Sustainable development

The recent report showed mixed results

With less than six years remaining, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), part of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, require intensified effort on India’s part to achieve its 17 goals and 169 associated targets. Adopted in 2015, these global goals serve as a universal call to action to eradicate poverty, achieve gender justice, safeguard the planet, and ensure peace and prosperity for all. In this regard, the recently released progress report on SDGs in India offers data-driven evidence, which underscores mixed progress by the country towards achieving the SDGs and their corresponding targets. Under SDG1 (no poverty), India has done well in recent years. The report shows a 9.89 percentage point reduction in multidimensional poverty (MDP), dropping to 14.96 per cent between 2015-16 and 2019-21. A recent report by the NITI Aayog indicates a further decline to 11.28 per cent in 2022-23. Sustained effort will be needed to further reduce the level of poverty and increase real disposable income.

Continued government intervention will be needed in other areas to improve the quality of life. The report, for instance, emphasises that while maternal and child health has improved with a decline in malnutrition, stunted growth, and maternal and infant mortality rates, there has been a notable rise in anaemia among women aged 15-49 years and children below five. Under SDG4 (quality education), the gross enrolment ratio in higher-secondary education, the rate of vocational- and technical-training participation, enrolling differently-abled students, the teacher-student ratio, and school infrastructure have shown significant improvement since 2015-16. However, the completion rate for grades 5th and 8th has dropped below the pre-pandemic levels, reflecting how children were affected due to pandemic-related disruption. Further, the increased female labour force participation rate has been accompanied by a rise in wage disparity, dowry cases, and crime rates, including sexual crimes against women. These factors necessitate increased government expenditure on health, education, and social protection. However, the report indicates the share of expenditure on essential services in government spending has declined from pre-pandemic levels.

Furthermore, in pursuit of sustainable and carbon-neutral growth, India committed itself to achieving its net zero target by 2070 at the 2021 Conference of Parties-26 (COP-26) in Glasgow. This report highlights progress with increased shares of renewable energy and improved industry environmental compliance, signalling positive steps in this direction. However, an increase in per capita fossil-fuel consumption and a stagnant forest cover counteract these advancements. Moreover, the proportion of government expenditure allocated to environmental protection has seen minimal improvement, increasing by only 0.3 per cent of gross domestic product from 2015-16 to 2022-23, suggesting that the government needs to do more in this regard.

SDG 16 (peace, justice, and strong institution) strives to achieve peace, effective governance, and a transparent judicial system. In contrast, the report shows increasing rates of crimes against children and women annually. Furthermore, India lags significantly behind global standards, with only 1.93 courts and 1.53 judges per 100,000 people. The data also shows the percentage of responded RTI (Right to Information) queries has declined. Overall, while India is growing at a healthy pace, the benefits of growth seem to be not reaching some sections of the population. If economic growth is concentrated, it would undermine the economy’s long-term prospects. The government would do well to focus on lagging areas to attain the stated goals in the coming years.