Amartya Sen, an Indian-American economist, philosopher, and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics, wrote Development as Freedom, a book inspired in part by the violent events he witnessed leading up to the partition of India in 1947. As a child, he saw firsthand the tragic consequences of economic deprivation and social unrest. One morning, a Muslim daily labourer named Kader Mia stumbled through the rear gate of Sen's family home, bleeding from a knife wound in his back. Because of extreme poverty, he had entered Sen's predominantly Hindu neighbourhood in search of work; his choices were either to risk starvation for his family or risk death by coming to the area. The price of Kader Mia's economic unfreedom was ultimately his life. Had his family been able to survive without the income, he would not have needed to enter a hostile area in search of work during those troubled times. This experience led Sen to begin thinking about economic unfreedom from a very young age.
In Development as Freedom, Sen argues that the primary objective of development is to remove "unfreedoms" such as poverty, tyranny, poor health, and lack of education. He further maintains that individual freedom is the most effective engine for sustainable economic and social progress. People should be viewed as active agents of change rather than passive recipients of benefits. Moreover, he explains that development is a process of expanding people's freedoms and entails five distinct "instrumental" freedoms: first, political freedoms, including the right to vote, criticize authorities, and participate in public decision-making; second, economic facilities, or opportunities to use resources for consumption, production, and exchange; third, social opportunities, including access to education, healthcare, and public sanitation; fourth, transparency guarantees, which enable people to interact with others based on trust and openness; and fifth, protective security, including social safety nets such as food relief and unemployment support to prevent destitution.
If we relate Sen's framework to the current situation in South Asia, the experiences of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal reveal how uneven capability expansion can hinder genuine societal progress. India is undoubtedly achieving strong economic growth and maintaining democratic processes, yet it continues to struggle with deep structural inequalities, inadequate social opportunities, including undernutrition and gaps in primary healthcare, and uneven protective security for a large segment of its population.
Bangladesh has made commendable progress in social indicators, such as microfinance, female labour force participation, and basic health services, outperforming parts of the region on certain human development measures. However, analysts applying Sen's framework often point to an "uncertain glory," where economic and social gains are not always supported by strong institutions, political freedoms, equitable distribution, and transparency guarantees.
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Pakistan faces significant challenges across multiple sectors. Economic volatility, weak social safety nets, periodic constraints on political freedom, and shortcomings in transparency, education, and governance continue to restrict individual capabilities and collective development.
Nepal remains heavily dependent on remittances sent by citizens working abroad. While remittances boost household incomes, they do not automatically contribute to domestic capability expansion when local health and education systems remain underdeveloped. Traditional social structures, difficult geography, and discrimination affecting Dalits, Janajatis, and women continue to limit real freedoms, trapping many people in conditions of systemic unfreedom despite formal legal equality. Nepal therefore needs greater decentralized investment in rural roads, local health centres, and quality public education, not merely as symbolic initiatives but as foundational infrastructure for long-term development.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has developed the Human Development Index (HDI), which measures average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living. According to Nepal's Human Development Index (HDI) 2025 data, the country recorded a score of 0.622, ranking 145th globally. This places Nepal in the medium human development category and above Afghanistan (0.496) and Pakistan (0.544), but below most other South Asian countries shown in the comparison, including India and Bangladesh (0.685 each), Bhutan (0.698), Sri Lanka (0.776), Maldives (0.766), and Iran (0.799). Nepal's HDI remains relatively low because of low per capita income, widespread poverty, unemployment, and weak industrial development. The poor quality of education, inadequate healthcare facilities, particularly in rural areas, and poor nutrition and sanitation also weaken human development outcomes. Social, regional, and gender inequalities, along with youth outmigration, political instability, weak governance, and insufficient public investment in health and education, further constrain improvements in the HDI.
This highlights the fact that real development depends on people's health, education, and living standards, not on income alone. Nepal has certainly made notable progress, and its current position places it within the medium human development category. However, it still lags behind many South Asian countries because of persistent economic and social challenges. Strengthening human capital through inclusive growth, quality education, improved healthcare, and good governance is essential for sustainably improving Nepal's HDI.
Beyond these dimensions, Nepal also has positive achievements in maintaining a free press, democratic institutions, and an open society. Nepal's youth-led uprising of September 2025, triggered by a sweeping social media ban, widespread political corruption, and high unemployment, helped dismantle political repression and reinforced citizens' freedom to choose and hold their government accountable. However, Nepal's political and democratic freedoms must be matched by stronger economic infrastructure, job creation, and poverty reduction to deliver meaningful well-being and prosperity. Furthermore, greater emphasis on grassroots entrepreneurship, women's empowerment, and rights-based approaches recognizes freedom as both the ultimate goal and the principal means of development.
According to Sen, wealth derives its value from what it enables people to do and become, while political, economic, and social freedoms function as mutually reinforcing instruments that expand human opportunities. Poverty should not be understood merely as low income, but as the deprivation of basic capabilities that prevents individuals from leading lives they value. His concepts of capability and entitlement demonstrate how famines often result from systemic inequalities and failures in distribution rather than absolute food shortages. Improved public policy and stronger institutional design can shape economic incentives while protecting vulnerable populations.
In this regard, Nepal has significantly improved its capacity to respond to and mitigate crises such as famines, natural disasters, and humanitarian emergencies. For example, during the Bhotekoshi flood of 26 August 2026, one of the most devastating natural disasters in Nepal's history, which destroyed settlements and infrastructure along the Nepal-China border and reportedly claimed more than 1,400 lives while leaving over 5,000 people missing, Nepal conducted large-scale search, rescue, and relief operations primarily with its own resources and with limited external support. It is expected that this response capacity will also be reflected in the rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts for affected communities and infrastructure in the coming days. Such efforts demonstrate the country's growing capability and entitlement in managing humanitarian crises.
The author is a former Government of Nepal and UNDP official, the author of three books, and a freelance writer who regularly contributes to Republica.
