Increase in Human development index of Nashik

Along with Mumbai, Pune and Thane districts, Nashik district has inched two points up in the Human Development Index (HDI) list to be ranked eighth in the state and placed itself in ‘very high’ human development quartile in a decade. The important parameters of health, education and livelihood indicators are compared by the Maharashtra HDI report generated by Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA), Pune. Nashik has been ranked eighth in the latest report (2012) as compared with the 10th position it held as per the 2002 report.

There has been good investment in health, infrastructure and educational facilities that has helped increase the literacy levels, public health and per capita income. In the last HDI report, Nashik trailed behind Satara and Sangli districts in the ‘high’ human development quartile. The current report (2012) shows Nashik to have overtaken these two districts in terms of the health, education and livelihood indicators. Though Nashik has been included in the ‘very high’ quartile, it is not the end. The administration now faces major responsibility in terms of climbing the ladder of HDI and maintaining it as well.

The Maharashtra HDI is the composite index of development indicators including Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), literacy rate, Gross Enrollment Rate (GER) and the per capita net domestic product (at constant prices), where the value of rupee is considered to be constant throughout the period without bring inflation into picture.  In Nashik, the IMR has come down from 46 to 26 in the same period. This is still better than the state average that stands at 28 per thousand live births. In the relative HDI, Nandurbar district was at the bottom of the chart in the year 2001. It has failed to move any spot throughout the decade. Jalgaon district, whose HDI score was 0.624 units in 2001, had improved to 0.723 in 2011. It has helped the district move up six positions.