JOIN USAs the deadline for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) looms, India can draw satisfaction, albeit tinged with a measure of disappointment, from its performance. It achieved 11 out of 22 parameters and is on track to meet one more by the end of the year.
India has halved poverty and established gender parity in enrollment in primary schools. By end-2015, it is expected to meet the target of universal primary education. These goals would not have been easy to achieve given the magnitude of the challenge – the sheer size of the population that need to be pulled out of poverty or illiteracy, and the complexity of the problem at hand. Eradicating poverty, for instance, depends on several factors, including economic growth, education, employment, etc. School enrollment in turn is influenced by poverty, availability of infrastructure, social awareness and so on. These are inter-connected problems, which fuel each other. None of these problems can be done away with a mere wave of a wand or an enhanced allocation of funds. This makes India’s achievements in meeting several MDGs all the more laudable.
But yet, there is regret over unmet targets and goals. Here was an opportunity for India to address these problems. It could have put to full use the international community’s energy and enthusiasm on the MDGs to eradicate these problems. Sadly, for a number of reasons, it did not and has ended falling short on almost half the MDGs. It failed to achieve targets with regard to malnutrition; maternal, infant and under-five mortality; gender parity in higher education; access to basic sanitation, etc. It has much ground to cover in empowering women through wage employment and political participation. The pace at which it progressed towards various goals was rather slow, as well. Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh outpaced India in poverty reduction over comparable periods.
As a new millennium dawned, India and other countries pledged their peoples better lives. However, millions of Indians continue to live in abysmal living conditions and suffer unimaginable hunger and hardship. India dashed their hopes by underperforming on several MDGs. Countries with fewer resources managed to do better. India must draw inspiration and ideas from them. World leaders will be adopting a new set of transformative and universal Sustainable Development Goals as a part of the Post–2015 Development Agenda at the UN General Assembly in September 2015. India must take the pledge it makes at this meeting seriously. It is being given another chance to redeem its unfulfilled promises to its people.