housing, and telephony; and challenges facing vulnerable sections of India’s population-child labourers, the elderly, and the disabled.

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