Variation in Human Development

This chapter measures the level of human development across 707 districts of India as they existed at the time of National Family Health Survey 2019–2022. The chapter uses an alternative approach to measure progress in the three core dimensions of human development that is different from the conventional approach. The alternative approach adopted in this chapter addresses some of the problems associated with the conventional human development index developed and used by the United Nations. The chapter highlights stark variation in the progress in human development across the districts. The analysis also reveals that there are 78 districts in the country where progress in different dimensions of human development is starkly different. The analysis also reveals that in 231 districts of the country, progress is below the average in all the three core dimensions of human development. The chapter emphasises the need of measuring and monitoring human development in the districts on a regular basis to imbibe human development sensitiveness in district development planning and programming process. This chapter is a modified version of an earlier paper (Chaurasia 2023).