Goa, Puducherry, Lakshadweep emerge top in Social Progress Index; Jharkhand, Bihar the worst

Puducherry, Lakshadweep, and Goa emerged as the best-performing states on the Social Progress Index (SPI). According to the report on Social Progress Index for states and districts, released by the Economic Advisory Council-Prime Minister, along with the Institute for Competitiveness and Social Progress Imperative, Aizawl (Mizoram), Solan (Himachal Pradesh), and Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) are the top three best-performing districts in the country based on various social parameters.

The report assesses states and districts based on 12 components across three critical dimensions of social progress—Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Well-being, and Opportunity. It uses an extensive framework comprising 89 indicators at the state level and 49 at the district level. Based on the SPI scores, states and districts have been ranked under six tiers of social progress.

Puducherry has the highest SPI score of 65.99 in the country, attributable to its remarkable performance across components like Personal Freedom and Choice, Shelter, Water and Sanitation. Lakshadweep and Goa closely follow with scores of 65.89 and 65.53, respectively. Jharkhand (43.95) and Bihar (44.47) scored the lowest.

For the dimension of Basic Human Needs (Water, Sanitation and Shelter), Goa, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, and Chandigarh are the top four performers. Goa has the highest component score for Water and Sanitation, followed by Kerala, which scored the highest across the Nutrition and Basic Medical Care component. For Shelter and Personal Safety, Chandigarh and Nagaland emerged as the front-runners, respectively.

Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, and Goa emerged as the best-performing states for the Foundations of Well-being.

In the dimension for the Access to Basic Knowledge component, Punjab has the highest component score of 62.92, while Delhi has topped the list for Access to Information and Communication with a score of 71.30. For Health and Wellness, Rajasthan has the highest component score of 73.74. For Environmental Quality, the top three states belong to the northeast region—Mizoram, Nagaland, and Meghalaya.

Tamil Nadu achieved the highest component score of 72.00 for the Opportunity dimension. Within this dimension, Andaman and Nicobar Islands have the highest component score for Personal Rights, while Sikkim has topped the list for Inclusiveness.

Puducherry secured the highest scores for Personal Freedom and Choice and Access to Advanced Education.

While the report claims that it is based on robust methodology and in-depth research and analysis, EAC-PM chairman Bibek Debroy and member Sanjiv Sanyal said it could have been better. Sanyal was highly critical of the indices released by various agencies from across the world, some of which have been critical of India’s progress in various social parameters.
“I will take the indices with a pinch of salt. Though a start needs to be made, hopefully, the SPI report will remove the anomalies in the next reports,” Sanyal told THE WEEK.

“Methodology for many indexes is garbage,” he said during the official release of the report referring to a spate of indices on India released in the recent past. Sanyal has even authored a paper on these indexes and their methodologies. “GDP is an incomplete measure of progress, though not inaccurate. For endeavours such as the Social Progress Index that study social parameters, the methodologies and analysis of the data can be made more robust and reliable,” said Sanyal, according to the official statement.

EAC-PM chairman Bibek Debroy said, “The report is based extensively on objective data and is primarily a normative/prescriptive exercise. It presents a cross-section of data across states and districts and the focus is on looking at various tiers of development by grouping the states rather than the individual rankings of the selected states and districts.”
Sonalde Desai, professor, NACER, said, “It is an excellent diagnostic tool for the state and district administrators to study the areas that need improvement.”

Dr. Charan Singh, CEO, EGROW Foundation, commented, “We will have to weave in sociological factors into economic progress given that purely economic indicators have time and again failed to capture non-economic issues. Singular focus on GDP is problematic.”

Said Dr Amit Kapoor, Honorary Chairman, Institute for Competitiveness, “The Social Progress Index report is an independent body of work where the focus has been on three pillars of social progress – Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Well-being and Opportunity. There has not been an index that looked at social parameters with such depth and analysis in the Indian context.”

The report argues that the GDP alone is unable to transform the lives of people around the world which has led to a surge in initiatives trying to address this concern and supplement the “moving beyond GDP” debate.

While the GDP was not designed to measure the quality of life, over-reliance on GDP and other economic measures can lead to flawed policy choices that do not respond to the actual needs and requirements of the people. Similarly, it also needs to provide access to economic opportunities with skilled human capital, better financial inclusion and transportation and connectivity, the report said.

The report noted that there is a positive and strong relationship between the Social Progress Index and GSDP per capita. On average, states with higher incomes tend to have higher social progress. For example, Goa and Sikkim rank high on social progress, while Bihar ranks the lowest. However, some states and UTs, such as Delhi, have high GSDP per capita but relatively low social progress, and vice versa.

“The relationship between economic development and social progress is non-linear. At lower income levels, minor differences in GSDP per capita are associated with significant improvements in social progress.”

According to the report, India has made significant economic progress over the last decade. GDP per capita increased by over 39.7 per cent. However, a lot still needs to be done to raise living standards and set the country on a path to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Growth alone is not enough. India needs growth that is inclusive and sustainable.

The report divided the social progress in six tiers. Nine states and Union territories belong to the Tier-I of Very High Social Progress, namely Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Goa, Sikkim, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, and Kerala.

The second tier of social progress comprises six states and Union territories—Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Ladakh, Nagaland, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The states and UTs have attained high scores across components like Personal Safety, Water and Sanitation, Personal Rights, Personal Freedom and Choice, and Inclusiveness.

Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, and Manipur have attained the status of Upper Middle Social Progress.
Ten states have attained the status of Lower Middle Social Progress—Haryana, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Telangana, Tripura, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra. Despite performing relatively well in terms of Personal Freedom and Choice and Water and Sanitation, these states haven’t achieved high levels of social progress in terms of Nutrition and Basic Medical Care, Access to Information.

Belonging to the category of Low Social Progress, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh have low SPI scores of 49.16, 48.19, and 48.11, respectively. Although the states have the lowest scores across the dimension of Basic Human Needs, relatively better performance across components of Personal Rights and Personal Freedom and Choice has been observed. The states can advance their social progress by working across components like Access to Information and Communication, Nutrition and Basic Medical Care, and Access to Advanced Education.

At the bottom, Tier-VI, categorised as very low social progress, are Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand. Although these states have relatively high scores in terms of Health and Wellness, Personal Freedom and Choice, Inclusiveness, and Personal Rights, the states still must strengthen components of social progress like Nutrition and Basic Medical Care, Access to Information and Communication, and Access to Advanced Education to achieve high social progress, the report said.