GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF PLANNING
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 172
ANSWERED ON: 08.08.2012
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL
RAJIV RANJAN (LALAN) SINGH
ANANT KUMAR HEGDE
NALIN KUMAR KATEEL
Will the Minister of PLANNING be pleased to state:-
(a) whether the Government has studied the report under the title ‘Millennium Development Goal,
2012’ released by United Nations;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the progress in India has been termed as unsatisfactory on the basis of this report;
(d) if so, the reaction of the Government thereto;
(e) whether India seems to be in a state of achieving the targets under Millennium Development Goal,
2015; and
(f) if not, the reasons therefor?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE FOR PLANNING, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES
(DR. ASHWANI KUMAR)
(a): Yes, Madam.
(b): As per the United Nation’s Publication entitled “The Millennium Development Goals Report,
2012”, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed to by World leaders over a decade ago
have achieved important results. The report mentions that:
(i) Extreme poverty is falling in every region. Preliminary estimates indicate that the global poverty
rate at $1.25 a day fell in 2010 to less than half the 1990 rate.
(ii) The world has met the target of halving the proportion of people without access to improved
sources of water.
(iii) There has been improvement in the lives of 200 million slum dwellers.
(iv) The world has achieved parity in primary education between girls and boys.
(v) Many countries facing the greatest challenges have made significant progress towards universal
primary education.
(vi) Child survival progress is gaining momentum.
(vii) Access to treatment for people living with HIV increased in all regions.
(viii) The world is on track to achieve the target of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of
tuberculosis.
(ix) Global malaria deaths have declined.
The report also mentions some of the flip side which are as follows:
(i) Vulnerable employment has decreased only marginally over twenty years.
(ii) Decreases in maternal mortality are far from the 2015 target.
(iii) Use of improved sources of water remains lower in rural areas.
(iv) Hunger remains a global challenge.
(v) The number of people living in slums continues to grow.
(c) & (d): The report is not country specific. It gives achievement of MDG for different regions.
(e) & (f): The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) coordinates the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) monitoring system and releases Progress Reports from time
to time. Millennium Development Goals, India Country Report, 2011 is the latest report brought out
by the Central Statistical Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in December
2011. As per this report, there has been progress in all indicators. Since further progress is expected to
be made in the remaining period upto 2015, it is hoped that performance with reference to the 2015
targets will be satisfactory.