Challenges and the demographic dividend

India has come a long way in human capital since Independence. The Adult Literacy Rate was 85 per cent for males and 70 per cent for females in 2023, by World Bank estimates.

'Adult literacy rate' has an exact meaning: the percentage of people aged 15 and above who can read and write, with understanding, a short simple statement about their everyday life.

But progress is not the same as finishing the job, and the chapter says plainly that India still "faces challenges in developing human capital": think of a student who has to drop out of school when a parent loses a job, or businesses that cannot find workers with the skills they need.

A key word here is productivity: the ability to do more in a particular time period. Not working longer hours, but getting more done in the same time.

Then the number that shapes India's economic future. According to the Economic Survey of India 2024, 65 per cent of people in India are below the age of 35.

That is a young, productive population, and it creates the possibility of a demographic dividend: the benefit a country gets when it has a large number of young, working people. When more people are working and earning, and fewer depend on them, the country can grow businesses and improve living standards.

But read the chapter's wording carefully: it says India "may help" reap this benefit, and that young people "must have access to quality education, health, training and skilling" to take advantage of it. A dividend is possible, not automatic.

And the chapter ends with a question worth thinking about. Are some jobs more important than others? What would happen if nobody cleaned the streets, collected the rubbish, if farmers stopped growing food, if doctors were not available?