Phase IV of LS polls: Most constituencies lag on key development metrics

All 96 constituencies likely to miss 2030 anaemia target for women

Many of the 96 constituencies voting in the fourth phase of elections on Monday remain behind in key sustainable development goals (SDGs).

More than half of them are off-target in 17 out of 33 indicators of goals related to population, health and socioeconomic well-being, according to a Business Standard analysis. It is based on data compiled from a February 2024 study ‘Call for action: presenting constituency-level data on population, health and socioeconomic wellbeing related to 2030 Sustainable Development Goals for India.’ The study had appeared in The Lancet, and was authored by SV Subramanian, Amar Patnaik and Rockli Kim.

All 96 constituencies were off-target in addressing the prevalence of anaemia among women.

Similar was the case for anaemia among non-pregnant women. Nearly 96 per cent of the constituencies were off-target for achieving the goal of anaemia among pregnant women.

A similar proportion of constituencies were off-target on indicators of population affected by wasting and by being overweight.

Off-target refers to those constituencies which have failed to meet the SDG target by 2021 and have observed minimal or negative progress between 2016 and 2021. If the same path is followed, they will not meet the targets by 2030.

On the other hand, on-target is for those that did not meet the SDG target by 2021 but demonstrated significant improvement between 2016 and 2021. They are on track to achieve the target by 2030.

More than 90 per cent of the constituencies are off-target in achieving the goal of women owning a mobile phone, health insurance and reducing child marriage of girls aged less than 18 (chart 1).

Birbhum constituency in West Bengal was the worst-performing constituency with anaemia prevalent among 80.2 per cent of the women. This is according to the study’s analysis of the fifth round of National Family Health Survey 2019-21 (NFHS-5). It was 63.4 per cent in NFHS-4.

Nandurbar in Maharashtra is the worst performer on indicator wasting and overweight (chart 2).

“Having constituency-level data is a critical prerequisite for the success of the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committees (DISHA),” according to the study.

The data aims to help elected officials in addressing concerns of their constituents better. The constituencies have shown improvement on various other indicators.

Of the total, 97.9 per cent have achieved the target on adolescent pregnancy among 10-14 year olds. Next in order is the lower tobacco use among women and multidimensional poverty as well as higher electricity access (chart 3).

Around 90 per cent of women have a bank account in Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, the highest among all the 96 constituencies. The constituency is also doing well with a lower rate of tobacco use among women.

Indore (Madhya Pradesh) is the best performing with 100 per cent access to electricity (chart 4).