Bangladesh still a Johnny-come-lately in Human Development Index progress

Bangladesh ranks 135th medium human developed country out of 189 countries of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI).

Over the years, the HDI has served as a reliable platform for strong public debates on national priorities while indicating comparative excellence of nations.

Despite lifting 25 million-plus people out of poverty between 2000-16, Bangladesh remains home to 3 percent of the world's poor, shows the World Bank data.

"Different triggers are bringing people onto the streets – the cost of a train ticket, the price of petrol, demands of political freedoms, the pursuit of fairness and justice. This is the new face of inequality," says UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.

Pedro Conceição, director of UNDP's HDR Office, said, "What used to be 'nice-to-haves', like going to university or access to broadband, are increasingly important for success, but left only with the basics."

The HDI 2019 of the UNDP's Human Development Report, released on Monday, is measured combining indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment and income.

At number 71, Sri Lanka was ahead of most South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Bhutan (134).

Pakistan stood at 152, Nepal came 147th and Myanmar ranked 145th spot.  

Afghanistan is at the bottom in South Asia, ranking 170th. 

Norway, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, and Hong Kong (China) are the countries at the top, while Niger, the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, and Burundi hit the rock bottom.

As the HDI began in 1990, Bangladesh scored 0.388, 0.470 in 2000, and 0.549 in 2010.

Between 1990 and 2018, Bangladesh's HDI value increased by 58.2 percent (from 0.388 to 0.614), placing it in the medium human development group. 

This indicates that in the last three decades, Bangladesh's life expectancy at birth increased by 14.1 years, average years of schooling increased by 3.2 years and expected years of schooling increased by 5.6 years. 

Bangladesh's per capita gross national income increased by about 198.7 percent.

The changing face of inequality

The HDI 2019 measures the ability "to live a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge and to earn income for a basic standard of living."

As the number of people coming out of poverty is increasing, the world is veering towards another type of poverty, says the Report. 

Rising inequality is linked with loss in human development.

Bangladesh's HDI for 2018 was 0.614. When inequality is taken into account, the HDI falls to 0.465 – a loss of 24.3 percent. 

Nepal and Pakistan show fall in the HDI due to inequality of 25.8 percent and 31.1 percent respectively. 

The average loss due to inequality for medium HDI countries is 25.9 percent and for South Asia, it is 25.9 percent.

Some 600 million people live below the internationally-recognised poverty line of living on less than $1.90 per day, while only 14.8 percent of Bangladeshis lives below that. 

However, beyond monetary poverty, the index estimates that 21.4 percent of Bangladeshis are living in "multidimensional poverty."

"The demonstrations sweeping across the world today signal that, despite unprecedented progress against poverty, hunger and disease, many societies are not working as they should. The connecting thread, is inequality." says the Report.