Sustainable Development Goals: Agenda 2030 INDIA 2017 A Civil Society Report Coordinated by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan Civil Society Report on Sustainable Development Goals: Agenda 2030 01 ABOUT WADA NA TODO ABHIYAN Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA) is a national campaign focused on Governance Account- ability to hold the government accountable for its promise to end Poverty, Social Exclusion & Discrimination. WNTA emerged from the consensus among human rights activists and social action groups who were part of the World Social Forum 2004 (Mumbai). The purpose was to create an environment through focused and concerted effort and try to make a difference in India where one-fourth of the world’s poor live and experience intense deprivation from opportunities to learn, live and work with dignity. In this regard, WNTA highlights the aspirations and concerns of the most marginalized sections of the society – Dalits, Adivasis, Nomadic Tribes, Minorities, Women, Sexual Mi- norities, Children, Youth and the Person with disability to the government through People’s Manifestoes before elections. Further, WNTA reviews and monitors the performance of the government on its promises and plans towards the marginalized sections on the framework of Constitutional mandates, National development goals and International commitments set in the UN Millennium Declaration (2000) / The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. We work to ensure that the concerns and aspirations of the marginalized sections are main- streamed across programs, policies and development goals of the central and state governments. Contact: Wada Na Todo Abhiyan C-1/E, IInd Floor, Green Park EXt. New Delhi - 110016. Ph: 011-46082371 Email: [email protected] 2017 Sustainable Development Goals: Agenda 2030 A Civil Society Report Coordinated by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan ii Civil Society Report on Sustainable Development Goals: Agenda 2030 Contents Preface v Executive Summary vii Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere 1 Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable 10 agriculture Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages 18 Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning 30 opportunities for all Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls 36 Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all 43 Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries 52 Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable 61 Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts 69 Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels 78 Annexure I Migrants (Construction Workers) 88 Annexure II Person With Disability 96 Annexure III Denotified Tribes (DNTs) 110 Civil Society Report on Sustainable Development Goals: Agenda 2030 iii Coordinators : Abdul Rauf, Dr. Deepak Nikarthil, Radhika Mathur and John Animesh Gomes Printed on : 6th July 2017 Design : Aspire Design iv Civil Society Report on Sustainable Development Goals: Agenda 2030 Preface All UN member states are committed to achieve SDGs Agenda 2030 consisting of 17 goals and 169 targets, span- ning the three dimensions of economic, social and environmental development. Under this framework, each national government as well as other stakeholders, including local governments, business and the civil society is expected to identify, implement and report on specific actions that lead to their achievement. The national government has to translate these goals and targets into the national policies, to resource and implement these policies and to measure their implementation. On the other hand, civil society organisations are expected to play an important role in popularizing SDGs as well as take on role for monitoring the implementation of the SDGs. In a diverse country like India, it becomes necessary to first review the systems that are in place for ensuring the participation from all stakeholders- from people in the grassroots up to the highest levels of Government. Since the Government is the biggest entity with the most resources to ensure achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and targets that have been set, the legal and policy framework already in place in the country has to be critically reviewed to see how capable it is of achieving the SDGs and identify the gaps and challenges for rectification. The UN resolution also mentions that the business sector, non-state actors and indi- viduals too must play a significant role in ensuring the achievement of the SDGs. Therefore, the existing efforts by these other sectors and individuals also have to be reviewed for proper planning. A year has gone by and there has been a lot of progress done on SDGs by Government of India, NITI Aayog and civil society organizations in popularizing SDGs at national and sub national level. NITI Aayog has drafted Na- tional Indicators and a compendium of recommendation on the indicator has been submitted by the civil soci- ety organization on April 7th, 2017. WNTA as a platform of various civil society organisations in partnership with office of United Nations Resident Coordinator (UNRC) have actively engaged with the Ministry of Statistic and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) and NITI Aayog in advocating the national indicators from the perspective of the most marginalized section of the society. WNTA organized the national multi-stakeholders’ consultation on SDGs to strategise a common accountability framework for Civil Society on 8th& 9th November 2016 from the prism of the most marginalized communities to achieve the agenda of ‘Leave No one Behind’. The Government of India is presenting its Voluntary National Review report on SDGs at High-Level Political Fo- rum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development 2017 in New York. The government has formed a taskforce with differ- ent concerned ministries and agencies to prepare the report. NITI Aayog is the nodal agency coordinating this process. The Civil Society, anchored by WNTA, in partnership with the different members of the Civil Society had a plan- ning meeting to strategize the process of the Civil Society Report on the SDGs and a detailed discussion on the strategy, methodology and time line on 21st March 2017 at Indian Social Institute, New Delhi, followed by meet- ings on 5th May 2017 and 19th June 2017 at National Foundation for India (NFI), India Habitat Centre. Civil Society Report on Sustainable Development Goals: Agenda 2030 v Different groups consisting of different civil society organizations, campaigns and networks were formed around ten goals of the Agenda 2030. A compendium of ten goals was collected from all the groups and a final report was prepared, which would be further shared with wider civil society groups and different stakeholders at the national level. The Civil Society report on SDGs was prepared by a large number of Civil society organisations and networks through desk re- search and consultations with local communities, particularly, the marginalized communities. The report has used the lens of ‘Leave No one Behind’ and ‘A Life of Dignity for All’ as proposed by the SDG framework. The aim of this Civil Society Report on SDGs would be to highlight the status of SDGs in India with the UN and other In- ternational agencies and to create traction on SDGs: Agenda 2030 involving multi-stakeholders and evolve a common civil society Accountability Framework from the prism of social exclusion for monitoring and consensus building on the status of the SDGs in India. The Report also envisages to map the existing government interventions at national, state and local levels as well as to identify the gaps and challenges to achieve the SDGs in order to actively engage with the Indian state and create a platform for dialogue between the Civil Society and the Government on SDGs. The recommendations and suggestions emerging from the Civil Society Report on SDGs will further be advocated with the Government of India, parliamentarians, thematic experts, government think tanks, other government departments and stakeholders. Moreover, WNTA will be releasing the Civil Society Report on SDGs at a national level event in New Delhi on 6th July 2017 as well as at the side event during HLPF in New York on 11th July 2017. Amitabh Behar, Annie Namala, Awadh Kishore Singh, Paul Divakar and Thomas Pallithanam Convenors, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan vi Civil Society Report on Sustainable Development Goals: Agenda 2030 Executive Summary The 17 Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by 193 nations in September 2015 at the UN Summit — officially came into force on 1 January 2016. While ambitious and universal in nature, they have, in principle, charted out a path for nations to achieve development that is fair, equitable, inclusive and environment friendly. Human and environmental rights underpin the foundation of the SDGs that demand robust and integrat- ed actions nationally, recognizing the role of different actors in the process. The SDGs being interdependent in nature, require actions at all levels to attain the development outcomes. In the Global South context, it is only logical to deduce that much is desired of the emerging economies of the world (BRICSAM nations), which account for highest proportion of poorest communities. And with the rising Gross Do- mestic Product (GDP), India accounts for the largest number of people living below international poverty line, with 30 per cent (nearly 800 million) of its population living under $1.90 a day (World Bank, 2013). Poverty is more than lack of income or resources- it includes social discrimination and exclusion, lack of basic services, such as education, health, water and sanitation, and lack of participation in decision making. These ‘du- rable inequalities’ perpetuate acute poverty, limiting the life options of historically marginalised communities. The recent Credit Suisse report shows that the richest 1 per cent Indians now own 58.4 per cent of the country’s wealth.