India has made a significant progress in enrolling children in schools but drop out rates continue to be the highest in the developing countries. Releasing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, MDGs report, 2012 in New Delhi today, noted economist Ms Jayati Ghosh said, a lot needs to be done to improve sanitation, health services, employment, maternal health and child care services in the country. She said, pro-active steps need to be taken to prevent the present economic crisis from affecting employment opportunities of the population, especially the vulnerable sections of the society.
The main highlights the MDG report this year are that for the first time, since poverty trends began to be monitored, both the number of people living in extreme poverty and the poverty rates have fallen in every developing region, including sub-Saharan Africa, where rates are highest. Preliminary estimates indicate that in 2010, the share of people living on less than 1.25 Dollars a day dropped to less than half of its 1990 value. This means that the MDG first target of cutting extreme poverty rate to half its 1990 level has been achieved at the global level, well ahead of 2015. The report notes that urban residents in the developing world living in slums has declined to 33 per cent this year from 39 per cent in 2000. The report also points out that a milestone has been achieved through parity in primary education between girls and boys. It says, there were 97 girls enrolled per 100 boys in 2010 compared to 91 girls per 100 boys in 1999.
The report states that persisting inequalities are detracting from the gains as the achievements were unequally distributed across and within regions and countries. Nearly half of the population in developing nations still lacks sanitation facilities. In 11 countries, including India, a majority of population still practices open defection. Nearly 60 per cent of those practicing open defection live in India.