Thanks to millions of people taking action and a massive global effort, we have already made positive progress on ground. Over two billion people gained access to better drinking water. The share of slum dwellers living in cities fell, improving the lives of at least 100 million people!
Yet, 1.4 billion people still live in extreme poverty. Every 4 seconds a child dies from preventable causes and over 900 million, particularly women and young people, suffer from chronic hunger. Meanwhile our population is set to rise and the food system is at breaking point.
Climate change threatens to destroy the lives of millions more and undo all the progress we have made so far. Inequality is growing everywhere and human rights are being undermined in the world’s most fragile and conflict-affected countries while the world economy continues to falter.
Despite all of this, for the first time in history we do have the resources to end poverty and grow our world sustainably. It will take the work of all of us to make this happen and we must make our governments listen and take action on the things that matter most to people everywhere!
The SDGs is a fitting framework which calls attention to the challenges to a sustainable future and organises individual and collective response. India, home to one-sixth of all humanity, is cognizant of its role and responsibility in working towards a sustainable future for people for planet.
It is universally acknowledged that India’s success in achieving the SDGs will largely determine the global outcomes. India is making impressive progress under the common theme of programmes as articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas Sabka Vishwas & Sabka Prayaas’ or ‘Development for All’ ensuring Agenda 2030 is mainstreamed in India’s development strategy hence localising SDGs.
New India We Want has to be a citizens’ movement gathering the priorities of people from every corner of the country and help build a collective vision based on the aspirations of all citizens. More importantly, it has to be owned by each citizen for growth of self and communities around for building up of New India. Together we can, as citizens, civil society, private sector, governments and other stakeholders. The comprehensiveness of the SDG agenda is also its strength.
New India draws inspiration from the mantra ‘Sankalp Sey Siddhi’ given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The districts and villages are the most critical building block towards localisation of the SDGs. The bottoms-up approach on development programmes build-up will enable sustainability which is much needed; also ownership of communities will help strengthen programmes.
The citizen partnership is the key to making of New India and we can build up engaging citizens’ movement when they are aware and empowered .Women and youth are the key to achieving the Agenda 2030 as a consequence, these new initiatives will have the significant potential to reduce inequality and play a key role in the development journey going forward.
While it is essential that the development takes place at an accelerated pace, any development measure must be sustainable and environment-friendly.
For effective collaboration, issues around principles, policy orientations and practices need to be ironed out, and effective delivery tools for knowledge, resource and technologysharing must be adopted. Therefore ,it will be critical to strengthen institutional frameworks.
Sustainabilty is no more just a goal. It’s about survival. It is about the future of the human race. It’s about inclusive development and carrying everybody along to a sustainable future. This is a decade of action for New India, let’s all join this movement and celebrate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav together as one.
