Lack of foresight: Karnataka far from Vision 2020 goals

In 2010, the then Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa unveiled a programme ‘Vision 2020 Karnataka’ with development goals set for various sectors. A decade later, Yediyurappa is back at the helm of affairs, but the state has failed to achieve several goals.

The state has faltered on goals it had set in the areas of sex ratio, child health, poverty and other fields, according to a wrap-up report on ‘Vision 2020’ goals brought out by the Karnataka State Planning Board.

Not just that, Karnataka’s performance has deteriorated in specific areas as per the NITI Aayog’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) India Index, which comprehensively documents the progress made by states towards achieving the 2030 SDG targets.

While Karnataka has moved one notch up in the rankings - from 7 in 2018-19 to 6 in 2019-20 - the state’s performance has dropped in poverty alleviation, hunger, quality education, gender equality and ‘industry, innovation & infrastructure’ as a unit.

In fact, the state’s index score for ‘industry, innovation & infrastructure’ nosedived from 57 in 2018 to 40 last year. “I think this is mainly because investments have dropped and there’s a shortage of skilled labour,” Karnataka State Planning Board vice-chairperson B J Puttaswamy told DH.

Vision 2020 was drawn up based on the SDGs that are valid till 2030. “Since the Vision 2020 goals were not achieved, we’re moving towards achieving them before the SDGs end,” Puttaswamy said.

Vision 2020 had foreseen reducing the rate of poverty to below 10%, but it is currently 20.91%. Likewise, the mortality of children below 5 years of age is 32 for every 1,000 live births against the targeted 15. Also, the sex ratio stands at 929 women for 1,000 men as against the targeted 964 for 1,000.

The Planning Board will ask the government to put in place a single-window system to bring essential public services under one roof to help improve things.

“Citizens, especially in rural areas, lack awareness on government facilities they are entitled to. Also, labourers are having to run from pillar to post for Aadhaar, BPL cards, pensions and so on. So, we’re asking the government to have a single-window system where services are pooled to be available in one place,” Puttaswamy said.