J&K among frontrunners in Niti Aayog’s SDG Index

Jammu, June 5

Jammu and Kashmir showed an “incremental” performance in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of good health and well-being of people with the composite index score of the UT having improved by 8 points.

This was revealed in the third rendition of India’s SDG Index launched by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Thursday.

The composite index score of the UT in SDG-3 has improved by 8 points from 62 in 2019-20 to 70 in 2020-21, the report said.

With the increase in the overall score, the Jammu and Kashmir has bagged position in the category of “frontrunners” (with index score higher than or equal to 65) as compared to the category of “performers” (50 to 64 scores) in 2019-20, officials said.

SDG-3 of the 2030 agenda relates to good health and well-being of people, addresses all major health priorities, including reproductive, maternal and child health, communicable and non-communicable environmental diseases, and effective, quality and affordable medicines and vaccines, senior officials in the Health Department said. They said despite challenges, J&K performed better than many states and UTs on the index.

The index for SDGs evaluates progress of states and union territories on social, economic and environmental parameters. The report reveals that Jammu and Kashmir has left states like Maharashtra, Telangana, West Bengal and several others behind.

“A multipronged strategy has been adopted by the Jammu and Kashmir administration for revamping the health sector by improving governance, upgrading health infrastructure, improving supply chain mechanism and other reforms in the healthcare delivery system,” a senior official said.

This has led to improvement in the overall position of the UT, they said. — PTI