Sustainable Development Goals - how their Generality works to their Specificity

‘Boond Boond se Sagar Banta hai’, or ‘every drop of water is needed to make the ocean’, is a very popular Hindi proverb I have been listening to ever since. In the last few years, it has taught me something new every time that I have thought about it.

Humans love complexity. Whether in our dramas and movies or in our relationships, complexity has come to be an X-factor that honestly, none of us need. And in the search for complexity, or creating one, we often forget the fundamentals. We move ahead, sometimes too far ahead, approaching stages neither relevant nor necessary, and leave behind all the basics that teach us to be.

Even in the age of artificial intelligence, the elements of the earth are still what we depend upon, the prices of essentials still matter and climate change still threatens us (more than ever before!).

The same is the case with the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Seventeen Global Goals are to be adopted worldwide and aimed to be achieved by 2030 for the world to be a better place, and for us to be a better species.

These seventeen goals, sometimes look like very basic words put together. Is it not common sense that poverty should be eliminated, women should be empowered, biodiversity should be conserved and collaboration is necessary?

Well - common sense is absolutely uncommon. And, out of the seventeen goals, which one does not yet seem urgent?

In the fight for development, since the age of industrialisation till today, we have definitely come ahead in time, maybe even ahead of time, but there are so many basic things that we have almost forgotten about in a way that we have forgotten that they still exist. That is what is important to focus on when it comes to sustaining in general.

I come from a part of privilege, the privilege to be born to whom I was born, to the country I was born, and most of you reading this come from a similar place and a similar place of understanding as well.

Out of all 197 countries, only a few have the privilege of being peaceful, so many people are affected by war, conflicts, fragile governance, and so much more that I cannot even begin to enlist. Sustainability doesn’t pertain to the environment or to the ecosystem at all times, it sometimes in most cases redirects us to conduct our life in a manner that also helps others while helping all aspects of the life we live and the world we share.

Personally as well, the SDGs can be your starter pack to doing things better, being efficient, as well as effective, and at all times, mindful and thoughtful. Just because we don’t come from a place of hunger or poverty or lack of education doesn’t mean we can’t empathise. 

Probably having a position in society just makes us a building block that can take on more load and work better and build better. 

At the end of the day, we live in a system. Sometimes, the system is us, but most times, we are only a speck in this huge universe or even the Multiverse.

Yesterday, I watched the Oscar-winning movie, ‘Everything Everywhere all at Once’, and the winning segment of the movie just teaches us to be kind. And the realisation that even in a dark possible web where all of us are living alone and countless lives, kindness wins in all dimensions.

Because humans as a species are overconfident. We aim for more, sometimes even do more, and usually take on more than what we can chew.

And in this journey, if we think more, do better, be thoughtful and be grateful, and at all times realise that we are so much more similar than we are different, maybe we can actually win. 

That is what the Sustainable Development Goals are all about. They indirectly make development sustainable in both long-term and short-term goals. 

Many times, I’ve been asked what my favourite SDG is, well, it will always be ‘partnership’. Because together we can do so much more than we can even imagine.