The Progress of the Millennium Development Goals in Gujarat

Fifteen years have passed since the United Nations Millennium Declaration was signed by world leaders.India have been witnessed a substantial progress in MDGs with a regional variation. This paper is an attempt in that regard, to analyze the progress and prospects of MDGs in Gujarat. A brief of the performance of Gujarat State in achieving the MDGs is shown here. Further, for every indicator a comparison of Gujarat performance has been made against the national performance. The methodology is kept simple for the ease of understanding for the masses. Most of the data has been procured from various reliable government sources. Use of data available from different sources, however, raises the issue of data compatibility as definitions used in different surveys are generally not uniform. Data generated through the surveys such as the NSSO, NFHS, DLHS and Census 2011. The Declarationwas the result of the collective commitment of 189 countries to overcome the poverty and therealization that business as usual would not be enough to combat poverty. The State has made significant progress towards reducing poverty and universalization of primary education but progress has been slower than expected in reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and promoting gender equality. The State has progressed satisfactorily in terms of reduction in poverty, universal primary education, gender equity and in the provision of safe drinking water. A major challenge to achieving the MDGs in Gujarat is reducing and ultimately eliminating social class and rural-urban disparities in different dimensions of human development.