The SDG India Index 2018 report provides critical insights on the status of SDGs in India, with insights into state performances and outlines of the national schemes for each goal. Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) of the SDGs is fundamental to human development as it pivots around the issue of food security, determined by the availability of food and shaped by domestic food production, capacity to import food as well as the determinants of food access, utilization and vulnerability.
In India, crop surpluses exist but the issues of food access, utilization and vulnerability remain critical challenges. These issues are shaped by the structural societal inequalities (gender, class, caste etc.), purchasing power of households and consequently, access to government programmes. Other factors of influence include malnutrition caused by micronutrient deficiencies, lack of education, poor quality of food, sanitation and water or vulnerability to disasters, economic shocks etc.
The Indian scenario of nutrition is characterised by high levels of malnutrition, anemia, stunting and wasting, despite rising economic growth and falling poverty levels. According to the National Family Health Survey (NHFS-4), almost half of the pregnant women in India, aged between 15-49 are anemic and more than one-thirds of women have a low body mass index. 38.4 children below the age of 5 have low height for age (stunting) and 21% have low weight-for-age (wasting).
According to the report, the measurement of India’s overall performance as well as comparisons between the states’ performances towards Zero Hunger is based on the identification of four national level indicators that capture three out of eight SDG targets under Goal 2.
Based on these indicators, the performances of the states and UTs in India are reflected in the map below. The article on the SDG India Index: Baseline Report 2018 explains the scoring process.
The highlights of the report are as follows:
- Food subsidy:
roughly one rural household is covered under the public distribution system (PDS) for every rural household (with the monthly income of the highest earning member less than INR 5,000 as per the 2011 Socio-Economic Caste Census). Manipur and Delhi have recorded best performance for this indicator.
- Stunting:
Only Kerala and Goa have achieved the target of reducing stunting to 21.03% (by 2030). No UT has achieved this target yet. Andaman and Nicobar Islands have the lowest rate of stunting among the UTs at 23.3%.
- Anaemia among women:
The national average of anemic women in India is much higher than the national target of 23.57%. Only Kerala has successfully reduced this rate to below the national target and Sikkim is close to achieving it. Amongst the UTs, Puducherry showed the best performance at 26%.
- Agricultural Productivity:
India currently produces 2,509 kg of agricultural produce (rice, wheat and coarse grains) from 1 hectare of land annually. India aims to double this by 2030 to 5,018kg/Ha. While no State or UT in India has achieved this target as yet, Chandigarh is nearing the targeted productivity with current levels at 4,600kg/Ha, followed by Punjab’s annual productivity at 4,297kg/Ha.
Three years after the adoption of the SDGs, 14 of the 36 Indian states and UTs are Aspirants, 12 are Performers and 10 are Front Runners, in terms of progress in achieving Zero Hunger. Thus, India has significant ground to cover, both in terms of policy design and implementation to achieve the targets under Goal 2. The panacea of India’s hunger problem lies in the implementation of well-designed public policies of income redistribution, grounded in social justice and social security objectives rather than neo-liberal objectives of economic efficiency.
India Outbound
December 26, 2018
source https://indiaoutbound.org/progress-towards-zero-hunger-sdg-india-index-2018/
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