National Information and Library Policies in Support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Perspectives in India

National Information and Library Policies in Support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Perspectives in India

The paper analyses the national information and library policies so far formulated in India and examines their contents if they have supportive perspectives for UN SDGs. It also suggests to incorporate provisions for the same if such policies are revised and reformulated in future in the country. Report of the Prof. D.P. Chattopadhyay, recommendations of the National Mission on Libraries and Indian Public Library Movement and the Public Libraries Acts of the country are referred. Analyses the contents of these policy documents in order to understand if they support progress towards achieving the Goals. Efforts are found to formulate policies for library and information systems in India before the UN adopts its 2030 Agenda setting 17 Goals. There is a missing link between the policy documents of the country and the set goals of the UN as far as the supportive aspects towards the goals are concerned. The Chattopadhyay Report, recommendations made by the National Mission on Libraries and IPLM and the Public Libraries Acts of different states, however, constitute major policy documents in this regard. They need to incorporate provisions for manifesting their roles to support the goals. The paper is limited to the available policy documents of the concerned issue to have an in-depth analysis that provides many clues on the same. Policy makers, after thoroughly analysing the SDGs, can incorporate provisions for supporting the goals in future in revising and reformulating such policies. The paper chalks out possibilities of incorporation of provisions in the policy documents to achieve SDGs in respect of India.