A clean whitewash

Erasing targets set for the Millenium Development Goals

 

By R.N.Bhaskar


January 8, 2007 (published in the DNA).  Please click here for the web version  2007_01_DNA_India_whitewashes_Millenium_Development_Goals_115kb.pdf

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<>Till November 2006, the UNDP website (http://www.undp.org.in/ihdg.htm) listed out India’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). Today the webpage no longer exists.   That could be because most of the goals declared on that page have not been met.

All of them have targets specified, for which funds were allocated.  Either these funds were not properly utilised, or they were not monitored, or both.  All of them point to the terribly sorry state of governance in India.

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Is India attempting a whitewash of its commitments to the United Nations Development Programme?  Normally, one would not expect any government to be guilty of trying to fudge figures before a body belonging to the United Nations.  But a closer look suggests that a whitewash could very well be underway.

 

Till November 2006, the UNDP website (http://www.undp.org.in/ihdg.htm) listed out India’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). Today the webpage no longer exists.   That could be because most of the goals declared on that page have not been met. 

 

Significantly, the website declared that all these targets, based on the ‘India Human Development Goals’ outlined in the Tenth Five Year Plan  document (on pages 6, 108 and 117) brought out by the country’s  Planning Commission, and were actually “monitorable”.  Now, instead of the above webpage, possibly to conceal the fact that its targets for 2007 had not been met, that  web-page has been replaced by a blander page (http://www.undp.org.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=44) without targets, and without any ‘monitorable’ promises.   So much for the MDGs!

 

The table given below lays out the evidence.  Take a look at the points mentioned under  3 (schoolchildren), 4 (gender gap), 6 (literacy rate), 7 (infant mortality), 8 (maternal mortality), 9 (forest and tree cover), 10 (potable drinking water), 11 (cleaning polluted rivers), 12 (HIV reduction, and 13 (reduction of malaria related deaths).  All of them have targets specified, for which funds were allocated.  Either these funds were not properly utilised, or they were not monitored, or both.  All of them point to the terribly sorry state of governance in India.

 

And just a minute. . .Did someone mention ‘India Poised’?

 

 

 

Operation whitewash: Dilution of targets on the UNDP website

 

MDGs listed out Prior to December 2006*

Current listings**

1

Reduction of poverty ratio by 5 percentage points by 2007 and by 15 percentage points by 2012.

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

2

Providing gainful and high-quality employment at least to the addition to the labour force over the Tenth Plan period.

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3

All children in school by 2003; all children to complete 5 years of schooling by 2007.

Achieve universal primary education

4

Reduction in gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by at least 50 per cent by 2007;

Promote gender equality and empower women

5

Reduction in the decadal rate of population growth between 2001 and 2011 to 16.2 per cent; 

--

6

Increase in Literacy Rates to 75 per cent within the Tenth Plan period (2002-3 to 2006-7);

--

7

Reduction of Infant mortality rate (IMR) to 45 per 1000 live births by 2007 and to 28 by 2012; 

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

8

Reduction of Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) to 2 per 1000 live births by 2007 and to 1 by 2012; 

Improve maternal health

9

Increase in forest and tree cover to 25 per cent by 2007 and 33 per cent by 2012;

Ensure environmental sustainability

10

All villages to have sustained access to potable drinking water within the Plan period;

 

11

Cleaning of all major polluted rivers by 2007 and other notified stretches by 2012.

 

12

HIV/AIDS targets within the Tenth Plan period:

80% coverage of high risk groups through targeted interventions;

90% coverage of schools and colleges through education programmes;

80% awareness among the general population in rural areas;

reducing transmission through blood to less than 1%;

establishing of at least one voluntary testing and counselling centre in every district;

scaling up of prevention of mother-to-child transmission activities up to the district level;

achieving zero level increase of HIV /AIDS prevalue by 2007)

Malaria targets within the Tenth Plan period:3

ABER (Annual Blood Examination Rate) over
10 per cent

API (Annual Parasite Incidence) 1.3 or less

Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

13

25% reduction in morbidity and mortality due to malaria by 2007 and 50% by 2010 (NHP 2002)

--

14

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Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Notes:

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