A prima facie look at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
and the programs and schemes announced/implemented so far by the government to
achieve the SDGs (see
here), and the performance of various state governments in achievement of
these goals highlights some interesting points. For example, consider this—
(a) The 58 centrally
sponsored schemes assigned to meeting of SDGs are apparently classified into
three categories (i) Core Schemes (ii) Core of Core Schemes and (iii) other
schemes. Almost all the Core and Core of the Core schemes are old and in
operation since prior to the India committing itself to the SGDs in 2015. Some
of these schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid Day Meals and PMGSY are more
than 20yr old. MNREGA classified as Core of the Core itself is more than 10yr
old.
(b) All government since the
Vajpayee led NDA-1 government, have made related interventions through targeted
programs at regular intervals. Many of these interventions have yielded
commendable results.
(c) Apparently, there are
only a couple of core schemes that have been devised and implemented after
committing to the SDGs in 2015. In that sense, our performance is limited to
reclassifying and some further strengthening of the existing schemes. In that
sense, the commitment to SDGs has failed in enforcing a fresh look at the entire
growth paradigm that has been popularly believed and acknowledged to be
inadequate and lacking in many critical aspects.
The idiosyncrasies of our growth model like adhocism, lack of
cohesiveness, and incongruence continue to remain plague the planning process.
In fact there are many instances of programs supposed to be devised to achieve
SDGs, disregard the sustainability concerns. The best example of such a program
is widening of roads connecting important pilgrimage centers in the state of
Uttrakhand.
(d) There is a huge gap in
performance of various states insofar as meeting the development targets set
under SDGs are concerned is concerned. Southern states, especially Kerala is
far ahead of most other states. Eastern, North Eastern and Central States lag
far behind. Western States have been performing well in recent years.
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