Which of the following concepts are considered as pillars of Human Development ? 1. Equity 2. Sustainability 3. Productivity 4. Security Select the correct answer using the code given below :
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)3 and 4 only
- (c)1, 2 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2, 3 and 4
Correct — C, 1, 2 and 3 only. The four pillars of human development are equity, sustainability, productivity and empowerment. The standard textbook sentence puts it in exactly that image — just as a building is supported by pillars, the idea of human development is supported by the concepts of equity, sustainability, productivity and empowerment. Three of those four are on this list: equity, meaning equal access to opportunity irrespective of gender, race, income or caste; sustainability, meaning that the availability of opportunity must continue for future generations; and productivity, meaning human labour made more efficient through investment in people. Security is not the fourth pillar — empowerment is, and empowerment is the one the question quietly leaves out. So statements 1, 2 and 3 qualify and statement 4 does not.
- (a)1 and 2 only — Drops productivity, which is one of the four. Productivity in this framework means raising human capability through investment in health, education and skills, not output per machine.
- (b)3 and 4 only — Keeps security, which is not a pillar, and throws away equity and sustainability, which are.
- (d)1, 2, 3 and 4 — The all-of-them pick. Human security is a real and important idea in the human development literature, and the Human Development Report of 1994 was devoted to it, but it is not one of the four pillars — the fourth is empowerment.
Human development, as Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen framed it and as the UNDP's Human Development Reports have used it since 1990, treats development as the enlargement of people's choices rather than the growth of output. The four pillars carry that idea. Equity is equal access to opportunity; sustainability is the continuity of that access across generations; productivity is human effort made more effective by investment in people; empowerment is the power to make one's own choices, which comes from freedom and capability and needs good governance and people-oriented policies.
This is a recall item with one substitution, and the substitution is chosen well. Security sounds as though it belongs — human security is a live concept, it appears in the same reports, and a candidate half-remembering four abstract nouns will accept it. The defence is to fix the list as four and then check each against it. A second defence is structural: three of the four pillars describe a condition of opportunity (equity, sustainability, productivity), and the fourth describes agency. Security fits neither slot as the framework defines them, while empowerment fits the agency slot exactly.
- The four pillars of human development are equity, sustainability, productivity and empowerment.
- Equity means equal access to opportunity irrespective of gender, race, income and, in the Indian case, caste.
- Empowerment is described as the power to make choices, coming from increasing freedom and capability, and needing good governance and people-oriented policies.
- The Human Development Index itself is built from three dimensions — a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living.
- The first Human Development Report appeared in 1990; the concept is associated with Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen.
- Accepting security as the fourth pillar. The fourth is empowerment.
- Confusing the four pillars of the concept with the three dimensions of the Human Development Index.
- Reading productivity as industrial output. Here it means the productivity of people, raised by investment in their health and education.
Either as a straight recall of the four pillars or as a statements item that swaps one of them for a plausible near-miss.
Human Development Index comprises literacy rates, life expectancy at birth and
- (a) Gross Domestic Product per head in US dollars
- (b) Gross Domestic Product per head at real purchasing power
- (c) Gross National Product in US dollars
- (d) National Income per head in US dollars
Answer(b) Gross Domestic Product per head at real purchasing power
The measurement side of the same idea. This item asks what human development rests on conceptually; that one asks what the index built on the concept actually counts.
CDS_GK_2020_I_Q722020Which of the following are considered to be the four pillars of human development?
- (a) Equity, inclusion, productivity and empowerment
- (b) Equity, productivity, empowerment and sustainability
- (c) Productivity, gender, inclusion and equity
- (d) Labour, productivity, inclusion and equity
Answer(b) Equity, productivity, empowerment and sustainability
The same four pillars asked directly three sessions earlier, with inclusion and gender as the near-misses instead of security. Learning the list settles both.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following is the fourth pillar of human development, alongside equity, sustainability and productivity?
- (a)Security
- (b)Empowerment
- (c)Inclusion
- (d)Efficiency
Answer(b) Empowerment — the power to make one's own choices, which comes from increasing freedom and capability.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Human Development Index measures achievement in which three dimensions?
- (a)Income, employment and savings
- (b)Health, education and standard of living
- (c)Equity, sustainability and empowerment
- (d)Literacy, industrialisation and urbanisation
Answer(b) Health, education and standard of living — a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living.