Mathur Ritika Passi

All that you have accumulated/lecercle/Flickr/Creative Commons
1 in every 100 Indians is
homeless (Census 2011)
Access to and ownership of land in rural
India faces several tough questions that
must be answered urgently, given not only
the emphasis laid on land ownership in
SDG 1, but also the crucial role of land
rights in comprehensive poverty alleviation
of India’s predominantly agrarian
workforce.
Implementing SDG 1: The Way
Forward
To ensure that multidimensional poverty
is addressed, SDG 1 covers several
pertinent aspects through its five targets.
As discussed in the earlier sections, there
are government programmes in place that
deal with each of these targets, highlighting
the convergence between India’s national
priorities and the comprehensive SDG 1.
Many of these government initiatives,
however, have similar objectives and
overlapping directives (such as MGNREGA
and the National Rural Livelihoods
Mission), stressing the need for increased
streamlining to ensure that their effect is
not undermined by a lack of awareness
or utilisation. To ensure fruitful synergy
instead of destructive interference among
these programmes, special attention needs
to be given to interdisciplinary platforms
such as the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana,
designed to create sustainable villages
by combining various existing centrally
sponsored schemes. 22
Another avenue for potential coordination
deals with India’s federal structure—
effective communication channels among
different tiers of government must be
established, given that implementation
of national targets are generally carried
out by state and local governments. For
instance, improved coordination between
state and district DMAs and existing
central institutions is especially significant,
seeing as disaster management is primarily
executed by state governments in India,
while the national government plays a more
supporting role. 23
Federal structure and the existence of
numerous groups of minorities have also
meant that there is persisting disparity
among different states, religions and
social groups. Divergent progress has
led to the concentration of poverty in
low-performing states, rural areas and
minorities, such as individuals from SC
and ST groups and Muslims. 24
A disaggregated analysis of poverty
statistics shows that while states like Goa
(5.09%), Kerala (7.05%) and Punjab
(8.26%) have been immensely successful in
lowering individual PHCRs, certain other
states—for instance, Manipur (36.9%)
and Arunachal Pradesh (34.7%)—still
22