SDG India Index 2020-21

Why in news?

SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) India Index 2020-21 was recently released by the NITI Aayog.

What is the SDG India Index?

The SDG India Index was first launched in December 2018 in collaboration with the United Nations in India.
It tracks the progress of all states and UTs on 16 Goals and 115 indicators.
These are aligned with the National Indicator Framework (NIF) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
It considers parameters including health, education, gender, economic growth, institutions, climate change and environment.

The SDG India Index scores range between 0–100.
States and UTs are classified into four categories based on their score as aspirant: 0–49, performer: 50–64, front-runner: 65–99, achiever: 100.

What are the highlights of the recent report?

The country’s overall SDG score improved by 6 points — from 60 in 2019 to 66 in 2020-21.
Kerala has retained the top rank with a score of 75.
Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu both took the second spot with a score of 74.
Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam were the worst performing states.
Chandigarh maintained its top spot among the UTs with a score of 79, followed by Delhi (68).
Mizoram, Haryana, and Uttarakhand are the top gainers in terms of improvement in their rankings from 2019.
In 2019, 10 states/UTs belonged to the front-runners category.
In 2020-21, 12 more states/UTs graduated to this category.
These are Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Punjab, Haryana, Tripura, Delhi, Lakshadweep, A&N Islands, J&K, and Ladakh.
15 states/UTs are in the performer category.
Currently, there are no states in the aspirant and achiever category.

What do specific indicators show?

Measures related to the availability of affordable, clean energy showed improvements across several States and UTs.
The campaign to improve the access of households to electricity and clean cooking fuel has been shown to be an important factor.
But there has been a major decline in the areas of industry, innovation and infrastructure besides decent work and economic growth.
These were made worse by the lockdowns imposed to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

What is a key concern?

There were stark differences between the southern and western States on the one hand and the north-central and eastern States on the other.
This points to the persisting socio-economic and governance disparities.
These, if left unaddressed, will exacerbate federal challenges and outcomes.
It is already visible in public health challenges during the second wave of COVID-19 across some of the worse-off States.
The Index has also made some methodological changes.

What is the impact created by the methodological changes?

The SDG on inequality shows an improvement over 2019, but the indicators used to measure the score have changed.

representation of women and people from marginalised communities in legislatures and local governance institutions
crimes against SC/ST communities

The index has dropped the well-recognised Gini coefficient measure.
It has also dropped the growth rate for household expenditure per capita among 40% of rural and urban populations.
Instead, only the percentage of population in the lowest two wealth quintiles is used.
The SDG score on inequality thus seems to have missed out on capturing the impact of the pandemic on wealth inequality.
A UN assessment of the impact of COVID-19 had notably said that the South Asian region may see rising inequality.
While the better score for India will bring some cheer, governments must work on addressing issues such as increased inequality and economic despair.

Source: The Indian Express, The Hindu