India may not be able to meet at least 19 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals indicators, the deadline for which is 2030, according to a study published in The Lancet journal.

“India is not on-target for 19 of the 33 SDGs indicators. The critical off-target indicators include access to basic services, wasting and overweight children, anaemia, child marriage, partner violence, tobacco use, and modern contraceptive use,” said the study titled Progress on Sustainable Development Goal indicators in 707 districts of India: a quantitative mid-line assessment using the National Family Health Surveys, 2016 and 2021.

More worryingly, many districts will never meet the targets on the SDGs even after 2030 due to a worsening trend observed between 2016 and 2021, said the study by an international team of researchers. “These off-target districts are concentrated in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Odisha,” it said, adding that it also does not appear that Aspirational Districts, on average, are performing better in meeting the SDG targets than other districts on majority of the indicators.

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The situation has also worsened for three of the off-target goals including those relating to anaemia among women, pregnant and non-pregnant women, between 2016 and 2021. “…assuming this trend continues, India would never be able to meet the SDG targets related to Anaemia,” it said. For the remaining 16 indicators that are Off-Target, the observed rate of change between 2021 and 2016, though in desirable direction, is insufficient to meet SDG targets by 2030.

The report stressed that India needs to urgently conduct an appraisal of the policies and programs that relate to SDGs, especially those that relate to four SDG targets relating to no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being and gender equality. “With eight more years to go, and a majority of the districts not on course to meeting the SDGs (or at the risk of never meeting their targets) on critical indicators of health and social determinants of health, there is a need for a greater degree of precision in identifying and prioritizing districts for intervention,” it said.

It however, found that at the all-India level, the one SDG indicator that has already been achieved is relating to adolescent pregnancy in the age group of 10-14 years. India is also On-Target to meet 13 out of the 33 indicators, including Internet use, women having bank account, full vaccination (card), improved sanitation, multi-dimensional poverty, birth registration, skilled birth attendants, electricity access, tobacco use (women), child marriage of girls less than 15 years of age, under 5 mortality, teenage sexual violence and neonatal mortality.

The authors of the study include SV Subramanian, Maynak Ambade, Akhil Kumar, Hyejun Chi, William Joe and Sunil Rajpal from institutes including Harvard University, US, Laxmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute in New Delhi, Graduate School of Korea University, and Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi.

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GLOOMY PICTURE

* India is not on-target for 19 of the 33 SDGs indicators

* The critical off-target indicators include access to basic services, wasting and overweight children, anaemia, child marriage, partner violence, tobacco use, and modern contraceptive use

* Most off-target districts are concentrated in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Odisha

* The situation has also worsened for three of the off-target goals including those relating to anaemia among women, pregnant and non-pregnant women, between 2016 and 2021