An eye on achieving Sustainable Development Goals

Contact Counsellor

Last Updated18/05/2022

The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.
They address the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.

The Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by all UN member states in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.
The 17 SDGs are integrated - that is, they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

NITI Aayog’s 2020-21 SDGs India Index detailed the implementation of the UN’s SDGs in the country, States and UTs.
It gave marks, between 0 and 100 points, to each region.
In a significant marker of improvement, no State fared in the “Aspirant” category, the lowest in the index.
All the states managed to score above 50 points in the SDG Index.
13 States featured in the ‘Performer’ category and 15 in the ‘Front Runner’ category(the 2nd highest position).
Overall performance of the country improved.
India stepped into the ‘Front Runner’ category with a score of 66 points, though dropped by two ranks in original scale.
Neighboring countries performed better than us.
India did well in SDGs 6, 7, 11 and 12.

Reports present myriad concerns to policymakers.
India continues to be in the ‘Aspirant’ category for the implementation of ‘gender equality’ and ‘zero hunger’.
Global Hunger Index also points to lackluster performance in implementation of ‘zero hunger’.
Many other goals, such as ‘no poverty’, ‘quality education’, ‘decent work and economic growth’, ‘industry, innovation and infrastructure’, and ‘climate action’, need a lot more work to pull into the ‘Front Runner’ category from the ‘Performer’ category.

Partnership is the key to achieve SDGs.
Need to enhance further collaboration with States, UTs, civil society organizations and businesses.
Need for aggressive implementation of SDG localisation efforts at the district, panchayat and village levels.
Through true internalization of the SDGs by the community. Only work at the community level can make SDGs truly achievable and deliverable.

Q. “India’s improvement in SDGs implementation needs aggressive localisation efforts at the ground level with a community feedback system”. Discuss