Increasing women’s work participation to 100% from the existing 20.4%, ensuring 50% joint ownership of farm land by women from the current 1.2%, and improving social and health indicators are crucial for Karnataka to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, according to vision document.
Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who released the State government’s SDGs Vision 2030 here on Wednesday, said a sum of ₹10 lakh crore was needed to meet SDGs targets in the next 10 years.
Increased women’s work participation would be possible by strengthening women SHGs, cooperatives, promoting schemes that encourage women entrepreneurship, providing infrastructure and support facilities (credit, legal) for women, and facilitating entry of women in skilled jobs, it said.
The United Nations adopted 17 SDGs in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure peace and prosperity to all people by 2030. The Niti Aayog released its SDG India Index for 2019 and Karnataka had a composite score of 66 out of 100 and ranked 6th in the country, the report pointed out.
However, there was scope for improvement in social, health indicators, infrastructure development, and gender equality, the State’s report said. “Karnataka SDG Vision 2030 provides details of important strategies and action plans to bridge the gaps between our current performance level and the targeted level for 2030,” the 400-page document said.
The State’s SDGs Vision pointed out the necessity of reducing infant mortality rate to 10 from 24 per thousand live births (2019) through mother and child care for the first 1000 days of childbirth maternity benefit scheme.
It said maternal mortality ratio should be reduced to 50 from 97 per lakh live births (2019) through schemes such as Matrupoorna Yojane, maternity benefit schemes. It stressed the need for universal coverage of the Ayushman Bharath scheme to reduce health expenses borne by the poor.
The document called for reducing unemployment to less than 1% from 4.8% (2019) by establishing industries to process farm produce under ‘Atmanirbhar’ scheme. It noted the necessity of increasing labour force participation rate of working age population to 100% from 51.6% (2019) by strengthening linkages between growth centres and workforce.
Noticing regional imbalances, it called for promoting income generating activities for marginalised groups and reducing regional inequalities focusing on Kalyana Karnataka region.
On sexual crimes
The SDGs would be achieved by reducing sexual crime against women (42 per lakh) and girls (62 per lakh) to zero by training police officials, provision of special courts, women police force, and police stations. It advocated improving conviction rate and reducing the pendency rate to zero from 86.8%, besides introducing modules on gender equality in schools and colleges.
The vision document demanded increased wellness centres, AYUSH enabled handholding, active village health sanitation and nutrition committees, and Rogi Kalyan Samitis.
The document brought out by the Department of Planning, Programme Monitoring and Statistics headed by Shalini Rajneesh, sought reduction in the dropout rate at the secondary level to zero from 26.18% by regulated management of the Village Education Register as stipulated by the Right to Education Act.
