As the government struggles to pursue development goals effectively, the United Nations (UN) has for the first time invited India?s civil society to voice opinions on steps to make a new agenda work for developing nations once the current millennium development goals (MDGs) expire in 2015.
The move followed a forecast by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation this year that India’s poverty ratio is expected to be 26.7% by 2015, tripping the target set under the MDGs by almost three percentage points. India alone houses a third of the world’s poor, while developing nations combinedly account for around 85% of them.
Amitabh Behar, who represents a coalition of 4,000 civil society organisations under the umbrella Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, is scheduled to express views on the new development agenda at the UN special event on MDGs at the 68th general assembly in New York on Wednesday.
?Extreme poverty is an important but insufficient frame and we need to look at poverty, inequalities and dignity as the central principles of a new frame,? said Behar, who was selected by the UN to speak on behalf of the coalition that seeks to hold the Indian government accountable for its promise to end poverty and social exclusion.
With India slated to play a key role in shaping the contours of the new development agenda, “it is a critical opportunity for Indian civil society to articulate their concerns at this global platform,” he said in a statement. Wada Na Todo Abhiyan also organised a civil society dialogue on Monday to discuss recommendations from India.
India was required to halve the percentage of population below the national poverty line by 2015 from the 1990 level of 47.8% under the MDG. The poverty ratio improved steadily to 37.2% by 2004-05 and 29.8% by 2009-10. Similarly, a report by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation said the country is expected to reduce the infant mortality rate to 43 per thousand by 2015 from 44 in 2011, missing the target of 27 per thousand by 2015.
The latest data indicate that the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) would come down to 139 per 1,00,000 births by 2015 from 437 in 1990. However, according to the MDGs target, the country needs to bring down the MMR by three quarters to 109 per 1,00,000 births between 1990 and 2015.
In September 2000, the Millennium Declaration was adopted at the Millennium Summit, held in the framework of the 55th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN). The MDGs and targets come from the Millennium Declaration, signed by 189 countries, during that time.
The eight MDGs include the eradication of poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing global partnership for development. Under the MDGs, 18 targets were set as quantitative benchmarks for attaining these goals.
