The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report on Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on Friday came in for sharp criticism from Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh for having included carbon emissions and ozone depleting substances as one of the goals. The minister, who released the report, said that the MDG is for the developing countries only who have not accepted the carbon emission norms.
Mr Ramesh, while asking the authors of the report to correct the facts, slammed the move to include carbon emissions, saying “It sends a very very wrong signal”. He expressed his shock over the inclusion of CO2 emission and ozone depleting substances as goals of MDG and stated that it was intellectually and analytically wrong. Mr Ramesh, who had earlier been minister for environment, on Friday released an assessment report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Asian Development Bank and the UNDP.
The report highlighted that most of the developing countries are progressing slowly or not making any progress on CO2 emissions and consumption of ozone-depleting substances.
Meanwhile, the report noted significant decline in HIV cases in India. It also complimented India for having achieved universal elementary education and for having done well in eliminating gender inequality in educational participation in primary and secondary levels. It also noted that India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey have halved the proportion of population without access to safe drinking water.
However, the UNDP report also highlighted the fact that South Asian countries, including India, are unlikely to meet the target in reducing hunger. It also sought accelerating efforts to reduce under-5 mortality and maternal mortality if the goals are to be met.
The report also stated that girls in some countries (India, Nepal and Vietnam) were less likely to survive beyond their 5th birthday than boys, contrary to the trend in the region and worldwide. The report further stated that as many as 51 per cent of children under 5 years of age in rural areas in India are underweight, while the number for the same in urban areas was 38 per cent.
