National Human Development Report: 2001 - Indira Gandhi Institute ...

32ECONOMIC ATTAINMENTS AND WELL-BEING NATIONAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2001Economic attainments of individuals and their well-being haveconventionally been captured through indicators like percapita income or per capita GDP of an economy. This is also partlytrue of attempts that view development in terms of broader set ofsocial indicators/attainments or for that matter even within thehuman development approach. While there are well knownlimitations in the use of per capita income in evaluating social wellbeing,it’s use to measure economic attainments and well-being ofindividuals is also not free of conceptual and methodologicalambiguities. In the context of developing countries, the exclusivedependence of these indicators, which rely mainly on marketmediatedtransactions for capturing economic activity and, henceeconomic attainments, significantly undermines the reliability incapturing overall economic well-being of people. This is more sowhen one takes note of externalities in the process of production,distribution and consumption; the prevalence of inter-personal andinter-regional inequalities; as well as the issue of inter-generationalsustainability of resources. Nonetheless, such indicators serve aconceptual purpose even in the human development approach,where an important concern is to identify indicators and buildcomposite indices that capture social and personal well-being moredirectly and adequately.The inclusion of economicindicator(s), such as per capita income orGDP of an economy, in composite humandevelopment indices is generallyexplained on the ground that they areindirect but good measures of othervalued attainments. These economicindicators are also useful in capturing thestock of available resources or meansthat, in a sense, facilitate otherattainments for individuals and thesociety at large. Thus, despite suchindicators capturing only the means,though perhaps the most critical one,they are included with indicatorscapturing valued outcomes of developmentprocess or indicators that are endsin themselves for the majority of people.