By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Dec 3 1998 (IPS)

Sri Lanka’s social development is higher than that of the least developed countries and well above world average, past anti-market policies are causing the country to lag, a new UN report says.

“The value of the human development index (HDI) ranks the country 91 among 175 countries. This is nine places above its ranking in terms of real per capita incomes, reflecting its higher social development relative to income,” said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report for 1998, launched Wednesday.

This is the first ever human development report for Sri Lanka since the launch in 1990 of the UNDP’s global human development reports that also rank countries in terms of the HDI, based on commitment to social welfare measures. Since 1990, several other countries have had such reports.

The report, prepared for UNDP by a group of independent scholars, said that Sri Lanka had succeeded in delivering adequate health care and social services to enable its people to lead long and healthy lives.

Adult life expectancy in the country at 72 years was considerably above the world average of 63 years and just below the average of 74 in industrial countries.

The literacy rate of 90 percent, it said, is substantially above the world average of 77 percent and not far below the level of 99 percent for industrial countries.

While noting that social development is above the world average particularly in the field of health and education, due to strong state investment in these sectors over the past 50 years, the country has not achieved the same levels in its economic well being, it noted.

The UNDP report said that the purchasing power adjusted GDP per capita for Sri Lanka was above the average for developing countries, but was well below world average and only a small fraction of the “mean level for industrial countries.”

Sri Lanka’s economy failed to generate higher levels of growth and income, the report found, was because of systematic and deliberate pursuit of anti-market policies during certain periods in the past, which stifled economic incentives and weakened market opportunities.

But Harsha Athurapane, an economist from the Colombo university who led the research team, said though Sri Lanka’s social progress has been remarkable in the past, the present rate of progress was moderate compared to some countries in the region.

“Fast growing countries like South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore – way behind Sri Lanka’s social infrastructure in the 1930s – not only exceeded Sri Lanka in income levels, but also left the country far behind in social improvements,” he told reporters.

Sri Lanka’s known progress in low infant mortality rates, high literacy and education levels among mothers and widespread maternal care is illustrated in the report which also details out varying degrees of human development in districts across the island of 18 million people.

“The district-wise pattern of HDI values shows the existence of considerable regional disparities in human development levels within Sri Lanka,” it said.

While Colombo, the capital, was the wealthiest district in 1990 with a GDP per capita of USD 250, the situation had changed by 1994 and Gampaha – a district adjoining the capital and has a high concentration of industries – topped this list with a GDP per capita of 300 dollars.

Discussing the education sector, the report said there were 4.3 million students and 195,000 teachers in 10,800 schools in the island.

However, the proportion of students passing the main secondary examination, the GCE (OL), was only 26 percent in 1996, while those passing the higher GCE (AL) examination was also low at 48 percent, the report said, noting that it may be due to low-paid and poorly-motivated teachers, and lack of proper educational facilities.

University education in Sri Lanka is free but very competitive due to the limited availability of such institutions, the report said recommending that the state should encourage private universities and private schools to increase the intake and raise education levels.

The UNDP report said that the level of gender development in Sri Lanka was moderate, and women have only attained 69 percent of the level of human development achieved by men. But this was

higher than the world average of 64 percent and 56 percent for all developing countries.

Female literacy rates and schooling enrolment rates in Sri Lanka were also substantially higher than developing country and world averages, it noted.

On Sri Lanka’s ethnic unrest that is largely confined to the north and east of the country, the report said that economic and social progress has suffered in these areas and access to adequate data for this study was a problem.

It stressed the need for a political solution to the conflict, which has killed up to 75,000 people since 1983, and underscored the importance of public opinion exerting pressure on Tamil rebels to stop fighting and talk peace with the government.

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