Even as Haryana recorded an overall score of 67, an improvement of 10 points and 14th rank among states this time, as compared to 18th in 2019-20 index, the performance of the state on two parameters i.e gender (SDG 5) and life on land (SDG 15) remains poor.
NITI Aayog on Thursday released the third edition of the SDG India Index 202021, which is developed in collaboration with the United Nations India to track the progress of all states and union territories (UT) towards achieving 17 SDGs. The index for SDGs evaluates progress of states and union territories on social, economic and environmental parameters.
In Gender Equality, Haryana was placed at 21st rank among states recording a poor score of 43. For this, NITI Aayog had considered nine criteria, including crime against Women, sex ratio, female labour force participation, family planning, domestic violence, operational landholdings, women in Leadership, women in managerial positions and wage gap among regular employees.
Similarly, in life on land (SDG 15), Haryana was ranked 25th among all states with a score of 48. The ranking was based on forest and tree cover, Desertification, wildlife crime cases, area covered under afforestation schemes and land degradation. Haryana has less than 10 percent of their geographical area under forest and tree cover.
While Haryana jumped from 18th to 14th rank in NITI Aayog’s latest SDG India Index, the state continues to remain behind the neighboring states of Punjab and Himachal.
Himachal retained the second spot with an overall score of 74 and Punjab, with a score of 68 was placed at 13th rank, while it was placed at 12th rank in 2019-20.
However, Haryana was among top three states named as top gainers in 2020-21, in terms of improvement in score from 2019. While in 2019-20, 10 states or UTs belonged to the category of front runners (score in the range 65-99, including both), 12 more states or UTs including Haryana find themselves in this category in 2020-21, the NITI Aayog’s report stated.
In the case of Haryana, the five goals with biggest improvement are SDG 1 no POVERTY (+22), SDG 7 affordable and clean air (+23), SDG 10 reduce inequalities (+14), SDG 11 sustainable cities and communities (+32) and SDG 12 responsible consumption and production (+38).
The country’s overall SDG score improved by 6 points – from 60 in 2019 to 66 in 2020-21.