by Nan
I've written about and quoted from the Human Development Report in this column previously. It is an excellent reference tool for country economic indicators and comparison among countries. It gives data on all economic concerns in the context of the human being.

What struck me the first time I referred to the report - the 1994 edition - was that indicators used to measure a country's progress or decline, its economic position vis-a-vis other countries, were not the usual GNP and per capita income. Rather was it the quality of life. And it had an eastern flavour to it. The book did not talk down to the reader; it spoke sympathetically, completely knowledgable and with a "let's do something to improve ourselves" rather than "you be down and remain there. We move up".

A veritable Bible
I value the friendship I share with a Bombay economist turned trade unionist, with deep concern for the issues he deals with and with a very intelligent mind and wide knowledge in his chosen subject area. I scored by introducing him to the Human Development Report which he thought was an excellent source for the information he needed: comprehensive, accurate and upto date.

The wonder of the book is that filled though it be with statistics, it is readable. The statistics don't come across as bone dry but breathing and living, revealing important facts about countries and peoples. Along with the facts are essays on topics ranging from trends in growth through population and employment concerns to human development indicators. Shorter insets give pithy statements on HIV, the "lost decade", gender disparity, income poverty and capability of poverty in selected Asian countries.

Who or what is the publisher of this reference book? The UNDP. The first editor and brain behind it? Mahbub ul Haq.

I read with regrets and sorrow the death announcement of Mahbub ul Haq, international person, on July 16, aged 64. What a comparatively young age to die and what a loss to the world and particularly to South Asia. Though a world figure, working for an international organisation and dealing with the economics of the entire world, he was primarily concerned with South Asia. Had he lived, it could well be that we would probably come to his way of thinking and improve our condition.

Mahbub ul Haq
Born in Pakistan he had his higher education in the so called Western citadels of learning: Cambridge, Yale and Harvard. Returning to his homeland he served as finance minister of Pakistan under General Zia ul Haq, 1985-88.

Soon enough he rebelled against the assumption that economic development had to increase national income, that development had to mean higher gross national earnings, more trade and industrialisation. He became unpopular with his proposal to tax the 22 families which he said, dominated the economy of Pakistan and of course held both wealth and power.

He moved to a wider arena joining the world Bank and then the UNDP where his brainchild was born in 1990, the Human Development Report, to be updated and published annually.

His theories were labelled heretical, going against current trends. For instance, to him a country's development was measurable by the quality of life of its people, not by increase in national income. He devised a measure for gauging development alternative to GNP. He called it the human development index, which measured the attainment of a nation as per its people's living condition and lives rather than the country's trade balance et al. His index reflects life expectancy, education, welfare measures and wealth. Thus the emergence of Canada as the most developed country in the world, according to the reckoning of the Human Development Report, pushing the USA, the richest, to second place. Canadian live longer, are judged to be better educated and benefit from wide social security measures.

Incidentally, Sri Lanka ranks 89th of 174 countries considered, coming within the medium human development range. Maldives is 107, Pakistan 134, India 135, Bangladesh 143, Nepal 151, Bhutan 159, all within the low range, the cut off point being 126th position, with the exception of the Maldives, which comes within the medium range. (1996 report).

Human deprivation
Mahbub ul Haq, though based in New York and Washington had his heart in Pakistan and by extension, South Asia. In 1955 he bemoaned the fact that the region was sinking into "a quagmire of human deprivation and despair."

How very true! Even before reading about him we poor souls had been in despair and in the depths of economic difficulty and consequent deprivation. We despair because while Sri Lanka sinks lower and lower and burns, those in power who can stem and turn the tide are helpless or wilfully allow matters to slide. Worse still, they often get rich on the misery - arms deals, unhygienic food to the soldiers in battle, to quote but two instances.

Ul Haq's yardstick found that South Asia was the most deprived and had fallen behind Sub-Saharan Africa. He pointed a finger, authoritatively and vehemently, on military spending which erodes national economies. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are in this bracket (and racket) alright! Mr. Haq quoted the case of Costa Rica: it chose to abolish its army and now spends a third of its revenue on education and health and is the only properous democracy in Central America.

India has the largest number of abject poor but you and I know what they celebrated recently, at great cost, just to flex muscle at her borders. Pakistan, equally poor, followed suit. Ul Haq very succinctly said that South Asian nations "bleed their economies" to pay for arms and then "beg and submit to all sorts of conditionalities from international lending institutions".

Mahbut ul Haq was considered unpatriotic in his country but a recognised and revered world figure. "He would hold audiences spellbound, weaving together his proposals and vision in a subtle mixture of technical analysis, political cunning and with the tones and uncompromising principles of the true preacher."

A brilliant and humane South Asian is unfortunately dead and gone. But the report he started with its innovative insights and measurements will continue to be published, albeit we presume, under an editor with whom ul Haq worked - Richard Jolly.