The report highlights significant gains made in maternal and child health, education, poverty and climate change since 2015-16. The National Indicator Framework tracked 284 indicators across 17 SDG goals.
Maternal mortality ratio has declined to 97 per lakh live births during 2018-20 compared with 130 in 2014-16. Gross enrolment ratio or number of students enrolled as a proportion of the school-age population for higher secondary had risen nearly ten percentage points to 57.6 in 2021-22 from 48.32 in 2015-16.
An ET analysis found that in certain indicators, the situation has worsened.
The gender wage gap for casual labourers has widened compared to 2017-18. In 2021-22 (July-June), the average wage gap between male and female casual labourers widened to Rs 134.5, compared with Rs 102.25 in 2017-18.
Similarly, institutional assistance to seniors has declined in 2022-23 over the last two years. The proportion of total government spending on essential services (education, health and social protection) was also lower in the post-pandemic period.The ministry further indicated that it had taken the initiative towards bridging data gaps in SDG reporting.“Launched new surveys for collecting data on certain SDG indicators and aligned some existing surveys as per SDGs data requirements,” the ministry noted, besides highlighting the tripartite MoU between NITI Aayog, United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office (UNRCO).
The report was launched on the occasion of the 17th Statistics Day with the theme of “Alignment of State Indicator Framework with National Indicator Framework for Monitoring Sustainable Development Goals.”
Lauding the efforts made by the ministry in getting states, Rao Inderjeet Singh, the minister of state for MoSPI, underlines that “most states have developed state indicator framework in line with the national indicator framework”, and this step would go a long way in realising SDG.
The chief statistician of India and secretaryMOSPI, GP Samanta, called for further alignment of SIF and NIF.
The ministry launched the guidelines for the sub-national indicator framework in 2019 and revised them in 2022.
On the other hand, National Statistical Chairman RL Karandikar remarked that frequency needs to be improved.
“We can learn some things from the states, and they can learn from us,” he added.
