According to the Economic Survey tabled in the parliament on Monday, Kerala topped Niti Aayog’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) index. Kerala came first on the index with a score of 75. Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh came second on the index. They are followed by Goa, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In the case of Union Territories, Chandigarh topped the list.
Kerala is also leading the charts when it comes to homes with proper toilets, higher life expectancy and lower infant mortality rate. 98.2 percent of homes in Kerala have proper toilets. The national average stands at 70 percent. Bihar and Jharkhand fair poorly in the charts and have only 26 and 25 percent respectively. According to the findings of the survey, it was 68.8 percent in Uttar Pradesh in 2015-16 and recently dropped to 36.4 percent. 10.86 crore toilets have been constructed in the country till last December since the launch of the Suchitwa Mission on October 2, 2014.
The survey reveals that the number of households in Kerala using clean fuel has reduced. 72.1 percent of households used clean fuel in the state in 2015-16 which has now dropped to 57.4 percent.
Life expectancy (75.3 years) is highest in Kerala and Delhi. Kerala has the lowest infant mortality rate (4.4 per thousand).
