India likely to miss deadline for 50% of SDG indicators: Lancet study

More than 75% Indian districts are off target for crucial SDG indicators like poverty, anaemia, child marriage domestic violence and tobacco consumption, according to a Lancet study

India is trailing behind in achieving more than 50% of indicators under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seven years before the 2030 deadline, a new study published in the Lancetjournal noted.

There are 17 SGDs providing a blueprint for the safety and prosperity of people and the planet, which 192 United Nations member states committed to achieving by 2030. The study, which offers the first mid-line assessment of India’s progress for the 2030 Agenda, measured progress made across 9 goals by identifying 33 key indicators.

India has fallen behind on 19 of 33 indicators. Over 75% of Indian districts are off target for eight crucial indicators including poverty, anaemia, child marriage domestic violence, stunting and wasting of children, access to essential services, modern contraceptive use and tobacco consumption.

“Because of a worsening trend observed between 2016 and 2021, and assuming no course correction occurs, many districts will never meet the targets on the SDGs even well after 2030,” the study noted, adding that the off-target districts are concentrated in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha.

The study was led by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and led by a team of international researchers. They analysed data on adults and children collected from two iterations of the National Family Health Survey, conducted in 2016 and 2021, across 707 Indian districts. India is nearing a halfway point in the timeline to achieve SDGs, and the results point to an urgent need to increase the momentum on four SDG goals — No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-Being and Gender Equality , the study authors said.

“As India rapidly moves forward as a leading economic player in the world economy, its full realisation will crucially depend on addressing some of the more basic health and social determinants of these critical health-related SDGs,” the study noted.

India is, however, faring well on 13 targets. These include bank accounts for women, birth registration, internet use, electricity access, full vaccination, birth registration, and lowering of child marriage among others.