Sustainable Development

Goals
 Introduction:

• The Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals are a collection of seventeen interlinked objectives
designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet now and into the
future".

• The SDGs are: no poverty; zero hunger; good health and well-being; quality education; gender equality;
clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth;
industry,innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; responsible
consumption and production; climate action; life below water; life on land; peace, justice, and strong
institutions; and partnerships for the goals.

• Sustainable Development Goal Report 2022

https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/chapters/part-2-the-sdg-index-and-dashboards
 Goal 1: No Poverty
https://prepp.in/news/e-492-sdg-1-no-poverty-indian-economy-notes
Targets and Indicators:
Current Status:

• Extreme poverty, as measured by the World Bank's International Poverty line, has decreased from
21.2 percent in 2011 to 13.4 percent in 2015.

• Between 2005-06 and 2015-16, multidimensional poverty fell by half to 27.5 percent, lifting over 271
million people out of poverty.

• The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act protects rural workers from
unemployment for at least 100 days of wage employment per household per year (MGNREGA)

• During 2018-19, the scheme generated over 2.7 billion person-days of employment, and so far in
2019-20, it has generated 1 billion person-days of employment.
• By 2022, nearly 1,50,000 Sub-Centres and Primary Health Centres will be converted into
Health and Wellness Centres to provide comprehensive, affordable, and high-quality primary
care close to home, ensuring inclusivity and equity.

• Disadvantaged and vulnerable people, including the elderly, widows, and people with
disabilities, received pensions through the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP),
which distributed INR 200 billion to 243 million beneficiaries in 2018-19.

• Access to safe housing is a critical component of essential services, as ensured by the "Housing
for All by 2022" initiative.
Goal 2: No Hunger
Targets:
Current Status

• In 2020, between 720 million and 811 million persons worldwide were suffering from hunger,
roughly 161 million more than in 2019.

• Also in 2020, a staggering 2.4 billion people, or above 30 per cent of the world’s population, were
moderately or severely food-insecure, lacking regular access to adequate food.

• Globally, 149.2 million children under 5 years of age, or 22.0 per cent, were suffering from stunting
(low height for their age) in 2020, down from 24.4 per cent in 2015.
• The share of countries burdened by high food prices, which had been relatively stable since
2016, rose sharply from 16 per cent in 2019 to 47 per cent in 2020.

• The number of people going hungry and suffering from food insecurity had been gradually
rising between 2014 and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis has
pushed those rising rates even higher and has also exacerbated all forms of malnutrition,
particularly in children.
 Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
https://samajho.com/upsc/sdg-3-good-health-and-well-being/
Targets and Indicators:
Current Status:

• The extent of change and improvement in India's healthcare system over the past decade is
remarkable; there have been significant shifts in health strategies adopted and new directions set

• The emphasis on water and sanitation, primarily through the Swachh Bharat Mission, has had a
considerable impact on the spread of communicable diseases

• The focus on preventative care and holistic approaches have massively increased

• The attack on malnutrition has become comprehensive through increasing the entitlement to food
under the National Food Security Act and the well-Targeted National Nutrition Mission and
Poshan Abhiyaan
• Technology is leveraged for improving the efficiency of the health management system – eVIN
(electronic vaccine intelligence network) to track and improve immunization coverage,
ANMOL (Auxiliary Nurse and Midwife Online) to extend better maternal and newborn care
services, and use of Artificial Intelligence to improve diagnostics and treatment

• There are significant efforts and initiatives to improve government accountability on health

• For instance, the government has committed to enhancing public health expenditure to 2.5% of
GDP by 2025; the National Health Policy, 2017 recommends State governments' health budget
to be more than 8% of their total budget by 2020

• The government is committed to establishing well equipped 1.5 lakh health and wellness
centers by 2022 to ensure access to health services.
Goal 4: Quality Education
Targets and Indicators:
 Current Status:
https://ris.org.in/sites/default/files/Publication/DP%20232%20Dr%20Beena%20Pandey.pdf
https://www.financialexpress.com/education-2/how-can-india-achieve-universal-literacy-as-per-
the-uns-sustainable-development-goal-4/2470535/
• In India, the new National Education Policy and Sustainable Development Goal 4 aims at providing
universal quality education and lifelong learning.
• India is already playing an essential role in achieving the Targets set by SDG 4. Various initiatives
and projects are already in place to provide quality education to all. Various schemes:
• Padhe Bharat, Badhe Bharat
• Beti bachao, beti padhao
• The Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan
• Lifelong learning
• Critical Thinking
• Gender Disparity
• Digital Technology
Goal 5: Gender Equality
Targets and Indicators:
Current Status:
• A sizeable proportion, 18 per cent, of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 to 49 have suffered
physical and /or sexual partner violence in the previous year. Nearly, 75 per cent of detected
victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and 35 per cent forced labour victims who are
trafficked are female. Thus, the age-old practices that put women and girls at a higher risk of
inequality and abuse with deleterious physical, sexual and psychological impacts continue to
persist.

• The number of crimes against women in India stood at 3,59,849 in 2017, with the crime rate at
57.9 as against 56.6 in 2014.Child Sex Ratio (CSR) has declined from 927 in 2001 to 919 in
2011. Entrenched gender bias of ‘son meta-preference’ is a social challenge despite the ban since
1994 on sex-selective abortion.
• In 2017, women's access to bank accounts rose to 77 per cent from 43 per cent in 2014, and the
gender gap slumped to 6.4 per cent from 19.8 per cent during the same period. The proportion of
women entrepreneurs in India, is not up to the mark, women occupy about 30 per cent of corporate
senior management positions, which is considerably higher than the global average of 24 per cent.

• The government is taking extraordinary measures to develop women's skills and entrepreneurship.
Over the last three years, there has been a 97 per cent rise in women enrolling in long-term skill
development courses. Besides the potential to spur economic growth, technology opens up new
vistas of socio-economic empowerment of women. Even the representation of women in the
national parliament increased from 11.6 per cent in 2014 to 14.4 per cent in 2019.
https://ggiindia.in/goal-5-gender equality/#:~:text=Progress%20is%20occurring%20regarding
%20harmful,to%20completely%20eliminate%20such%20practices.
Goal 6: Clean water and Sanitation:
Targets and Indicators:
Current Status:

• As of 2018, 88.7% of households have access to drinking water from principal drinking water
sources

• throughout the year, but 95.5% of household’s access improved drinking water sources in
India.

• In contrast, the urban area has a higher percentage of access to principle (90.9%) and
improved (97.4%) drinking water sources throughout the year than the rural area 87.6% &
94.5%, respectively.
• In India, 1.7% of principle sources and 4.9% improved drinking water sources increased
from 2012 to 2018. As of 2018, 11.3% of households have a deficit in case of access
principle sources of drinking water, and 4.5% of households have an obligation in case of
access to improved sources of drinking water throughout the year for achieving safe and
affordable drinking water for all (SDG 6.1) in 2030 agenda.

• https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1691525/v1/0c1ecb27-ed0d-4ca2-8997-
fd3db1b1fd4c.pdf?c=1654293335
Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy
for all

TARGETS – 5
INDICATORS - 6
PRESENT STATUS IN INDIA

• India has already electrified all its villages, and almost all households (barring only 0.01 per cent of
households).
• The Targeted programme, Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana(Saubhagya), aims explicitly at
saturating electricity connections in the remaining households.
• The next milestone is to ensure uninterrupted power supply to all households for which a range of measures are
underway. Assistance is provided through various schemes such as Integrated Power Development Scheme
(IPDS), Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana among others, for improving transmission and distribution
network and services.
• The country's initial Targets was to take its renewable energy installed capacity to 175 GW by 2022 (100 GW
from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from biomass and 5 GW from small hydropower).
• In 2018, this Targets has been ramped up to 225 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 and 275 GW by
2027. India is committed to its NDC Targets of 40 per cent share of renewable energy in its total energy basket
by 2022.
 Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic
growth, full and productive employment and decent work for
all
TARGETS – 12
INDICATORS - 16
PRESENT STATUS IN INDIA

• With one person out of every six on the planet living in India, the country has the potential to be the engine
of global economic progress.
• India, with a growth rate of 6.8 per cent in 2018-19, is recognised as one of the fastest-growing large
economies in the world.
• The size of the Indian economy, in 2018-19, is estimated to be US$ 2.72 trillion41 with a per capita income
of $2,015 (in current terms) for 2018. It aspires to become a US$ 5 trillion economy by 2025.42 Sustained
economic growth has helped lift millions out of poverty over the past few decades. 271 million persons
escaped multidimensional poverty just between 2006 and 2016.
• Employment: Skill India launched in 2015, focuses on short-term vocational-education programmes and
seeks to create a minimum of 400 million skilled people by 2022
• Stabilisation of the GST regime, reforms in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, stimulating the export
and the manufacturing sector to retain a consistent rate of growth, robust financial and infrastructure
sector performance remain some of the persistent issues of focus for achieving the goal of USD 5 trillion
economy by 2025.
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable
industrialization and foster innovation
TARGETS-8
INDICATORS-12
PRESENT STATUS IN INDIA
• India has made commendable progress in the provision of basic infrastructure designed to spur growth. The construction
of National Highways/roads increased from 4,410 km in 2014-15 to 10,824 km in 2018-19.62 The 12 major ports have a
cargo handling capacity of 1,477.22 million tonnes in 2018-19,63 which has grown by 84 per cent from 801 million
tonnes in 2014-15.64 India's industrial corridor is one of the world's largest infrastructure projects, with an estimated
investment of US$90 billion. It is planned as a high-tech industrial zone spread across six states which would act as an
industrial hub for trade and commerce and provide industrial heat zones across the nation.

• Besides, more than seven thousand reforms were undertaken in the 36 States and UTs to streamline the business regime
under State Level Business Reforms Action Plan. These initiatives have started showing results – India has jumped 79
places in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business ranking of countries, in the past five years, moving from 142 in 2014
to 63 in 2019.
• India is the only nation to have made it to the list of top 10 improvers for the third consecutive
year.65 The next immediate milestone is to be one of the top 50 countries in the World Bank
rankings, as the country works on the roadmap to become a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025
Reduce inequality within and among countries
TARGETS-10
INDICATORS-14
PRESENT STATUS IN INDIA

• The Human Development Report 2019 has observed that India falls in the medium human development category (117-

153 ranks) of the Human Development Index (HDI) with a value of 0.647 for 2018, and a rank of 129 out of 189

countries and territories. In the period 1990 -2018, India’s HDI value increased from 0.431 to 0.647, an increase of 50

per cent, during which India’s life expectancy at birth increased by 11.6 years, mean years of schooling increased by

3.5 years and expected years of schooling increased by 4.7 years, and GNI per capita increased by about 263 per cent.

• Financial Inclusion: By making banking services accessible to the historically unbanked population on a large scale,

the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana(PMJDY) has been the most potent instrument for financial inclusion for the

vulnerable groups.
• Since its inception, around 377 million bank accounts have been opened; more than half of them
belong to women. Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana(PMMY) supports entrepreneurs by providing
credit to micro and small enterprises. These schemes Targets breaking the barriers to easy finance
and financing services, thereby empowering everyone, especially the vulnerable.

• The elderly account for 8.6 per cent of the population of the country. With increasing life
expectancy, this share is projected to increase in the coming years. This calls attention to
improving geriatric care services, especially in rural areas, where their presence is negligible
currently.
Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and
sustainable
TARGETS- 10
INDICATORS-15
PRESENT STATUS IN INDIA
• The SDG 11 has been focusing on making cites and urban areas more safe and inclusive. To look at urban areas as incubators

of innovation and sustainability one needs to look at the fact that by 2030, it is projected that 6 out of 10 people will be urban

dwellers. This signifies that managing land consumption would be a major issue with subissues like waste management, solid

waste disposal, housing, slum dwellers and their consequential health conditions and more urban air pollution becoming

unavoidable.

• From 2000 to 2015, in all regions of the world, the expansion of urban land outpaced the growth of urban populations. This has

meant that there is less density as cities grow on one hand, but simultaneously, unplanned urban sprawl that is posing serious

managerial and sustainable challenges. Service delivery and disaster mitigation are serious challenges as cities grow without

borders.
• Goal 11 aims to promote inclusiveness and sustainable urbanization so that the cities can
be productive, accessible places that attract talent, encourage innovation and create
economic growth. It lays down a framework to ensure capacity building for better
governance.
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
TARGETS- 11
INDICATORS-13
PRESENT STATUS IN INDIA

• The SDG 12 has been focusing on the overconsumption beyond the basic needs of humanity. The
pace at which human beings are taking up the resources produced by the earth, far exceeds the rate at
which earth can replenish it. Should the global population reach 9.6 billion by 2050, we will need
three Earths to sustain current lifestyles for everyone. This presents a dire future that cannot carry the
energy and resource-intensive stages of production any forward

• Human trafficking, sexual violence, pervasive violence against children as acts of punishment and
psychological aggression, detention without sentences, bribery and corruption, identity and
recognition before law, effectiveness, inclusiveness and transparency are issues worth pondering over
in the past few decades.
• The increasing standards of living coupled with the increasing level of capitalisation in both developed
and developing countries simultaneously, creates the problem of decoupling economic growth from
resource use. Hence, the most critical and complex challenges facing humanity today, in all regions of
the world, is the profound transformation of global value chains through demand and supply
management.

• It is projected to grow to 190 billion tons by 2060, which could be disastrous for the planet and its life.
Each year, an estimated one-third of all food produced – equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes worth around
USD 1 trillion – ends up rotting in the bins of consumers and retailers or spoiling due to poor
transportation and harvesting practices. More than one billion people still do not have access to
freshwater
GOAL 13: SDG 13 has 5 Targets. 
TARGETS AND INDICATORS:
SDG 13 CURRENT SCENARIO IN INDIA:

• As per the Paris Agreement, India submitted its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to UNFCCC
in 2015 outlining eight Targets for the period 2021-2030.

• Reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35% by 2030 from the 2005 level.

• To achieve about 40% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy
resources by 2030 with the help of the transfer of technology and low-cost international finance including
from the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

• The other Targets pertain to sustainable lifestyles; climate-friendly growth paths; climate change adaptation;
climate finance; and technology and capacity building.

• India's recent initiatives for combatting climate change (and thus achieving SDGs) - include its goal to
achieve net zero emissions by 2070, and initiatives for green energy transition.
GOAL 14:
10 Targets and 10 Indicators.
Targets AND INDICATORS:
SDG 14 CURRENT SCENARIO IN INDIA:

• Although SDG 14 aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for
sustainable development, we believe quality of river water too plays an important role in
preserving marine life.

• Projects related to Clean Ganga and Swachh Bharat Kosh are some of the sectors where
corporates are spending their CSR funds.

• Over the last 6 years, a total of 1,058 INR Crores has been contributed to these sectors.

• The largest share of funds was contributed in 2015-16—358 Cr (34% of the total amount spent in
these sectors). Higher skew towards PSU seem to be major contributor in these areas.
GOAL 15:
12 Targets and 14 Indicators.
SDG 15 CURRENT SCENARIO IN INDIA:

• It aims to encourage the fair and equal distribution of the benefits derived from the use of
genetic resources, as well as to prevent poaching and trafficking of protected flora and wildlife.

• In other ways, India has made significant headway in protecting and rehabilitating natural
regions.

• Various initiatives taken by the government under goal 15 include the National Environment
Policy of 2006 and the National Agroforestry Policy of 2014, the Green Highways Policy of
2015, the National Afforestation Programme, and many more.
GOAL 16:
12 Targets and 23 Indicators.
SDG 16 CURRENT SCENARIO IN INDIA:

• An independent agency by the name of World Justice Project has ranked India 69th out of 128
countries worldwide on the ‘Global Rule of Index 2020’, inferring the attempts being made to dilute
the rule of law in India.

• As a matter of fact, even the motto of the plan is ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’.
Other such programmes/plans are the ‘Make in India', ‘Start-up India’, and the ‘Skill India Mission’,
among various others.

• On 25th December 2019, Minister of State for Personnel, Jitendra Singh, launched the ‘Good
Governance Index’ with the sole purpose to assess the status of governance and the impact of
interventions taken up by the Central/State government(s), including Union Territories.
GOAL 17: : 19 Targets and 25 Indicators.
SDG 17 CURRENT SCENARIO IN INDIA:

• The Government of India is an important part of this new global partnership, and it has
been strengthened by the country’s efforts to build networks within the region and with
the world. South-South co-operation has been a crucial part of this, as is India’s
membership and leadership in institutions like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,
BRICS and its New Development Bank, and the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation, as well as with UN agencies and programmes around the world.