WORLD BANK’S HUMAN CAPITAL INDEX

Why in News?

  • The World Bank released a Human Capital Index (HCI) as part of the World Development Report 2019.
  • Theme of the World Development Report is “The Changing Nature of Work”.

Highlights of the Report:

  • The World Bank has launched a Human Capital Project (HCP).
  • The HCP programme is claimed to be a program of advocacy, measurement, and analytical work to raise awareness and increase demand for interventions to build human capital.

Components of HCP:

  • A cross-country human capital measurement metric called the Human Capital Index (HCI).
  • A programme of measurement and research to inform policy action
  • A programme of support for country strategies to accelerate investment in human capital.

HCI:

  • The HCI has been constructed for 157 countries.
  • It claims to seek to measure the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18.S
  • The HCI index values are contended to convey the productivity of the next generation of workers, compared to a benchmark of complete standard education and full health.

The components of HCI:

  • Survival, as measured by under-5 mortality rates
  • Expected years of Quality-Adjusted School which combines information on the quantity and quality of education
  • Health environment using two proxies of (a) adult survival rates and (b) the rate of stunting for children under age 5

HCI for India in the Report:

  • Human Capital Index: A child born in India today will be only 44 per cent as productive when she grows up as she could be if she enjoyed complete education and full health.
  • The HCI in India for females is marginally better than that for males.Probability of Survival to Age 5: 96 out of 100 children born in India survive to age 5. Expected Years of School: In India, a child who starts school at age 4 can expect to complete 10.2 years of school by her 18th birthday. Adult Survival Rate: Across India, 83 per cent of 15-year olds will survive until age 60. Gender Differences: In India, HCI for girls is marginally higher than for boys.
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