India should get its act together

Millennium Development Goals 2015

India is lagging behind in several programmes for achieving universal primary school enrolment and universal youth literacy by 2015, empowering women through wage employment and political participation, reducing child and infant mortality, and improving access to adequate sanitation to eradicate open defecation

India is a huge country with a lot of diversities, whether in respect of social, economic, cultural, language or religion, or for that matter if any issue is taken into account. In spite of all these, the country is united and remains stable, and is free of such political crises as have been gripping Pakistan and Bangladesh.

However, India’s sufferings are different as it has been suffering from the blights of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment etc. These issues are supposed to be addressed through the concept of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) propounded in 2000, September, to which India is one of the signatories. The MDGs are eight international development goals adopted following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. On 8th September, 2000, the General Assembly adopted the Millennium Declaration.

A follow-up outcome of the resolution was passed by the General Assembly on 14th December, 2000, to guide its implementation. All 189 United Nations member-states at the time (there are 193 at present), and at least 23 international organisations, committed themselves to helping achieve the following MDGs by 2015: To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; To achieve universal primary education; To promote gender equality and empower women; To reduce child mortality; To improve maternal health; To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; To ensure environmental sustainability; and to develop a global partnership for development

Based on the criteria, 53 indicators have been adopted for monitoring of the eight goals but keeping in mind of Indian situation 35 indicators have been taken into account in India. It is pertinent to mention that December 2015 is the ending point to achieve the goals, so an appraisal has been made on the achievements as well as shortfall of the target. The Report under the title of ‘India and the MDGs: Towards a Sustainable future for all by United Nations, 2015 (UN-ESCAP)’ has been published by the UN-ESCAP. It is evident from the publication that “India has already achieved the target for reducing poverty by half (Goal 1) by official estimates – and is close to doing so by international estimates.”

In case of gender parity in primary school enrolment (Goal 3), India could achieve the target and is likely to reach parity in secondary and tertiary education also by 2015. It also said that “India is set to achieve reducing hunger by half (Goal 1); to reduce maternal mortality by three quarters (Goal 5); to control the spread of deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (Goal 6); has increased forest cover and has halved the proportion of population without access to clean drinking water (Goal 7).”

But India is lagging behind in targets for achieving universal primary school enrolment and achieving universal youth literacy by 2015 (Goal 2); empowering women through wage employment and political participation (Goal 3); reducing child and infant mortality (Goal 4); and improving access to adequate sanitation to eliminate open defecation (Goal 7). This author after travelling across India has observed in many States, particularly in rural areas, that education is still a neglected subject. Open defecation is common because of lack of knowledge. Child and infant mortality is high.

The Article 21-A of the Constitution of India and its consequent legislation, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, became operative in the country from 1st April 2010. Every child has a right to elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standards specified in the RTE Act. The reform processes initiated in 2010-11, pursuant to this important development were continued during the years 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14. All the States/UTs have notified their State RTE Rules.

In spite of these, drop-out rates are high in India as according to 2013‐14 data published by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Educational Statistics at a Glance, 2014), the drop-out rate for all categories’ of students in classes from 1st to the 5th was 19.8 in general and for boys and girls, the rates were 21.2 and 18.3 respectively. The drop-out data for Class 1 to 8 were 36.3 (in general) and for boys and girls, the indicators were 39.2 and 32.9 respectively. If Class 1 to 10 data is taken into account, then the drop-out rate was 47.4 in total, 48.1 for boys and 46.7 for girls.

The drop–out rate was very high among the ST, as for boys it was 51.8, and the girls 48. In view of this, it is suggested that steps must be taken to scale down the drop-out rate. Empowering women through wage employment and political participation (Goal 3) is an issue as India is seen to be lagging behind. It is suggested that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) should be invigorated so that 100 days of employment can be achieved for most of the needy households.

According to the annual report of 2013-14 of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, the average person days generated per household during 2012-13 under MGNREGS was 46 at all India level. Against the backdrop, the data for Assam was only 25 (lowest) and highest was 88 Mizoram. Again the women participation rate was only 51 per cent at all India level, though the rate was higher than all India average of 46 but against the target of 100 days, the average of 46 days is much low. So attention is required in these areas also.

To improve the performance in reducing child and infant mortality (Goal 4) and improving access to adequate sanitation to eliminate open defecation (Goal 7), massive campaign is required particularly in rural India. And simply by showing advertisement in electronic media, things cannot be improved. India as a great country should take a lead role so that other developing countries can take cue from it and follow in its path. It is suggested that population control is sine qua non and to achieve the same, two-child norm must be adhered to irrespective of caste, creed and religion.

(The author is an Associate Professor at NIRD &PR, Hyderabad, and can be reached at shankarjagu@gmail.com)

By Dr Shankar Chatterjee