Imtiaz Ahmed
The Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) of United Nations envisaged by United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, were envisioned to transform the world by the year 2030. These SDGs includes 17 goals and 169 targets which were set after 193 signatories countries deeply deliberated on them, are set to stimulate universal action on issues specific to human and the planet exclusively. But, for the plans to actually show positive on ground, it is imperative for countries and, in turn, local bodies across the world to work on the SDGs at a local level with think local and act Global approach . India, being one of the signatory countries of the SDGs in 2015, had gathered the concept behind them in the nation’s policy framework especially by NITI Aayog. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said about SDGs, “These goals reflect our evolving understanding of the social, economic and environmental linkages that define our lives.” Now, the world counts on India, one of the most populous countries of the world, to work diligently towards the achievement of these goals. In view of this, various programs have been implemented either by the authorities or independently in our Country.
NITI Aayog has released the second edition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index (SDG Index 2.0). This index documents the progress made by India’s States and Union Territories towards achieving the 2030 SDG targets.The Index spans 16 out of 17 SDGs which marks an improvement over the 2018 Index, which covered only 13 goals.The SDG India Index has been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), the United Nations, and the Global Green Growth Institute.
Among various states Kerala has the top rank with a score of 70 followed by Himachal Pradesh with 69 points. Further, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana shared the third spot with each state scoring 67 on the Index whereas Bihar has emerged as the worst performer with the lowest score of 50. Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh are also some of the worst-performing states on the index.
For the second time, Jammu and Kashmir has ranked at the bottom the states and UTs on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) index Like 2018, the UT of Jammu and Kashmir has again been ranked 20th on SDG index. The erstwhile state has been listed as “performer” after achieving a score of 59 against national average of 60, in 2019.
It shares the dubious distinction with Ladakh, which too has got 59 points. These rankings are based on 169 targets and the 17 goals including healthcare, gender equality, clean energy, infrastructure, education, peace and building strong and accountable institutions.
As per the report, Jammu and Kashmir was leading in only two categories – No Poverty with 58 score and Gender Equality with 53 score.
In the category of zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, J&K scored 55, 62, 54, 65, 76 and 48 points respectively. In the category of industry innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, sustainable consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace justice and strong institutions and partnership, J&K scored 49, 47, 33,61,59,0,74,69 and 0 points respectively.A score of 100 implies that the State/ UT have achieved the targets set for 2030; a score of 0 implies that the particular State/ UT are at the bottom of the table.
Important to mention here that, in June 2018, J&K government constituted a high power committee of 23 bureaucrats including Chief Secretary and the Administrative Secretaries to finalize the Action Plan including mapping of departments and schemes for each SDG target. The committee is in a process to chalk out the strategies for achieving the SDG targets.The process is on to achieve Vision Document 2030. The government has now started to make strategies to improvise the status of the state in achieving the SDG targets. In the year 2018 Jammu and Kashmir Government created a special Cell for preparation of Action Plan on SDGs of Jammu and Kashmir in the Directorate of Economics and Statistics ,JK . This eight member cell was entrusted for collection of baseline data ,compilation and preparation of Action Plan on SDGs for J&K. Whereas in June 2020 General Administration Department has re-constituted a High Level Steering Committee (HLSC) in Jammu and Kashmir to recommend project reports of Support for Statistical and Strengthening (SSS).
The High Level Steering Committee comprising of seven members will be headed by the Chief Secretary. The committee will oversee the implementation and monitoring of the SSS plan in the Union Territory and to issue necessary guidelines to the line departments associated with support for statistical strengthening and sustainable development goals (SDG) for extending full cooperation to the nodal officer or ageheaded. In reference to this Directorate of Economic and Statistics also appointed Director General Plan monitoring and Concurrent Evaluation, Planning and Monitoring Development as Nodal Officer of for all activities to be taken up for Implementation of SDGs in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. This is much awaited step taken by Union Territory Administration in context with SDGs . The NITI Aayog institution has carried out a detailed mapping of the 17 goals and 169 targets of Nodal Central Ministries, Centrally Sponsored Schemes and major government initiatives. Most sub-national Governments have carried out a similar mapping of the SDGs and targets to the departments and programmes in their respective states. The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation has developed a list of draft national indicators in light of the global SDG indicators. On similar lines in Jammu and Kashmir there is dire need to carry out detailed mapping of Goals and targets in consultation with all departments as each departments is having one or other of Schemes that are somehow related to our SDGs. These Schemes need tuning to make them more targets specific and benefit specific. Moreover there needs strict adherence to indicators for early achievement of set goals.
The Government initiatives in form of various Centrally Sponsored Schemes and State specific Schemes requires a sync with lab to land approach. In a way ahead nodal officer needs to designated in each department who will monitor various SDG indicators giving due care to ground benefit impact. Similarly SDGs clubs be framed in institutions of learning in Union Territory so that Youth is largely channelized for creating a Sustainable future as behavioural change is prerequisite for any such development. Regular activities involving Youth must be given weightage to create productive human resource .The establishment of Youth Parliament in every district or institutes of higher learning of Union Territory may play an important role in polishing our available human resource and creating an environment of healthy and sustainable growth.
(The author is KAS officer, and presently posted as Tehsildar Pargwal district Jammu)
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