Antony G M, Laxmaiah A
Council of Social Development, Southern Regional Centre, Hyderabad, India.
Indian J Med Res. 2008 Aug;128(2):198-205.
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Human development index (HDI) is extensively used to measure the standard of living of a country. India made a study progress in the HDI value. Extreme poverty is concentrated in rural areas of northern States while income growth has been dynamic in southern States and urban areas. This study was undertaken to assess the trends in HDI, human poverty index (HPI) and incidence of poverty among Indian states, the socio-economic, health, and diet and nutritional indicators which determine the HDI, changes in protein and calorie adequacy status of rural population, and also trends in malnutrition among children in India.
The variations in socio-economic, demographic and dietary indicators by grades of HDI were studied. The trends in poverty and nutrition were also studied. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis were done to analyse data.
While India's HDI value has improved over a time; our rank did not improve much compared to other developing countries. Human poverty has not reduced considerably as per the HPI values. The undernutrition among preschool children is still a major public health problem in India. The incidence of poverty at different levels of calorie requirement has not reduced in both rural and urban areas. The time trends in nutritional status of pre-school children showed that, even though, there is an improvement in stunting over the years, the trend in wasting and underweight has not improved much.
INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION: Proper nutrition and health awareness are important to tackle the health hazards of developmental transition. Despite several national nutrition programmes in operation, we could not make a significant dent in the area of health and nutrition. The changing dietary practices of the urban population, especially the middle class, are of concern. Further studies are needed to measure the human development and poverty situation of different sections of the population in India using an index, which includes both income indicators and non income indicators.
人类发展指数（HDI）被广泛用于衡量一个国家的生活水平。印度在人类发展指数值方面取得了一定的进步。极端贫困集中在北部邦的农村地区，而南部邦和城市地区的收入增长则较为活跃。本研究旨在评估印度各邦的人类发展指数、人类贫困指数（HPI）和贫困发生率的趋势，确定人类发展指数的社会经济、健康、饮食和营养指标，农村人口蛋白质和热量充足状况的变化，以及印度儿童营养不良的趋势。
研究了按人类发展指数等级划分的社会经济、人口和饮食指标的差异。还研究了贫困和营养的趋势。进行单变量、双变量和多变量分析以分析数据。
虽然印度的人类发展指数值随时间有所提高；但与其他发展中国家相比，我们的排名提升不多。根据人类贫困指数值，人类贫困并未大幅减少。学前儿童营养不良仍是印度的一个主要公共卫生问题。农村和城市地区不同热量需求水平下的贫困发生率均未降低。学前儿童营养状况的时间趋势表明，尽管多年来发育迟缓情况有所改善，但消瘦和体重不足的趋势改善不大。
适当的营养和健康意识对于应对发展转型带来的健康危害很重要。尽管实施了多项国家营养计划，但我们在健康和营养领域仍未能取得显著成效。城市人口，尤其是中产阶级不断变化的饮食习惯令人担忧。需要进一步开展研究，使用一个既包括收入指标又包括非收入指标的指数来衡量印度不同人群的人类发展和贫困状况。
