Publish Human Development Report

R.L. Bhat, A.S. Bhat, J. R. Panda, Jasbir Singh, B.A. Bhat
This has reference to a news item, which appeared on 14th April, 2014 followed by an Editorial on 16th April in your News Paper regarding the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Development Report, giving an impression as if the Jammu and Kashmir Human Development Report has not at all been prepared. In this connection I would like to mention as fallows for the benefit of all concerned:
The undersigned team of academicians form the University of Kashmir and the University of Jammu was assigned the job of preparing the Jammu and Kashmir Human Development Report by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir in 2004. Given the paucity of requisite data in the State and the requirements of a quality Report our team had to spend more than a year to collect data from primary sources by conducting a household Sample Survey and an Institutional Survey in the length and breadth of the State. After investing lot of time  and energy, in the preparation of the Report, the first draft of the complete Report was ready at the beginning of 2008. A formal presentation regarding the Report was made at SKICC, Srinagar on 12th July, 2008 before a galaxy of policy planners, academicians and intellectuals. These included  the Governor of the State (the State was under Governor’s rule at that time) Member, Planning Commission, an Expert from JNU, the Chief Secretary, Economic Advisor, Commissioner and other Officers of the Planning and Development Department and the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, besides the Vice Chancellors of the University of Kashmir and the University of Jammu. In the light of the discussions during this meeting the Report was finalised and a complete Report in two volumes was submitted to the Chief Minister of the State  Omar Abdullah, in presence of the Finance Minister A.R. Rather, the Vice Chancellors of the University of Kashmir and the University of Jammu and the senior functionaries of the Planning and Development Department and the Directorate of Economics and statistics of the State Government  on Ist October 2009 at Srinagar.
The Report has been brought out in two volumes. While Volume I, consisting of ten Chapters, is based on discussion and analysis, Volume II consists of statistical Tables based on the primary data collected for the purpose of the Report. It analyses education, health, poverty, capabilities and related issues of the State economy. The significant part of the Report is the study of various Human Development Institutions in the State and Human Development at the household level. The latter, based on a huge household survey of 10158 households, touches upon almost anything and everything that has any direct or indirect relevance to human development in the State. The novelty of the Report is that it has come up, for the first time, with Human Freedom Index, Human Security Index and Human Happiness Index for the State and its various districts, which has not till date been attempted in any Human Development Report anywhere. This is, on the one hand, a net addition to the stock of existing knowledge in the discipline of Human Development and on the other, an exercise in the development of methodology.
After around eight months of the presentation of the Report to the Chief Minister on Ist October 2009, we received a communication from the State Government suggesting some changes/ modifications in the Report. In spite of our reservations on such suggested modifications, the undersigned incorporated the suggested changes, updated the data and came up with another Report which was finally handed over to the Planning and Development Department in 2010.  Our team had the intention of publishing the Report on our own but the Planning and Development Department wanted to  publish the same itself. Both the versions of the Report, as mentioned above (2008 and 2010 versions) are lying with the Government and have not been published and made public till date. We would like to urge the Government to get the Report published at the earliest as it contains, among other things, a rich data bank which can be immensely useful in devising strategies for the social and economic development of the State. It may be mentioned here that the said Report has worked out not only the various Human Development related indices for the State at a point of time and over the period but also for all the districts of the State.

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