Hseb Notes - Economics XI - Human Resource

Human Resource

            In ordinary sense, human resource means simply the population of a country. But in the literature of economics, human resource means the population aged 15-65 years having high level of education, skill and knowledge.

            Human resource has an important role to play in economic development. Here, population is not enough for development. The population should be skilled, educated and healthy. The availability of skilled manpower increases the productivity of the country.

Importance of human resource in economic development:

            Human resource is an important factor of economic development. Many countries have been able to develop themselves due to the skill, educated and healthy human resource. The role of human resource in economic development are as follows:

1. Utilization of natural resources:

For the maximum utilization of natural resources we need human resources for eg: human resource uses water resources to generate electricity, to irrigate farms and to supply drinking water to the society. Similarly, they make rational use of forest and mineral resource. The utilization of these resources increase the national income of the country.

2. Compensate the deficiency of natural resources:

The utilization of human resources compensate the deficiency of natural resources. Many countries poor in natural resources have been able to achieve high economic development on the basis of human resources. For Eg: Japan, Germany, Singapore, etc. These countries have been able to achieve high economic growth rate by the proper utilization of human resource.

3. Utilization of physical capital:

In order to utilize the physical capital of the country we need human resource. Human resource is essential to operate machinery equipments to run the industries.

4. Increase production:

Human resource is one of the active factors of Production. It is the only factor that can capitalize land capital and organization for the production of economic goods & services. Therefore, human resource helps to increase production.

5. Reform in traditional culture and attitude:

The traditional culture, values and attitude are obstacle for economic development of developing countries. The educated human resource reforms the traditional, culture and attitude.

6. Development of Industries:

Industrial development is necessary for overall development of the country. Development of industries requires modern technology, high productive machinery, sustainable supply of raw materials and energy. Thus, development of industries depends on the involvement of adequate human resource.

Population Situation of Nepal:

1. Size of population:

The size of population of Nepal according to population census 2001 is 2,31,51,423 out of which the no. of male population is 1,15,62,921 and female population is 1,15,87,502. Similarly, according to this census the annual growth rate of population of 2.24%.

2. Distribution of population:

Geographically, Nepal is divided into three ecological regions i.e. Mountain, Hill and Terai. According to population census 2001, the distribution of population by geographical reasons is as follows:

Region	Population %	Area %
Mountain	7.29	15
Hill	44.28	68
Terai	48.43	17

3. Size and growth rate population of Nepal:

Census year	Population	Growth Rate
1961	94,12,986	1.65
1971	1,15,55,983	2.07
1981	1,50,22,839	2.66
1991	1,84,91,097	2.10
2001	2,31,51,423	2.24

Causes of high population in Nepal:

            There is high population growth in Nepal. At present, Nepal is facing the problem of population explosion. The causes of high population growth in Nepal are as follows:

1. High birth rate:

Due to early marriage and long fertility period of women in Nepal, the population growth rate of Nepal is found to be high. At present, the total fertility rate is 4.1 for women. Thus, high fertility rate is one of the causes of high population growth.

2. Falling death rate:

The death rate is declining in Nepal due to expansion of health care facilities. The crude death rate is 9.3 per thousand population and crude birth rate is 32.5 per thousand population. The average life expectancy has increase to about 60 years. This has caused high population growth in Nepal.

3. Religious and social belief:

The Nepalese people are religious in nature. They believe in God and in their fate as well. The birth of son is considered essential to perform death rituals, to continue the generation and for support in old age. Due to this region population growth rate is high in Nepal.

4. Lack of education:

Majority of people of Nepal are uneducated. Due to illiteracy people are not aware of the evil consequences of high population.

5. Early marriage:

Due to religious and social customs, early marriage is still prevalent in rural areas of Nepal. This practice is also responsible for high population growth in Nepal.

6. Growing international Migration:

The growing internal migration is also another cause of high population growth in Nepal. The size of population of Nepal has been growing due to open international migration particularly from India, Bhutan and Tibet.

7. Lack of family planning service:

There is lack of adequate family planning services in rural and remote areas of Nepal. These services are basically concentrated in urban areas.

Consequences of high population growth rate:

The high population growth is a serious obstacle in economic development of a country. It is rightly said that population growth is a development problem of developing countries. The evil consequences of high population growth are as follows:

1)      Slows development:

The rapid population growth slows the pace of economic development because it reduces investment and creates imbalance between natural resources and population.

2)      Increase in unemployment:

If economic development cannot be accelerated along with the population growth the unemployment and underemployment increases. The unemployment creates social instability in the country.

3)      Environmental degradation:

The high population growth creates environmental degradation. At present, Nepal is facing the problem of deforestation due to high population growth. The deforestation causes natural disaster like soil erosion, landslide, flood, drought, etc.

4)      Food shortage:

The high population growth causes flood shortage. Due to food shortage people suffer form malnutrition. People don’ get enough food to maintain good health. Therefore, large number of villagers have been suffering from food shortage every year due to high population growth in Nepal.

5)      Poverty:

The poverty of Nepal is not declining due to high population growth. About 30% of the population live below poverty line in Nepal. Majority of poor people live in rural areas.

6)      Low per capita income:

There is low per capita income in Nepal due to high population growth rate. At present, the per capita income of Nepalese people is only about 450$.

Remedial Measures of high population growth:

            Rapid population growth is the major problem of economic development of a developing country like Nepal. The population growth in the country is not only a national problem but also a family and individual problem. It has evil consequences such as food scarcity, unemployment, environmental degradation, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to control the growth of population. The following remedial measures can be taken to control the growth of population.

1. Spread of education:

The population growth rate can be checked by the spread of education. The people become aware of the evil effects of large number of children. Similarly, female education helps to reduce fertility rate.

2. Increase in health care facilities:

The increase in health care facilities reduces the infant and maternal mortality rate. This encourages people to have less children.

3. Expansion of family planning services:

The family planning services should be made available in rural areas. The people accepting family planning should be given economic incentives. Different types of family planning devices should be made easily available to all married couples in all parts of the country.

4. Publicity:

The government should educate the people regarding the benefit of small family, increase in age at marriage and birth spacing through publicity.

5. Raise the social and economic status of women:

Efforts should be made to raise the social and economic status of women. Provision should be made for women education and employment outside home.

6. Control of International migration:

The illegal and uncontrolled foreign migration should be checked. The open border with India should be checked.

7. Economic development:

Economic development itself can control the population growth. This is the evidence from the experience of developed countries.

Indicators of Human Development (HDI)

            Human Development is a process of making people’s living standard better. It’s basic objective is to make each and every individual physically healthy, mentally alert, economically sound and socially civilized. Some of the major indicators of human development are as follows:

1. Economic indicators:

The most important indicator of human development is per capita income of the people living in a country. It also includes employment opportunity, dependency ratio, purchasing power, saving investment ratio, etc.

2. Educational indicators:

The educational indicator includes total literacy rate, male – female literacy rate, adult literacy rate, no. of schools, colleges and universities established by the government and private sectors.

3. Demographic indicators:

Some demographic indicators are also used while measuring human development. It includes population growth rate, total fertility rate, crude death rate, crude birth rate, infant mortality rate, etc.

4. Health indicators:

Health indicators of human life are life expectancy at birth, population with excess to safe drinking water, no. of hospitals, no. of doctors, no. of nurses, etc. available in the country.