Chandigarh only achiever on SDG6 in Niti Aayog SDG Index 2019

Niti Aayog has recently released an SDG Index 2019 based on 16 out of 17 Global Goals set up by the United Nations for year 2030.

The Union Territory (UT) of Chandigarh is the only achiever for SDG 6 (Sustainable Development Goal) in the Niti Aayog Index 2019. In the previous year, two UTs – Chandigarh and Dadra & Nagar Haveili; and Gujarat state were in the list of achievers for scoring over 99 percent marks.

Contrary to the claims of Delhi government, the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi has fared poorly in the SDG Index of Niti Aayog for providing 'Clean Water and Sanitation'. Though India's average score on SDG6 has increased from 63 in 2018 to 88 in 2019, the score of Delhi has decreased from 62 to 61 and it is on the lowest rank among all the 8 UTs and 28 states of the country. The newly carved out State of Andhra Pradesh has become highest performer for improving its score from 59 in 2018 to 96 in 2019 while Gujarat, the only state to score 100 marks in 2018, decreased to 92 marks this year.

India's progress on the front of 'Affordable and Clean Energy' which has been adopted as SDG7 in the SDGs 2030, seems quite comfortable. According to the Niti Aaayog 2019 Index, the country has scored 70 marks which were 51 in 2018. In this category 11 states have declared 'performer' while the rest of the countries are achiever. Lakshadweep is the only region in the country which has scored less than 49 marks and is still in aspirant category.

The index also reveals that despite a number of pro-poor schemes India the condition of poverty has worsened in the country. According to the Index 2019, India had scored 54 marks in 2018 which has become 50 in 2019. Almost all the big states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Haryana and Punjab have performed poorly on this front. In terms of poverty, Delhi has improved from 30 marks in 2018 to 54 marks in 2019. As for as SDG14 (Life Below Water) is concerned only nine states have provided data which was not sufficient to compute pan India average.

It's for the first time, the data were analyzed on Climate Change (SDG13), one of the most burning issues on the planet. The analysis of the Niti Aayog suggests that it scored 60 out of 100 marks. In this category only four states – Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Telangana could score above 64 marks out of which Karnataka stood on top with 71 marks. On 'Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions', the country has scored 72 marks. The overall performance of India on SDGs shows an improvement from 2018.

In the Niti Aayog Index 2019, the States/ UTs have been classified into four categories on the basis of their performance on SDGs. Those getting 0-49 marks are 'aspirant', between 50 to 64 are 'performer', Front Runner 65 to 99 while those scoring above 99 are put in the category of achiever.