India, June 25 -- India has committed itself to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which seek to improve the quality of life through progress across economic, social, demographic, environmental, and institutional dimensions. Achieving these goals requires more than economic expansion alone; it demands that growth be translated into improvements in health, education, nutrition, gender equality, and other indicators of human well-being. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS), while not capturing the entire spectrum of development, provides an important window into the extent to which economic growth has been accompanied by social and demographic progress.

The four rounds of the NFHS, spanning the period from 2005-06 to 2...