Sustainable Development Goals

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From a labour perspective, wage rates are reflective of the market demand for different skills and the institutional structures. Also, wage rate is a better measure of the well-being of workers solely dependent on wage income. This paper notes persistent regularity in industry-level wage rates confirming the absence of a convergence behaviour. The stability of industry-level wage rates brings industrial reforms under the scanner for their implications on worker welfare. Wage convergence could be inhibited by the inter-industry movement of workers.

Critical issues in the stagnation of the family planning programme in India are highlighted and the tangible barriers are identified to suggest few possible strategies to enhance its use and effectiveness in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals relating to sexual and reproductive health. Findings from the National Family Health Survey-4 (2015–16) indicate a strong need to reposition the FPP to meet the unmet need of contraceptives by improving the quality of care and promoting the spacing methods of contraception by minimising the 12-month contraceptive discontinuation rate in India.

The article notes that the persistence of inequality, as observed over two centuries, undoubtedly points towards its origins in endowments, which perpetuates inequality in such a consistent manner. The lesson derived from this scrutiny highlights the need for focusing on equalising endowments, particularly the intangible ones, to sustain betterment and attain convergence in the economic landscape.

The International Labour Organization included the concept of decent work in the Sustainable Development Goals to address concerns about workplace conditions, especially in developing countries. Among the different sectors of any developing economy, agriculture and allied activities have lagged the most in terms of decent work. This paper examines decent work in the fisheries sector in India. Using the National Sample Survey Office data from the Employment and Unemployment Survey of India, the paper arrives at a multidimensional decent work index. The paper finds that labourers belonging to the richer states rank lower in terms of decent work compared to the relatively poorer states, indicating higher inequality in the former regions. It also finds that per capita incomes are well below the poverty line for more than 40% of workers in fisheries.