Less than a decade remains for nations to fulfill their commitment of achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The call-to-action had started by United Nations member nations, including India, drawing out various policies and regulations at national levels. However, the focus is now on making progress from the bottom-up in terms of sustainable development. With the push being provided to innovators in India, localisation of SDGs does not seem like a far-fetched
dream anymore.
Prasanth Nair, an IAS officer from Kerala Cadre of 2006, worked vigorously on eradicating poverty when he was appointed the collector of Kozhikode, bringing the district’s poverty rate to 5.67 per cent, lower than the state average of 7 per cent. He was critically acclaimed for working on overall development of the district by emphasizing specially on water supply, taxation, and road safety, among other issues. He pioneered initiatives such as ‘Operation Sulaimani’ and ‘Tere Mere Beach Mein’ to tackle the issues of hunger and beach pollution respectively.
Rapid urbanization is leading Indian cities towards a catastrophic decline in ground water. A report published in March this year established that the millennium city of India, Gurugram, has witnessed its ground water table dip by five meters in just two years. Many other cities are facing the same crisis. To address this issue, businessman and philanthropist Ratan Tata has started a unique initiative called ‘Amrutdhara’, which aims to work on ground water management at various locations in the country.
Senior Counsel Advocate Aishwarya Bhati led the case of 45 serving women officers in the Indian Army in Supreme Court, seeking equal and permanent commission for woman in the army. Recent data had established that women working at non-medical positions in the Indian Army comprise only about 4 per cent of the army’s more than one million personnel. The case heard in 2020 led the Supreme Court to order the Government of India to extend permanent service – which has only been applicable to men so far – to all women officers, signalling a move towards gender parity in the traditionally male bastion. Up until then, women were inducted through a short service commission that would let them work for up to 14 years, and only allowed them permanent commission in the army’s legal and educational wings. Aishwarya Bhati led the battle in court against the government’s argument that due to gender, people had different physical capacities and therefore women cannot be treated equally in the army. The latest SDG Index, in fact, dictates that India is going very strong in achieving the goal of gender equality. This is also true as many states across the country have implemented the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, setting aside 33-50 per cent seats in the legislative assembly for women. Another milestone in this regard was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that girls would now be allowed to attend Sainik schools.
The strive to make sustainable development a reality is no longer that of only the government’s, as officials at local levels, even young students, are working towards making their surroundings, societies, and cities sustainable. Udit Singhal, an 18-year old boy from Delhi, developed a zero-waste ecosystem called ‘Glass2Sand’. This addresses the growing menace of glass waste in Delhi, which is often dumped in landfills and takes longer years to decompose as compared to even plastics.
Awareness campaigns by organisations, celebrities, national and international leaders are now developing a society where every citizen has started becoming aware of their carbon footprint, consumption practices, etc. Social media has started influencing people to opt for sustainable products, even clothing, which in turn is increasing market for sustainable products in the nation. Even fast fashion brands like H&M have started an initiative to collect used clothes and recycle them into new ones. City administrators are introducing new concepts for sustainable development of their cities like door-to-door e-waste collection, online mapping of waste collection and drop, using plastic in road development, giving subsidies to people and organisations for installing solar panels and rain water harvesting systems, solar powered public toilets, health clinics for transgenders, and the list goes on. The SDGs look achievable if the government, administrators, innovators, businessmen, and above all, every citizen of the nation, starts becoming conscious of the impact they might be having on sustainable development, however small it may be.
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