Important Materials on Socio Economic Development in
India for IPS LCE Examination
Population Growth and The Millennium Development Goals in India
Courtesy: Ministry of Information
and Broadcasting publication division
Population Growth and The
Millennium Development Goals in India
This article seeks to bring out the linkages of population
growth and the millennium development goals (MDG) in India. It has been
conceptualized with the following rationale. First, India’s progress in
achieving the MDGs is of global significance as it constitutes 18% of world
population. Second, evidences suggest that the progresses in attaining the MDGs
are slow and uneven across and within the countries (Lawn et al., 2006;
Houweling et al., 2007). Third, though the population growth is not an implicit
indicator of MDGs, it is the underlying cause of attaining the MDGs in
developing countries. Globally, the countries with higher birth rate and slower
growth rate of population (natural growth rate) are faster in achieving the MDGs.
For example, the progress in east Asian countries were faster compared to South
Asian and African countries. Studies indicate that India’s declining poverty
rates have been offset by population growth (Chen and Ravallion 2004).
What are the Millennium Development Goals?
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a set of
numerical and time bound goals adopted by 189 member states of United Nation in
September, 2000 at UN Millennium Summit, New York, USA. The MDGs are global
effort to address the multidimensional poverty (income poverty, hunger, disease,
lack of adequate shelter and exclusion), promoting gender equality, education
and environmental sustainability. The MDGs comprise 8 goals, 21 targets and 60
indicators that are placed in the global development agenda. For each goal,
there are certain targets and for each target there are certain indicators. The
base year of MDGs was 1990 and the final year is 2015. MDG have become the most
widely used yardstick of development effort by the government, donors and
non-governmental organizations and extensively used in assessing the progress at
national and sub-national level.
