ABSTRACT
Human security refers to the absence of threats to the well-being of individuals. It talks of freedom from ‘fear’ and freedom from ‘want’ and includes measures that are taken to positively enhance their sense of well-being to make life ‘humane’ and ‘worth living’. Two scholars from South Asia, Amartya Sen and Mahbubul Haque, did pioneering work which was formalized by the United Nations Development Programme Reports. The notion of human security has evolved as part of the critique of traditions definitions of security that viewed it only in a limited space of physical security of territorial nation state which in practical terms often became regime security making masses expendable in name of national interest. Various existing indices that have since evolved to audit and understand human security include the Human Development Index, the Humane Governance Index and the Gross National Happiness index. These have sought to enhance human security by pointing out the areas that need to be addressed, encouraging policy makers to take initiatives in that direction. This chapter examines some of these extant debates as also the evolving contours of the human security concept to assess how these indices can help direct various conceptual debates and policy options.
