rank in the world?Table 5 also shows that though Nepal has less than half the per capita income of India,it is not far behind India in educational level. In terms of life expectancy at birth, it is in fact ahead of India.

Many improvements have been suggested in calculating HDI and many new components have been added to the Human Development Report. But, by pre-fixing "Human" to "Development", HDR has made it very clear that what is happening to citizens of a country is very important in development. People,their health and their well-being are most important for the development of a country.

Development as progress over time

Some countries are ahead of others in terms of human development indicators. Similarly,some states have better indicators of human development,though within a state,there may be variations.Some districts may be more advanced than others.Remember that comparision and ranks have little use by them.They are only useful if these indicators can make us think in meaningful ways as to why are some behind the others.Low performance on any of the human development indicators is a sign that certain aspects of people's lives needs more attention than the others.Alternately,we could ask why are some ahead of others.Say,why are many more children in Himachal Pradesh going to school on an average than in other states (refer to Table 4)?

To answer this,let us look closely at what has come to be called 'the schooling revolution in Himachal Pradesh'. It has some interesting insights to offer,particularly,how so many factors need to come together to make change possible.Development is indeed a complex phenomenon.

At the time of Indian independence,like most other states in India,Himachal Pradesh had very low levels of education.Being a hilly region,with low density of population in many villages,spread of schools,particularly to the rural areas, appeared to be big challenge. However, both the government of Himachal Pradesh and the people of the state were keen on access to better education.How to translate this aspiration to reality for all the children ?

The government started schools and made sure that education was largely free or cost very little for parents . Further,it tried to ensure that these schools had at least the minimum facilities like teachers, classrooms , toilets , drinking water etc. As the years went by, these facilities were improved and expanded.More schools were