India is poised to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ahead of the 2030 deadline, Suman K Bery, Vice Chairperson of NITI Aayog, announced at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development on Monday.
Bery highlighted India’s significant progress across multiple SDGs, particularly Goal 1.2, which aims to halve the percentage of people living in poverty. He said that India is set to achieve this target well before 2030.
“Around 135 million Indians escaped multidimensional poverty in the five years between 2015-16 and 2019-21, made possible through the integration of social safety nets, infrastructure development and multiple financial inclusion programs,” Berry said in his address at the General Debate.
“More recently, India’s SDG index which the NITI Aayog puts together, shows for 2023-24, continued progress at the national level….This achievement is attributed to the integration of social safety nets, infrastructure development, and financial inclusion programs.”
Bery said that India’s success stems from the effective delivery of physical and digital infrastructure at scale, targeted national safety net programs with digital delivery, improved women’s agency, and strengthened responses to disasters.
He emphasized that reviewing some of the SDGs, such as No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Protect the Planet, Peace and Justice, and Partnerships for the Goals, had assumed urgency given setbacks in some of these areas.
In the health sector, Bery said over 500 million Indians have benefited from cashless health insurance, with out-of-pocket health expenditure falling from 63% in 2014 to 39% in 2024.
He underlined that during the pandemic, India implemented the world’s largest food security program, providing free food supplies to over 800 million citizens.
Berry highlighted that despite having very low per capita carbon emissions, India has invested heavily in renewable energy and decarbonization of the economy.
He underscored India’s commitment to Goal 17, which focuses on partnerships to achieve the targets. Calling it the most critical SDG, Bery stressed India’s focus on partnerships during its G20 Presidency to achieve the goals.
“India has emphasized strengthening partnerships to facilitate access to adequate financing, technology and capacity building for the Global South. Under India’s G20 Presidency last year, the G20 Action Plan for accelerating the SDGs was adopted, thus launching an important partnership to elevate development outcomes.”
(With ANI input)