SDG report card

 A report by the NITI Aayog recently has revealed that Nagaland, which performed poorly in -no poverty, health and affordable energy- is the worst-performing state overall in the Northeast region. As per the first edition of NITI Aayog’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index (which focuses on the Northeast region), Nagaland’s 12 districts have been placed in the “performer” category of the index. The SDG India Index scores range between 0–100, higher the score of a State/UT, the greater the distance to target achieved. States and UTs are classified in four categories based on their SDG India Index score – aspirant: 0–49; performer: 50–64; front-runner: 65–99, achiever: 100.The 17 SDGs are: (1) No Poverty, (2) Zero Hunger, (3) Good Health and Well-being, (4) Quality Education, (5) Gender Equality, (6) Clean Water and Sanitation, (7) Affordable and Clean Energy, (8) Decent Work and Economic Growth, (9) Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, (10) Reducing Inequality, (11) Sustainable Cities and Communities, (12) Responsible Consumption and Production, (13) Climate Action, (14) Life Below Water, (15) Life On Land, (16) Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, (17) Partnerships for the Goals.The placements are done according to the districts’ performance in connection to the goals in the report. The report by the NITI Aayog said Nagaland performed poorly in six goals – no poverty, good health and well being, clean and affordable energy, sustainable cities and communities and industry, innovation and infrastructure. As per the report, the state had a mixed performance in reducing inequalities, quality education, climate action and peace and justice. The state, however, has done a good job in no hunger SDG, sanitation, economic growth and gender equality. For a state like Nagaland, which has been priding itself with awards won under small category states in various fields in the not so distant past; the NITI Aayog report was like a bad report card which has made many seriously think about governance itself. Nagaland is among a few states in north east that receives fair and generous amount of financial assistance from the Centre and through various central schemes. Schematic indicators for these interventions have also been drafted and they known as the three main pillars: economic, environmental, and social. These three pillars are also informally referred to as people, planet and profits. Nagaland planning minister Neiba Kronu had admitted that Nagaland did poorly under SDG but went on to say that besides the state others in the north east in the same bracket were Meghalaya(61%), Arunachal Pradesh(61%) and Assam(57%). Among the north eastern states, those who performed well under SDG index 2020 included Sikkim(71%), Mizoram(68%),Tripura(65%) and Manipur(64%). These goals are supposedly monitored by the NITI Aayog annually so as to gauge how the overall indicators are across India. It may be noted that the 2030 Development Agenda titled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” forms the basis for the global SDG. There are those who see the SDG as an exercise in futility and naïve since most goals are not practically achievable except perhaps like providing access to water and sanitation. The weaknesses arise in part, due to lack of effective implementation and also the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. However, this should not be justification for failure but rather reason to change the tag of negativity surrounding Nagaland.