wl-7443-A Comparative Analysis of Aspirational and Non-aspirational Districts in Select Indicators of SDG: Evidence from Two Latest Rounds of NFHS Data

India launched Aspirational District Programme (ADP) in 2018 for fast paced progress of UN-SDGs in lagging behind districts to fulfil the objective of “no one is left behind” in achieving SDGs within the stipulated time. This paper investigates the progress of ADP and non-ADP districts from 2015-16 to 2019-2021 on the key indicators of NFHS-4 and NFHS-5. Results indicate that performance of ADP districts improved significantly particularly of those that performed worse in 2015-16, which is an encouraging observation. However, this analysis suggests that areas such as Maternal Health Nutrition & Family Planning Services; Delivery Care; and Child Health Nutrition & Feeding Practices require greater attention in the ADP programme going forward. The findings suggest fostering resilience among districts that have improved their performances should be an important component of policy package. The lack of ADP districts’ ability to catch up with non-ADP districts indicate long standing issues of regional disparities among Indian states that began to emerge in mid 1960s and became starker as Indian economy achieved high economic growth after the liberalisation in 1990s. This study also compared data provided by ADP portal of select 5 indicators from NFHS-5 data. The study finds that data provided by ADP on those five indicators show significant divergence from NFHS estimates. The lack of ADP districts’ ability to catch up with non-ADP districts indicate long standing issues of regional disparities among Indian states that began to emerge in mid 1960s and became starker as Indian economy achieved high economic growth after the liberalisation in 1990s.