Poverty and SDG-1: India’s Challenges and Way Forward

Amongst the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), the goal 1 relates to ending poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030 and transform the world.

Background

More than 700 million people still live in extreme poverty and are struggling to fulfil the most basic needs like health, education, and access to water and sanitation, to name a few. The overwhelming majority of people living on less than $1.90 a day live in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and they account for about 70 per cent of the global total of extremely poor people. Lower middle-income countries, including China, India, Indonesia and Nigeria, are home to about half of the global poor. Right now there are 30 million children growing up poor in the world’s richest countries.

MDGs and Poverty

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were the eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. Amongst the 8 goals, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger was the first goal.

India has been moderately successful in reducing poverty. In 1990, the all India Poverty Head Count Ratio (PHCR) was estimated to be 47.8%. In order to meet the 2015 target, the PHCR level has to be 23.9%. In 2011-12, the PHCR was 21.9%. This indicates that, India has achieved the poverty reduction target, however, progress is uneven. This was a result of both: economic growth (including in agriculture) as well as increased social spending on interventions such as MGNREGA and the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Nevertheless, estimates from 2012 reveal that, over 270 million Indians continue to live in extreme poverty – making the post-2015 goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 challenging, but feasible.

Takeaways from MDGs

• A high-level political commitment globally and nationally was integral to the much achieved success of the goal of eradication of poverty to some extent.
• The MDGs did not capture the economic benefits of good health nor the direct financial consequences of ill-health. As in when people fall sick there is high out-of-pocket expenditures on healthcare which leads to financial hardship and diminish the ability of the population to contribute to the economy.
• Also, the MDGs did not capture the importance of prevention, early detection and response to disease threats.

About SDG-1

The SDG-1 is all about the following:

• By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day
• By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions
• Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable
• By 2030 ensure that all men and women, particularly the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership, and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology, and financial services including microfinance
• By 2030 build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations, and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters
• Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular LDCs, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions
• Create sound policy frameworks, at national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies to support accelerated investments in poverty eradication actions

Challenges India would be facing in achieveing the SDG-1

• Defining Indicators: Setting up of relevant indicators to measure outcomes.
• Financing SDGs: Implementing of SDGs in India by 2030 would be costing  around US$14.4 billion. There has been a cut by the union government in the social sector schemes, this would be creating an issue. For SDGs to be a reality, states devotion would be a necessity.
• Monitoring and Ownership: It is noted that NITI Aayog would play a significant role in tracking progress of the SDGs. However, NitiAayog is burdened with a lot tasks, therefore monitoring becomes an issue.
• Measuring Progress: Measuring of progress or achievement of the SDGs is also a question mark.

Therefore, for the SDGs to be a success, co-operative federalism in true spirit would be required. SDGs belong to everyone. Therefore an active role by academics, civil societies, media, volunteers, etc can be played to make the dream a reality.