Human Development and its Mobility: A Study in some Selected Blocks of West Bengal

In this paper, we have considered human welfare in the global era as captured by a set of socio-economic indicators. For this purpose we have selected all the blocks of five districts (Howrah, North 24 Parganas, Burdwan, Purulia and Malda) of West Bengal on the basis of ranking in West Bengal Human Development Report (2004) during the two Census points (1991 and 2001). For the analysis, we have considered both an aggregate and disaggregate approach. In the aggregate approach we have constructed a composite Modified Human Development Index (MHDI) for all the blocks of the five selected districts following United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) formula, used for the construction of Human Development Index (HDI). This combined MHDI is a combination of three indices-an index of health outcome, an educational attainment index and an income index. The relevant data are gathered from Census Reports. The temporal movement of this MHDI is noted. For disaggregate analysis, we have used mean-proportions of the socio-economic indicators and their transition across the two recent Census points. The constructed mobility matrices reveal positional movement of the rural areas in this decade.