Headlines
India's social progress ranking below all neighbours
New Delhi, April 10
India has a low rank of
101 among the 133 countries measured for their social progress, even
below some immediate neighbours such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and
Sri Lanka, indicating the level of meeting basic human needs and
well-being, among other factors.
Conducted by Social Progress
Imperative, a US-based non-profit organisation set up in 2012, the index
is seen as a measure of relationship between income inequality and
social progress by using the commonly deployed Gini coefficient on
income inequality.
"If the world were a country, it would score
64.39 out of 100 on the Social Progress Index based on a simple average
of countries and 61.00 on a population-weighted basis," the
organisation said in the latest report.
India's score of 53.06 is even below that.
The
countries are rated on indicators of well-being such as health, water
and sanitation, personal safety, access to opportunity, tolerance,
inclusion, personal freedom and choice.
Norway has taken the first rank, while the US is at the 16th place.
On
the parameter of "Tolerance and inclusion", which according to the
American NGO is the most difficult parameter, India fares even worse
with a rank of 128.
On "health and wellness", India is at the 120th place, where the US ranks 68th.
The SPI was launched in 2013 and is based on 52 indicators of countries' social and environmental performance.
It
includes no economic indicators and measures outcomes, in line with
SPI's philosophy that focusing solely on GDP implies measuring progress
in purely monetary terms and failing to consider the wider picture the
things that impact people.