The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UNMDGs) summit opens today in New York where leaders from 191 countries will be joined by the representatives of civil society organisations, foundations and the private sector to review the progress of a decade of achievements.

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has prepared a report on the progress the international community has made on the MDGs. The report shows a mixed picture of the world in achieving eight goals, but India’s progress remains tardy.

A civil society report prepared by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA), a national campaign to hold the government accountable to its promise to end poverty, social exclusion and discrimination, finds India’s performance in the last decade on achieving target below par. The outputs to the report have been provided by the different consultations on MDGs held across the country by WNTA.

“A review of these goals after ten years casts a gloomy picture as India continue to grope in dark with issues of poverty, maternal and infant mortality,” says the shadow report released on Friday. It will be presented to the UN summit as part of civil society effort.

India also remains off track on several MDG commitments despite attaining high economic growth. India is certainly not going to conquer poverty. Data collected by WNTA shows seven states, including Jhakhand, Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, lag far behind the MDG landmarks that should have been achieved. “Our performance is even worse than sub-Saharan Africa,” the report said.    

Even the Whypoll survey, an opinion poll commissioned by the UN millennium campaign (UNMC) released in the first week of September, showed that majority of urban Indians also feel that poverty is going to stay in India for long. “Sixty three percent of urban Indians believe that poverty, slums and urban squalor are going to be here even after 20-25 years from now,” the study is based on responses from about 5,000 people in 38 cities.

India also accounts for 50 percent of the world’s hungry.

But another questionable area remains on India’s progress on the child mortality and maternal health. Save the Children, an NGO working in over 120 countries on child rights, reports dismal performance in MDGs Goal 4 – ‘Reduce Child Mortality’ and Goal 5 – ‘Improve Maternal Health’.

“India still ranks 1 out of 12 countries that account for two-thirds of under-five and maternal deaths in the world. Approximately 1.83 million children still die every year before the age of five and an estimated 67,000 women lose their lives due to pregnancy or childbirth complications,” the Save the Children report titled ‘A Fair Chance at Life’ released in the first week of September estimated.

The report also mentioned "children under five from the poorest communities are three times more likely to die than those from high income quintiles."

A new report, 'Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990-2008', prepared by the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, UNFPA, and World Bank suggests that India continues to have high maternal mortality as well as child mortality. This report was released last week.

“Though the maternal mortality (MMR) rate has dropped by 34 percent from an estimated 5,46,000 in 1990 to 3,58,000 in 2008, it continues to be a major problem in India with the highest maternal deaths occurring due to severe bleeding after childbirth, infections, hypertensive disorders and unsafe abortion,” the report mentioned.

Based on the alarming situation on child and maternal mortality, the Save the Children wrote an open letter to prime minister Manmohan Singh urging him to child and mother health a priority. “Can high rates of child and maternal mortality be consigned to India’s past or will it remain an indelible stain on its future?”       

“The thousands of children who will die today and every day because their parents can’t get the health care and nutrition they need to survive deserve this at the very least,” Thomas Chandy, CEO of the Save the Children said.

The letter by the Save the Children questioned India’s lackadaisical approach in safeguarding child health.

“What India has not been able to make big dent is to create the clean delivery system – to combat sippages, leakages, corruption and to build huge amount of capacity that is required in specially those states which are much behind in MDGs target,” Minar Pimple, regional director, Asia and Pacific, UN Millennium Campaign, told Governance Now in an interview.

He also said that if world wants to achieve the MDGs commitment, India will have to score heavily on that point.

But despite such colossal failings on MDGs commitment, India is still confident about achieving social and economic goals by the 2015 deadline. "India will not only have met the goals but it will be a shining example for other countries, Hardeep Singh Puri, India's envoy to the UN, told PTI on Saturday. 

The civil society groups have also criticised the absence of the PM in the delegation at the UN which is now led by external affairs minister S M Krishna. Other world leaders like the United States president Barack Obama are prioritising the summit by making presence at the summit.

“It seems that PM is preoccupied with other things and MDGs are not on his agenda. It is very very saddening. MDGs are a very important commitment that India made a decade ago and September’s conference is the right platform to review that,” Amitabh Behar, convener of WNTA, told Governance Now.

“When the PM can go in the G8 and G20 meetings, why can’t he give priority to the UN MDGs in the 10th year review meeting?” Behar added.

The eight MDGs include eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, and ensuring environmental sustainability. The target year for achieving MDGs is 2015.