India's performance in millennium development goals: Eradication of poverty and hunger

The paper is an attempt to analyse the performance of India in Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with special reference to eradication of poverty and hunger. The goal 1(one) of MDGs aims at eradication of poverty and hunger with the target of halving the number of people below poverty line (lived on less than $1.25 a day) and hunger between 1990 and 2015. India is a signatory to the Millennium Declaration adopted at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2000 and committed to achieve the MDGs of ending poverty and other deprivations. However, home to one-sixth of the world population and fast growing population, poverty remains rampant in India. It has the highest number of extreme poverty in the world. Though, there is decline of poverty in India but still one-fifth of its population live below poverty line. India remains home to one quarter of the world's undernourished population. One in every three kids who are suffering from malnutrition is found in India and one-third of the world's food-insecure people live in India even though India is predicted to achieve its goal of halving hunger. In order to fight poverty and hunger, the government of India takes up schemes and programmes. However, poverty and hunger remain rampant and continue to exist. So, the paper argues that India plays an important role in fulfilling MDGs and in the success of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that has replaced MDGs after 2015 with the aim of ending poverty in all its forms everywhere.