India has scored high in sending more children to school in the last ten years, but has lagged in providing them adequate health care, says the second Human Development Report of the country, prepared for the Planning Commission.

The report comes ten years after the first one was released in 2001-02. The aim of the report is to break down into a state wise performance report card, the global Human Development Index that is issued every year by the UN Development Programme.

Between 1999-2000 and 2007-08, ?it is the improvement of 28.5% in the Education Index that has driven India’s HDI (rank) upwards?, the report released by deputy chairman of the Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia notes. The report has been prepared by Institute of Applied Manpower Research for the Planning Commission.

While there are no surprises in the report, with the better off states scoring higher on education, health and consumption for their population, the inter-state differences have narrowed. This is especially so for education.

According to the India HDR, unemployment rate has come down to 6.6% in 2009-10 from 7.3% in 1999-2000, ?implying that high growth translates into employment growth fast enough to productively employ youth entering the labour force?.

But its conclusion on hunger and therefore malnutrition are stark. The report notes that just asking one ministry to deal with the job will not do, instead requiring multi-sectoral interventions. ?Inclusive growth (which is the goal of the 12th Plan) will remain unachievable without hunger and malnutrition declining significantly?. The low achievement is partly because the share of public expenditure in health care is just one per cent. This has pushed private expenditure as percentage of total health expenditure to 72 % compared to 53% in China.

?It’s clear now that only economic growth would not help the country in attaining better human index. The government must step up investment in health and education and sanitation for improving the quality of lives of large number of poor people,? Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said after releasing the report. Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh was also present on the occasion.

The report places Kerala on top of the index for achieving highest literacy rate, quality health services and consumption expenditure of people. Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Goa were placed at second, third and fourth position.

Report says India’s HDI has registered impressive gains in the last decade as the index increased by 21% to 0.467 in 2007-08, from 0.387 in 1999-2000.

Among states, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Assam continue to lag behind remaining below the national average of 0.467.

Two-thirds of the households in the country reside in pucca (cemented) houses and three-fourth of families have access to electricity for domestic use,? the report noted. The report also noted that the quantum of improvement in HDI in some of the poor states was higher than the national average, the report said, citing the cases of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Assam.