Date: 04/03/2023

Relevance: GS-2: Issues relating to Poverty and Hunger; Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, and Human Resources.

Key Phrases: Human Capital, COVID-19 pandemic, Demographic Dividend, stunting, Learning Poverty, Simple and low-cost education programs, Agile and Resilient Human Development Systems, Data, and technology.

Why in News?

• The last few years have been marked by a series of crises in South Asia, from pandemics and economic slumps to extreme weather events.
• The COVID-19 pandemic alone has had a profound impact on the region, putting millions of lives and livelihoods at risk and undoing decades of development gains.
• To build resilience and protect the well-being of future generations, governments in South Asia must take urgent policy action and invest in human capital.

An underutilized asset:

• Demographic Dividend:
  • South Asia’s people are its biggest asset but remain wastefully underutilized.
  • With nearly half its population under the age of 24 and over one million young people set to enter the labour force every month until 2030, the region could reap an enviably high demographic dividend.
• Stunted Growth and Low Productive Potential:
  • South Asia is also home to over one-third of the world’s stunted children.
  • And a child born in the region today can, by the age of 18, expect to attain only 48% of their full productive potential.
• Improvement in Human Capital and Regional GDP:
  • The improvement of South Asia's human capital can lead to a doubling of regional GDP per worker.
  • Improving the quantity and quality of human capital is essential for the region to realize its potential demographic dividend.
• Lack of Resources:
  • South Asian governments on average spend just 1% of GDP on health and 2.5% on education.
  • The global average is 5.9% on health and 3.7% on education.
  • Without adequate resources and government spending on health and education, it will be challenging to improve human capital in the region.
• Impact of COVID-19:
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed an additional 35 million people across South Asia into extreme poverty.
  • The pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the region's human capital, including reduced access to health care and education, increased child labour, and reduced productivity.

Rise in Learning Poverty:

• One of the most significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the rise in learning poverty, with children in South Asia experiencing significant learning losses due to school closures and ineffective remote instruction.
• Schools in the region were closed for 225 days on average, compared to 141 days worldwide.
• As a result, learning poverty in South Asia has increased from 60% to 78%, with the poorest and most vulnerable children falling even further behind.
• For example, in Bangladesh, the poorest students lost 50% more in terms of learning than the richest students.
• Several countries still show little to no signs of recovery, and South Asia’s students could lose up to 14.4% of their future earnings.

Interventions that can make a difference

• Simple and low-cost education programs:
  • Despite the challenges, evidence suggests that even simple and low-cost education programs can lead to sizable gains in skills.
  • For example, attending a year of additional preschool in Bangladesh significantly improved literacy, numeracy, and social development scores.
  • In Tamil Nadu, six months of extra remedial classes after school helped students catch up on about two-thirds of lost learning linked to 18 months of school closures.
  • In Nepal, a phone tutoring program helped increase students' foundational numeracy by 30%.
• Importance of scaling up interventions:
  • Given the high returns to human capital, the huge losses inflicted by the pandemic, and the region’s vulnerability to a variety of shocks, even with constrained government budgets, scaling up these interventions should be a no-brainer.
• Pre-crisis support systems:
  • Globally, countries that have systems in place to support individuals and families before a crisis strikes, can better protect their citizens during the crisis.

Agile and Resilient Human Development Systems:

• Human development is multi-dimensional and interdependent, and systems must recognize and leverage these connections to be effective.
• The World Bank study highlights the impact of the pandemic on young people and stresses the need for human development systems to be agile, resilient, and adaptive.
• Such systems should recognize the overlapping connections between health, education, and skills development and be able to respond quickly to changing circumstances.
• By being flexible and adaptable, human development systems can better withstand future shocks and ensure that essential services like healthcare and education remain uninterrupted.

Use data and technology:

• Data and technology can help countries respond to future shocks.
• A well-functioning system should ensure essential services like healthcare and education remain uninterrupted during crises.
• The system should have the flexibility to evolve and meet urgent needs.
• Coordination across sectors is essential for efficient service delivery.
• Data and technology play a crucial role in service delivery and should be effectively used.

Conclusion:

• The road ahead for South Asia is rocky. The next crisis may be just around the corner.
• A robust human development system would not only mitigate the damage but also help ensure lives and livelihoods are protected.
• It could provide the resilience South Asia needs to prosper in an increasingly volatile world.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. Discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on South Asia's human capital and the urgent need for policy action to strengthen resilience. Suggest interventions that can be implemented to improve the quality and quantity of human capital in the region.