New Delhi: India this week announced it would achieve within the specified deadline the eight Millennium Development Goals (2015 Målene) adopted by the United Nations to strengthen social infrastructure across the world.
– We will not only achieve the goals set under the national common minimum programme but also the Millennium Development Goals, well within the timeframe, Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation G.K. Vasan.
Releasing the country report on the development goals, he asserted that the shortage of funds would not stand in the way of achieving the objectives.
Painting an optimistic picture, Vasan said India was already ahead in poverty eradication and providing drinking water. – By the end of March, every village will have access to safe drinking water and funds will not be a constraint for any of these programmes, he said.
To achieve the UN goals of eradicating poverty and hunger by 2015, India will have to reduce the number of people below poverty line to 18,75 percent from 1990’s count of 37,5 percent.
Vasan said the introduction of the two percent access on education and the National Rural Employment Guarantee programme and schemes under Bharat Nirman would expedite the process of reaching the goals.
On the utilisation of funds provided under the parliamentarians local area development scheme, Vasan said in the past 18 months the spending had increased to almost 90 percent, up from 82 percent.
The entire spending record of both current and former MPs would be available on the Internet by the end of this fiscal year March 31.
The goals adopted by the UN aim primarily at improving the basic standards of living by eradicating poverty, illiteracy and hunger. The goals also focus on bringing down infant and maternal mortality, providing good healthcare and adopting safeguards against environmental degradation.
Indias aim is to increase the primary school enrolment rate to 100 percent and have no dropouts by 2015, as against the figure of 41,96 percent in 1991-92.
One of Indias major targets is to reduce the mortality rate for children under five years from 125 deaths per 1.000 live births in 1988-92 to 42 in 2015.
It also aims to reduce maternal mortality from 437 deaths per 100.000 live births in 1991 to 109 by 2015. The figure for maternal mortality for 1998 was 407.
Apart from aiming for environmental sustainability, India will also curb HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and try to develop a global partnership for development as laid down under the UN goals.
Kilde: The Push Journal
