International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | February 2019 | Vol 6 | Issue 2 Page 1 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Vasthare R et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2019 Feb;6(2):xxx-xxx http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Review Article Measures of human development: a narrative Ramprasad Vasthare 1 *, Shriya Dhaundiyal 1 , Sunaina Puri 2 INTRODUCTION Over the years, using indicators to measure progress towards achieving sustainable development (SD), or even as supplemental strategies like „learning for sustainability‟ and „sustainable livelihood‟ has obtained adequate support. The implementation of such models is supported by logical reasoning as demonstrated by the comprehensive usage of indicators in environmental and economic management. One can still perceive the apparent frustration in literature pertaining to sustainable development with respect to the deficiency of advancement of indicators that will be able to influence future policies. The major problem lies with usage of such indicators presently. 1 Human freedom is the most important aspect of human development. It is crucial for not only a few, but for every single human being to be self-sufficient. Human development is about creating such opportunities for the population so as to enable them a decent standard of living. The first human development report (HDR) was published by UNDP in the year 1990. Since its inception, it has not only released over 800 global, regional, national and subnational HDRs but has also been actively involved in conferences, workshops and other outreach activities to promote human development. The work done by UNDP has helped in furthering the interests of and centralizing the people and their well-being amidst policies and strategies. Human development index (HDI) can defined as “a composite index focusing on three basic dimensions of ABSTRACT Human development is a direct function of human capability, understood through the different facets of the human development index. The impact of gender inequality, women empowerment, environmental and socioeconomic sustainability has also been described in this review. It brings forth and reinforces that national development is an assessment of not only per capita income but by other influential factors which affect development comprehensively, such as educational achievements and health. A thorough primary screening was done for articles on human development index using the data bases of PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar using the key words human development, United Nations, measures, indicators and index, followed by a secondary screening, with due concern to avoid overlap of information. The articles were categorized based on the subject of Human Development with due prioritization. Human development index has evolved periodically taking into consideration the developments, limitations and criticisms. It has become an important indicator of human progress and serves as a guide to state, societal, community and individual developments. India currently holds a rank of 130 denoting medium human development. Keywords: Human development, United Nations, Measures, Indicators, Index 1 Department of Public Health Dentistry, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, Manipal Academy Of Higher Education, Udupi, Karnataka, India 2 Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Udupi, Karnataka, India Received: 18 December 2018 Accepted: 05 January 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Ramprasad Vasthare, E-mail: vasthareram@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20190027