Attainment of the sustainable development goal of poverty eradication: A review, critique, and research agenda

• Published date: 01 February 2022
• Author: Sanjeet Singh,Jayaram R
• Date: 01 February 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2294

ACADEMIC PAPER

Attainment of the sustainable development goal of poverty

eradication: A review, critique, and research agenda

Sanjeet Singh

1

| Jayaram R

2

1

University Centre for Research and

Development, University School of Business,

Chandigarh University, Gharuan, India

2

University School of Business, Chandigarh

University, Gharuan, India

Correspondence

Sanjeet Singh, University Centre for Research

and Development, University School of

Business, Chandigarh University, Gharuan,

India.

Email: singh.sanjeet2008@gmail.com

Eliminating poverty by 2030 is the main target of Sustainable Development Goal 1

(SDG1). India had an ambitious target of cutting down its poverty rate to 10.95%

from 21.92%, by 2030. This review has the objective to consolidate the literature

related to SDG1 in India, since 2015 and to identify futuristic research niches. This

research focuses on the research questions of identifying the public policy initiatives

in India for achieving SDG1 and the performance of various indicators of SDG1 in

India. Forty-one peer-reviewed articles related to SDG1 in India are selected from

the sources of Web of Science and consolidated the findings of these works of litera-

ture by using the indicators of NITI Aayog as the themes; described the empirical

papers by highlighting the key variables and findings. This research had identified the

health insurance penetration; slum rehabilitation and rejuvenation of Mahatma Gan-

dhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) are the futuristic areas

for research. This paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge and recom-

mends the key areas to be focused on achieving SDG1 in India. This review can help

readers in understanding better methods of poverty eradication. High spirits are rec-

ommended from the implementing authorities to meet the objectives of indicators of

poverty, better housing, health insurance penetration to households, and for the gen-

eration of employment and consumption by the scheme of MGNREGA. Moreover, a

realistic picture of poverty eradication in India may be possible by using more indica-

tors covering all the targets of SDG1.

1|INTRODUCTION

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were conceived at the United

Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro,

Brazil in 2012. In the year September 2015, global leaders agreed to

17 goals and 169 targets for a better world by 2030.

India is a developing country and SDGs had great importance for

India. Among various developing countries, India is the seventh-

largest country by total area covering around 2% of the landmass and

17.7% of the world population (Worldometers, 2020). India is a coun-

try with more than 36 crore people without three square meals a day

and with a poverty ranking of 49 in Poverty Index (Antony, 2019).

SDGs are implemented in India under the monitoring of the

National Institution for Transforming India Aayog (NITI Aayog). NITI

Aayog is using the poverty data collected by the Tendulkar

Committee in 2011 for comparing poverty-related indicators of SDG1

2018 and 2019. The absence of live poverty data makes it difficult to

compare poverty rates over the years. NITI Aayog used four poverty

indicators in 2018 and five poverty indicators in 2019. The additional

indicator had been used for better monitoring and controlling of SDG

targets of SDG1. Table 1 explains the poverty indicators used in 2018

and 2019.

There are multiple challenges associated with SDG implementa-

tion in India (David, 2018; Pritchard, 2016). The institutional weakness

in implementing SDGs was pointed out (Ramanujam, Caivano, &

Agnello, 2019). Evaluation and Monitoring of SDGs are equally impor-

tant for the implementation of SDGs in India was developed (Gupta,

Fuegenschuh, & Ali, 2018). Similarly, the study on poverty and

Received: 1 June 2020 Revised: 15 July 2020 Accepted: 15 July 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2294

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https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2294