ABSTRACT
This chapter makes a comprehensive re-examination of the policies and strategies being adopted in the country in pursuing social development goals (SDGs). It examines the performance of India on the social-sector goals in pursuing its development agenda against the broad canvas of the SDGs. Persisting deep-rooted inequalities, explicit as well as implicit, is examined by presenting a macro overview of policies, programmes and financing of social development initiatives in India. Besides giving a glimpse of the changing nature of policies and programmes, an attempt has been made to compare the status of India with that of other countries with the help of quantitative indicators in the context of globally formulated SDGs. The analysis clearly points to the inability of the country to make a significant mark in provision of quality social services to the people in general and to the poorer sections of the population in particular. The chapter also presents an overview of the critical reflections made on various social sectors as discussed in other chapters of this volume.
