Professor M.M .Goel* : Bharat Ratan Dr .B .R. Ambedkar can be described as the architect of human resource development (HRD) in India , the scope and significance of which form the core analysis in United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), formulating the case for human development strategy. In fact, Ambedkar’s social policies are a forerunner of the contemporary human development school of thought in public policy and deserve to be called the father of Human Resource Development in India .
Human development approach postulates Government intervention and regulation in the development of education, health, nutrition, protection of the environment and the interests of the poor masses and weaker sections.
Ambedkar visualized a society where all social barriers between man and man were demolished where man was measured by his worth and not by his birth, and where equality between man and man was vigorously pursued. This meant that income inequalities caused by wealth and caste among the population had to be reduced. He emphasized the imperative necessity of uprooting the caste system which weakened Indian Society.
Ambedkar’s prime weapon was arming Depressed Classes with political power by virtue of the numerous safeguards incorporated in the Indian Constitution to improve their socio-economic, educational and cultural conditions to augment their development from deprivation, social stigma and suffering.
The identity and solidarity with which SCs are functioning and participating in the democratic elections is testimony to Ambedkar’s intellectual and vision, and the safeguard introduced for securing social justice to the most depressed section of the Indian population. The SCs achieved substantial progress in the sphere of education and representation in public services in free India by virtue of the constitutional safeguards Ambedkar had proposed.
The Human Development Index (HDI) developed by UNDP since 1990 is an outstanding innovation for measuring the level of human development. It takes into account three basic elements of human well-being; longevity, knowledge and the access of resources required for living measured by life expectancy, adult literacy and mean years of schooling as well as real GDP per capita in purchasing power parity.
The HDI Ranking of India is 134 out of 187 countries in the Human Development Report of 2011.
Although Ambedkar’s prime concern was the uplift of the Depressed Classes, he anticipated the imperative of human development on a wider plane long ago. The current human development tide which endorses public for social development is the fruit of Ambedkar’s endeavor. Let Ambedkar be known to the world as father of HRD in India .
*The writer is Professor of Economics & Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra.