E-Paper
‘India to focus on marginalised groups to assess impact of SDGs’
This is being done ahead of the presentation of the country’s second Voluntary National Review (VNR) on the implementation of the SDGs before the United Nations
India will for the first time include marginalised groups as key focus areas in assessing the impact of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to officials aware of the matter. This is being done ahead of the presentation of the country’s second Voluntary National Review (VNR) on the implementation of the SDGs before the United Nations (UN). VNR serves as a basis for an international review of the SDGs progress.
India is a signatory to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and participates in the international review. The VNRs are presented at the UN’s High-Level Political Forums (HLPF), which have met annually since 2016. India submitted its first VNR in 2017.
According to the UN, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”. At its heart are the 17 SDGs, “which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests”.
“For the 2020 VNR, we have planned 15 national-level consultations across the country with the people belonging to various communities... We have held consultations with civil society organisational networks of transgenders, sex workers, tribals, SC, [Scheduled Castes], STs [Scheduled Tribes], Dalits, old people...people affected by human trafficking...,” a government official said requesting anonymity.
The official added that India made a very government-centric report on the progress of the SDGs for the last VNR. “This time, our aim is to focus on the voices from the ground, including their inputs and see what are the challenges, the problems being faced, what are the gaps between the government schemes and their implementation and whether they are helping or not helping. We conducted our first consultation last month in Kochi .”
The 2017 HLPF was themed Eradicating Poverty and Promoting Prosperity in a Changing World. The SDGs included no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, gender equality. industry, innovation and Infrastructure, life below water, partnerships for the goals.
The official cited above said the VNR helps in showing how much a country has moved forward in terms of its goals. “It about marking the progress you have made regarding specified goals related to poverty, agriculture, climate, health, education. These targets are also specified... India became the first country to have a government-led assessment of all states [in 2017].”
As per India’s second SDG index released in 2019, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana were top performers in the race to achieve the SDGs including the eradication of poverty and inequality. Bihar, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya ranked last.
Niti Aayog, the government think-tank, now aims to empower the states to conduct district-level SDG rankings.
The official said the VNR is a report card to see the trajectory of the movement a country is aspiring for. “After our first SDG report, states suddenly became really proactive and their planning departments became active. States became competitive with the rankings and we capitalised on that.”
The official said they have asked states to get district ranking and many of them have come on board in making e indicator frameworks. “It is already in different stages of finalisation in around 20 states. Five states--Haryana, Orissa, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh-- and Jammu and Kashmir have released their frameworks for their district wise indexes. Our agenda is to take it further down and do a full-fledged localised targeting and monitoring.”
