HDPlus strategy: A process of alleviating poverty

Devendra Kothari, Ph.D

Population and Development Analyst

Forum for Population Action

The HDPlus strategy offers a way forward to alleviate poverty by focusing on human development. It is based on an old saying, usually attributed to Confucius that goes something like:  "Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you've fed him for a lifetime."

Abstract: The paper, based on the secondary data, proposes   HDPlus strategy to increase human competency through investing in people. The Human competency means the quality of being adequately qualified physically and intellectually. Though the proposed strategy is based on the India’s experiences, it can be applied anywhere in the developing world not only to alleviate poverty and reduce inequality but also in accomplishing sustainable and inclusive development.  In addition, the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is approaching. We have a responsibility to make sure we fulfill the promise we made as United Nations Member States in 2015 to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. Here, the HDPlus strategy could be a decisive adjunct to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The strategy directly contributes to SDGs 3, (good health and well-being), SDGs 4 (quality education), SDGs 5 (gender equality), and SDGs 6 (clean water and sanitation), and all these contribute in enhancing productivity.  And, higher productivity   helps in reducing inequality (SDGs 10)   in order to achieve the supreme goal of SDGs “No Poverty" (SDGs 1).

Invest in People, Reduce Poverty:

In a thought provoking article – Our Precarious Progress on Poverty - Bill and Melinda Gates make an excellent point that the world is facing a tragic stalling in the fight against poverty. [1] Their diagnosis is sound: “violent conflict, severe climate change and broken health and education systems” are the new keys to poverty. Also, their prescription is effectual:  “investments in people, especially their health and education, and in innovation.”  It is because poverty is a feature of life only where people’s opportunities to overcome it are brutally limited.

Also, investing in people (that is human development) is a most effective approach to achieve sustainable and inclusive development. In other words, there are multiple dimensions of investing in people approach that focuses on people, their opportunities and choices.   But how to apply Gates’ ‘prescription’ at the ground level is not clear. The paper proposes a workable   strategy to alleviate poverty by empowering people.

Poverty describes the condition of being unable to earn enough income to pay for basic needs like shelter and sustenance. It is a relative term but various agencies as IMF and World Bank have decided standards for poverty. [2]  Income inequality, on the other hand, relates to the degree to which material resources are disproportionately distributed. Although a person who experiences poverty may suffer from inequality, every person who faces inequality is not impoverished. In short, inequality directly affects the amount and severity of poverty within a nation or region. Countries that have greater inequality often have many citizens living in poverty.

While there has been impressive progress made towards reducing poverty due to strong growth and resilience in the world, there are domains of extreme poverty in many parts of the world.   Further, progress to alleviate poverty has been limited or slow in certain regions, such as South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, which account for 80 per cent of the people living in extreme poverty, as per the United Nations. This rate is expected to rise due to new threats brought on by climate change, conflict and food insecurity.[3]

That may be the reason why the focal point of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to alleviate poverty through empowering people.  The SDGs are a universal set of 17 goals with 169 corresponding targets that were agreed upon by UN member countries in 2015 to solve some of humanity’s biggest challenges within 15 years. Among these, ending poverty in all its forms is a most important one (SDG 1: No Poverty). The SDGs aim to end poverty by increasing access to education, focusing on primary health and sanitation, combating climate change, and reducing inequality. In other words, the UN considers that alleviating poverty is a multidimensional task; however, it does not suggest a way out.

The paper proposes a strategy, based on the Indian experiences, which can be applied to alleviate poverty not only in India but elsewhere. It is based on the assumption that building up Human Capital is an important way to ease or relieve poverty and inequality. HC is a measure of the skills, education, capacity and attributes of people which influence their productivity   and earning potential. To develop the process of human capital formation, one has to focus on Human Development, which is defined as the process of enlarging people's freedoms and opportunities and improving their well-being, especially those who are living in a vulnerable situation.

India as a case study:  

There is no secret that India's growth is much skewed and its benefits go disproportionately to few people as gets manifested by Oxfam’s Wealth Report (2018) which points out that the nine richest Indians own as much wealth as the bottom 50 per cent of the population. Commenting on this, the Oxfam International Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: "If this obscene inequality between the top 1 percent and the rest of India continues then it will lead to a complete collapse of the social and democratic structure of this country."  Further, the income inequality in India is rising much faster than expected.  The top one per cent richest individuals in India appropriated six per cent of total income in the early 1980s, and now, this figure has gone up to twenty two per cent, as per the study entitled: “Indian income inequality, 1922-2014: From British Raj to Billionaire Raj?”. [4]  This suggests that wealth is not trickling down to the poor and India is a home of a very large number of poor people.

Most countries around the world define poverty as the lack of money. However, the poor themselves consider their experience of poverty much more broadly, as noted by the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN). [5] A person who is poor can suffer multiple disadvantages or deprivations at the same time – for example they may have poor health or malnutrition, a lack of clean water or electricity, poor quality of work or little/poor schooling. Focusing on one factor alone, such as income, is not enough to capture the true reality of poverty.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), developed by the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and UNDP, identifies how people are being left behind across three key dimensions: health, education and living standards, and 10 indicators – nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, school attendance, sanitation, cooking fuel, drinking water, electricity, housing and assets. The MIP methodology shows areas in which the poor are deprived and helps to identify inter-connections among those deprivations. It means, the multidimensional poverty measures can provide a way out as how to alleviate poverty, and this enables policymakers to target resources and design policy more effectively. 

According to the 2016 report, [6] India has the highest multidimensional poverty after Afghanistan in South Asia. Nearly 54 per cent of the Indian population is multidimensional poor compared to 5 per cent in China.  There are more multidimensional poor people (421 million) in the eight poorest Indian states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal than in 26 poorest African nations combined (410 M). [7] It means around 700 million (70 crore) out of the total population of 1,370 in 2019 can be classified as deprived or vanchit Indians. [8]

And, there is no wonder that the World Bank ranked India at 115th out of 157 countries on the Human Capital Index in 2018. [9] HCI seeks to measure the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by the age of 18. According to its parameters a child born in India today will only be 44 per cent as productive as she could have been if she had enjoyed quality education and full health as well as better living environment including water and sanitation.  In other words, there are grave deficiencies in India’s human development inputs that are preventing children from reaching their full potential. As such, the productivity, measured as per capita GDP,   is very low. India became the fifth largest economy in the world in terms of GDP in 2018 but still it has a very-very low per capita GDP, as per IMF. It is placed at 119th position among 185 countries (Table 1).

Table 1 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Per Capita GDP, 2018

Country	Gross Domestic Product		Per Capita GDP
	World rank	In billion Int$	World rank	In Int$
USA	1	21,439	10	62,606
China	2	14,140	73	18,110
Japan	3	5,254	28	44.,225
Germany	4	3,863	16	52,559
India	5	2,935	119	7,874
UK	6	2,743	25	45,705
France	7	2,707	25	45,775
Italy	8	1,988	33	39,637
Brazil	9	1,847	80	16,154
Canada	10	1,731	21	49,651
Source: International Monetary Fund ,2018

Therefore, poverty in India is absolutely huge. The only way one can reduce it by improving productivity. Previous literature and empirical work provides a strong consensus that growth reduces poverty, and several recent studies have also found that the higher is income inequality within a country the more limited is the impact of growth on reducing poverty. But in dynamic economies (like the East Asian or Tiger economies[10]) most economic growth comes from productivity growth, and few studies have tested the relationships between productivity growth, poverty and inequality.  A study conducted by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, Canada uses several sources of international data on labour productivity, poverty and income inequality, and finds that across the developing countries for which data are available productivity growth plays a substantial role in reducing poverty. [11]  This effect is also found to be stronger in countries with relatively low income inequality. Furthermore, “productivity growth is found to account for changes in poverty better than the more commonly used economic growth”. This conclusion suggests that developing countries like India, in attempting to reach their poverty reduction objectives, should pursue policies that foster productivity growth. However, a strong social safety net is also required to ensure that the adjustment costs that come with productivity increases do not fall disproportionately on the poor and that all members of society realize the gains from growth.

It is, therefore, an investment in people, especially who are deprived, is a need of the hour because only educated, skilled and healthy or empowered manpower can reduce the level of inequality which is responsible for high level of poverty.

How to empower people? All people have the potential to succeed. Our job is to see the potential, find out what they lack to develop it, and equip them with what they need. Here, the capability approach, which was conceived as an alternative approach to welfare economics by Amartya Sen and others, [12] may be an effective strategy. It is an approach that is focused on people and their opportunities and choices.

The policy monograph - Nurturing Human Development: A Strategy for New India - [13] proposes a strategy to unlock the human potential based on the capability approach; and it is christened as “HDPlus” (Human Development Plus). It is a dynamic agenda based on a ‘whole child’ concept, that is school-going child and his/her family (that is HDPlus family) should be the fulcrum of human development efforts. The concept is being described by policies, practices, and relationships which ensure that each child is healthy, educated, engaged, supported and encouraged. For this, integrating the child and his or her family more deeply into the day-to-day life of school and home activities represents an untapped instrument for raising the overall achievements including learning skills and health parameters, and hence improving overall productivity. In other words, creating an enabling environment at family and school levels is a way to empower people (Box A). 

To start with, the HDPlus strategy focuses on five interventions in a more closely integrated form. They are: Improving quality of elementary education, Facilitating water and sanitation, Enhancing primary health, Reducing gender gap, and Stabilizing population. Additional interventions may be added or given interventions could be dropped from the list looking at the needs of specific people/area. Hence, the strategy has been termed as “HDPlus”.

Box A: HDPlus strategy at a glance

HDPlus strategy presumes that the promise inside Laxmi is greater than the poverty around her. Laxmi doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up, and that’s just fine.  At age nine, her job is to play, grow and learn. But for kids like her in the deprived households, poverty gets on the way. HDPlus strategy aims to make sure that such children grow up healthy, educated, self-sufficient and safe thus promoting human capital. For this, HDPlus strategy focuses on education, health, water and sanitation, gender equality and small-family in an integrated mode at the family level. Source: Kothari, Devendra. 2019. Nurturing Human Development: A Strategy for New India, New Delhi: Paragoan International Publishers.

Implementing HDPlus Strategy: 

“The Nature of Mass Poverty” is a book by John Kenneth Galbraith, Harvard Professor of Economics. [14] In this book, Prof. Galbraith argues that “to eliminate poverty, we must invest more than proportionately in the children of the poor community (families).” Now the question arises how to identify the target population or HDPlus families? 

India is committed to compulsory free education for each child till the age of 14 years and so on. Almost all children go to the school. Therefore, the real problem is perhaps not with the question of access to education but rather it is about the quality of education being provided.

In India, there are two types of schools – the government owned and aided ones, and the privately owned schools. The government schools are indeed doing a commendable job of making education available to a greater number of children since they are everywhere and   are normally doing it for free or for fees that are really within the reach of everyone. They are of great help for people in urban areas too for whom it is impossible to get their children to the more expensive private schools and in the rural areas, perhaps, they are the only ways in which children can get educated and dream of a better future. However, some teething problems do remain.[15]

Most government schools today, however, lack even the most basic requirements, such as class rooms, desks, drinking water, etc. There are no separate toilets for boys and girls. Broken window panes, furniture, fans and lights, paint and plaster peeling off the walls, leaky roofs, stinking toilets and garbage piled up in corners, children being taught sitting on the corridors due to lack of classrooms, etc. are a common sight in most government schools across the country. As such, Government schools in India mainly cater to the very poor section of the society. As per the Annual Economic Survey 2018, [16]  around 80 percent of students in the govt. elementary schools are from the weaker sections of the society. Based on the findings of National Achievement Survey 2017 (NAS) and Annual Status of Education Report 2017 (ASER), it has been found that “government schools have become the schools of OBCs, Dalits and Muslims as every child who can afford it has moved on to private schools.”  [17]

The public elementary schools are, therefore, one of the most convenient institutions for reaching the target population – Deprived Household. 

After selecting students, the strategy will focus on their families and provide all basic needs for better living including water, toilet, electricity, cooking gas, primary health etc to promote human development. Further, efforts will be made that all students complete compulsory education. In addition, it will be assured that   they are well prepared to read, write and be efficient in mathematics & basic digital technology before moving to secondary   education, thus will be laying down the foundation of human capital formation, as shown below:

• To start with, the focus of the HDPlus strategy will be on government-school-going children, aged 6 to 14 (that is I-VIII standards), and their families to be known as HDPlus families. 

• The focal point of governmental pro-poor schemes along with HD interventions will be HDPlus families in order to create enabling environment for human development. 

• The strategy will be implemented by the government agencies with the help of grassroots workers in collaboration with civil societies. 

The Box B summarizes the modus operandi of the HDPlus Strategy.

Govt. Primary/Elementary  School Ensure total involvement of community/panchayat in the management of school.    Select    all students (As per the Annual Economic Survey 2018, around 80% of students in the govt. elementary schools are from the weaker sections of the society.)

HDPlus Family After selecting school students, go to their families and provide all basic necessities   for better living: water, toilet, electricity, cooking gas, primary health among others, if they are not having.

Human Competency    All these will ensure that the 8th graders are well prepared to read, write and be efficient in mathematics & basic digital technology before moving to further education, thus initiating the process of building human capital.

Conclusion:

The paper argues that there are grave deficiencies in human development endeavors in the developing economies like India   that are preventing  children from reaching their full potential, as noted by the Human Capital Index of the World Bank.  What should be done?  Commenting on the poor quality of human development, measured in terms of HDI, Bill Gates and Ratan Tata (2016) rightly noted:  “Human capital is one of India’s greatest assets. Yet, the world’s fastest growing economy hasn’t touched millions of Indian citizens at the bottom of the economic pyramid”.[18]  For this, India has to empower its people through a dedicated human development approach. For this, the paper suggests a workable framework – HDPlus - as how to invest in the people for enhancing productivity   in order to reduce the level of poverty.

Further, HDPlus strategy could be a decisive adjunct to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030. The strategy directly contributes to SDGs 3, (good health and well-being), SDGs 4 (quality education), SDGs 5 (gender equality), and SDGs 6 (clean water and sanitation), and all these contribute in enhancing productivity.  And, higher productivity   helps in reducing inequality (SDGs 10)   in order to achieve the supreme goal of SDGs -  “Eradicating poverty in all its forms" (SDGs 1).  

In sum, the HDPlus strategy, which aimed to lay foundation for the human competency, should be immediate priority of countries like India.  It provides a workable process in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals on or before the target year of 2030.

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[1] Bill and Melinda Gates, “Our precarious Progress on Poverty”, The New York Times, Sunday Review, September 23,  2018. 

[2] The most widely held and understood definition of absolute poverty measures poverty strictly in economic terms — earning less than $1.90 a day. But the UNDP and World Bank go beyond the amount of money a person or family earns to expand the definition of poverty.  For example, multidimensional poverty measures can be used to create a more comprehensive picture. They reveal who is poor and how they are poor – the range of different disadvantages they experience.

[3] Refer at: https://www.sdgfund.org/goal-1-no-poverty 

[4] Chancel, Lucas and Thomas Piketty. 2017.  “Indian income inequality, 1922-2014: From British Raj to Billionaire Raj?”  WID, World Working Paper Series No. 2017/11, World Inequality Lab, Paris School of Economics. 

[5] Refer at: https://mppn.org/multidimensional-poverty/what-is-multidimensional-poverty/

[6]Refer OPHI Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2016 at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304077733_OPHI_Global_Multidimensional_Poverty_Index_2016

[7] Refer Economic times at: https://m.economictimes.com/news/economy/indicators/8-indian-states-have-more-poor-than-26-poorest-african-nations/articleshow/6159095.cms:

[8] India is the second most populated country of the world after China. Population of India is projected close to 1.37 billion or 1,369 millions in 2019, compare to 1.354 billion in 2018. Population growth rate for 2019 is projected at 1.08%. For details, refer at: http://statisticstimes.com/demographics/population-of-india.php

[9] Refer  2018 Human Development Index (HDI) at: https://www.onlinegk.com/news-and-tips/2018-human-development-index-(hdi)

(10) A tiger economy is a term used to describe several booming economies in Southeast Asia. The Asian tiger economies typically include Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. Sometimes China is mentioned as an Asian tiger. They are high-growth economies that have transitioned from predominately agrarian and poor societies of the 1960s to industrialized and inclusive nations by focusing on human development at the initial state of economic transformation.

[11] Centre for the Study of Living Standards. 2003.  Productivity Growth and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries, CSLS Research Reports 2003-06, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, Ottawa, Download at : http://www.csls.ca/reports/10-03-05_poverty.pdf

[12] Sen, Amartya. 1985. Commodities and capabilities, Amsterdam: North-Holland. Also refer: Nussbaum, Martha and Amartya Sen. 1993. The Quality of life, New York: Oxford University Press. 

[13]For details, see:  Kothari, Devendra. 2019. Nurturing Human Development: A Strategy for New India, New Delhi: Paragoan International Publishers.

[14] Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1979. The Nature of Mass Poverty, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

[15] Kothari, Devendra. 2017. “Managing school education in India”, in Administrative Change, Vol. XLIV (2): 78-89.

[16] Economic Survey is an annual document of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It reviews the developments in the Indian economy over the previous 12 months, summarizes the performance on major development programs, and highlights the policy initiatives of the government. It also highlights the prospects of the economy in the short to medium term. Refer: Economic Survey of India, Vol. 2, at: https://insightgovtexam.com/economic-survey-2018-pdf-download/

[17] Refer National Achievement Survey(NAS) at: http://nas.schooleduinfo.in/

[18] Gates, Bill and Ratan Tata, 2016, “New nutrition report underscores the importance of leadership in addressing stunting in India” at: https://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-editorials/new-nutrition-report-underscores-the-importance-of-leadership-in-addressing-stunting-in-india