Poverty and Hunger

The World Bank estimates that extreme poverty in India fell from 27.1 to 5.3 per cent between 2011 and 2023. The sharpest gains came where programmes had political backing, which supports the statement only in part.

Where political will made programmes work

Public Distribution System: Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu reformed ration delivery in the 2000s. Free grain now reaches about 81 crore people under the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.

Rural employment: MGNREGA worked best in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, where governments backed social audits and timely wage payment.

Direct Benefit Transfer: The JAM trinity of Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar and mobile phones, pushed from the top, cut leakages in LPG subsidies and scholarships.

Housing and sanitation: PM Awas Yojana and the Swachh Bharat Mission moved fast under regular review by the Prime Minister's Office.

Where will alone was not enough

The showpiece risk: Targets chased for announcement can produce toilets without water and houses without livelihoods, as independent surveys of open defecation free claims found.

Design and funding: The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) now offers 125 days of work. Its 60:40 cost share may strain poorer states.

Administrative capacity: Bihar and Uttar Pradesh lagged under the same schemes because their administration was weaker, not because intent at the centre differed.

Beyond income: NITI Aayog estimates that 24.8 crore people left multidimensional poverty in a decade. Schooling, health and assets matter as much as cash.

Political will turns a scheme on paper into delivery, but it is not sufficient. Programmes succeed when will is matched by sound design, assured funding and local capacity.

Decode

Discuss a statement with reference to performance. Evidence from actual programmes is the core, not a general essay on political will.

Implicit demand

The statement is largely true but incomplete, so the answer tests it: will explains the successes, while design and capacity explain the failures where will existed.

Architecture

A data hook → programmes that worked because of political backing → cases where will was not enough → verdict naming the missing conditions.

Articulation

Anchor: World Bank estimate of 5.3 per cent, 81 crore beneficiaries of free grain, Chhattisgarh PDS, JAM trinity, VB G RAM G, 24.8 crore out of multidimensional poverty. Money line: political will turns a scheme on paper into delivery, but it is not sufficient.

The poverty numbers

The World Bank estimate of 5.3 per cent uses the international line of $3 a day at 2021 prices.

The Household Consumption Expenditure Survey of the last two rounds showed a sharp rise in rural consumption and a narrowing gap between rural and urban spending.

The NITI Aayog national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) uses twelve indicators across health, education and standard of living.

The Tendulkar committee (2009) estimated poverty at 21.9 per cent for the year 2011, and the Rangarajan committee (2014) placed it at 29.5 per cent.

Major programmes and their record

Integrated Rural Development Programme (1978): subsidised assets, criticised for poor targeting and loan defaults.

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National Rural Livelihoods Mission: built women's self help groups, and the government reported in August 2026 that it had crossed the target of three crore Lakhpati Didis.

MGNREGA (2005): provided a legal right to work and a floor under rural wages, but suffered delayed payments and fund shortages.

VB G RAM G replaced MGNREGA with 125 days of work, a 60:40 Centre to state cost share for most states and a pause of up to 60 days in peak farming seasons.

PM Jan Dhan Yojana opened over 50 crore accounts, which made direct transfers possible.

Ayushman Bharat PM Jan Arogya Yojana covers hospital costs up to ₹5 lakh per family a year, addressing a leading cause of households falling into poverty.

What political will means in practice

Budget priority and timely release of funds, since delayed wages under rural employment schemes discouraged workers.

Willingness to accept social audit and grievance hearings, as Andhra Pradesh did through its Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency.

Reform of delivery systems, as in the computerisation of ration shops in Chhattisgarh.

Continuity across governments, since frequent renaming and redesign disrupt implementation.

Local ownership through panchayats and self help groups, so that delivery does not depend only on the centre's attention.

India gives free grain to 81 crore people until 2028 and holds ample stocks. The latest survey still shows child wasting near 19 per cent.

Why the view is largely right

Grain is not the shortage: Production and stocks are ample, and the food security law covers two thirds of the population.

Absorption decides nutrition: A child with diarrhoea loses what she eats, so sanitation matters as much as calories.

Diets are narrow: Only 15.3 per cent of children aged six to twenty three months get an adequate diet.

The mother's condition travels: More than half of pregnant women were anaemic, and a small baby starts life behind.

Services are uneven: Anganwadi vacancies and weak counselling mean the scheme reaches the village, not the household.

Income and work matter too: Casual work and food inflation decide what a household can add to the ration.

Where availability still matters

Exclusion from the list: Ration coverage rests on the 2011 census, so eligible households wait for a new count.

Local failures: Migrants, the homeless and remote hamlets face real shortage, which portability only partly solves.

What the record shows

Progress where policy worked: Stunting fell from 35.5 to 29.3 per cent, driven by sanitation, immunisation and income together.

Availability was the problem of the 1960s and it has been solved. Hunger now reflects health, sanitation, women's status and diet quality, so treating it as supply avoids harder reform.

Decode

How far do you agree asks for a position with degree. The answer should agree substantially while marking where availability still matters.

Implicit demand

The examiner wants the distinction between food availability, access and absorption, supported by survey data rather than assertion.

Architecture

A hook contrasting surplus with wasting → five reasons the view is right → two qualifications → the evidence of progress → verdict.

Articulation

Anchor: 81 crore beneficiaries until 2028, wasting near 19 per cent, adequate diet at 15.3 per cent, stunting down from 35.5 to 29.3 per cent. Money line: treating hunger as a food supply question is a way of avoiding harder reform.

The evidence

The sixth family health survey, released in May 2026, reports stunting at 29.3 per cent, wasting near 19 per cent and underweight at 31.8 per cent.

Wasting has barely moved across two survey rounds, which points to acute undernutrition during pregnancy and infancy.

Anaemia figures were dropped from the latest survey, so the last official numbers remain 57 per cent of women and 67 per cent of young children from the 2021 round.

The Global Hunger Index 2025 placed India 102nd of 123 countries with a score of 25.8, in the serious category.

The government objects that three of the four index indicators are child health measures rather than measures of hunger.

Exclusive breastfeeding fell to 55.8 per cent, which is a care practice rather than a food supply issue.

The policy architecture

The National Food Security Act, 2013 covers up to 75 per cent of rural and 50 per cent of urban population, with about 81 crore beneficiaries.

Free grain under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana has been extended to December 2028, along with fortified rice.

One Nation One Ration Card allows portability, with over 150 crore portable transactions recorded.

Poshan 2.0 and the Saksham Anganwadi programme cover supplementary nutrition, early childhood care and growth monitoring through the Poshan Tracker.

Mid Day Meal, now PM Poshan, links nutrition to school attendance.

Fortification of rice, salt and oil addresses micronutrient deficiency at scale.

What would move the number

Diet diversity through millets, pulses, eggs and vegetables in supplementary nutrition, where states such as Odisha and Tamil Nadu have acted.

Attention to the first thousand days, from conception to the second birthday, when damage becomes irreversible.

Maternal nutrition, spacing and adolescent health, since young mothers bear smaller babies.

Sanitation and safe water, whose gains after the sanitation mission show in the stunting numbers.

Filling anganwadi and health worker vacancies and paying them properly.

Updating ration coverage after the 2027 census, since the present lists use population figures from 2011.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index multiplies two numbers. Incidence counts how many people are poor, while intensity measures how many deprivations each of them carries. Income measures neither.

How the index is built

Three dimensions, ten indicators: Health, education and standard of living, covering nutrition, schooling, cooking fuel, sanitation, water, electricity, housing and assets.

Who counts as poor: Anyone deprived in at least a third of the weighted indicators, a cut off stated openly so the result can be checked.

Why the product matters: Two districts may report the same headcount, but the one with higher intensity needs a different kind of response.

What the report shows for India

A large decline: The global report records about 415 million people leaving poverty between 2005 and 2021.

The national measure agrees: NITI Aayog found a fall from roughly 25 to 15 per cent over 2015 to 2021.

India adds two indicators: The national index counts maternal health and a bank account as well, giving twelve in all.

Deprivation is uneven: Nutrition and cooking fuel contribute most to the index, and the burden falls heaviest on Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

Where the measure has limits

It omits income entirely: A household may own the listed assets and still lack the cash to buy medicine.

The data lag: Indian values rest on a health survey that appears only once in several years.

Incidence tells how many are poor and intensity tells how badly, while income tells neither. The index earns its place by naming the deprivation a district must fix first.

Decode

Analyse a report in the light of a claim. Explain the measure before judging it.

Implicit demand

The comparison with income poverty is the argument. Do not describe the report alone.

Architecture

What it measures → how it is built → the Indian picture → its limits → verdict.

Articulation

Anchor: three dimensions, the one third cut off, 415 million, the national index. Money line: it points to the indicator a district must fix first.

The construction

UNDP publishes it with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, since 2010.

MPI equals headcount ratio multiplied by average intensity among the poor.

The three dimensions carry equal weight of one third each.

The method is drawn from the Alkire Foster counting approach.

A person is severely poor when deprived in half or more of the weighted indicators.

Being vulnerable means deprivation in between a fifth and a third of the indicators.

The Indian picture

NITI Aayog published the National Multidimensional Poverty Index in 2021 and again in 2023.

It uses NFHS data and adds maternal health and bank account to the global list.

The largest reductions came in cooking fuel, sanitation and electricity access.

Nutrition remains the single largest contributor to deprivation.

State variation is wide, with the southern states far below the national average.

Income poverty is measured separately, through the Tendulkar and Rangarajan lines.

The critique

Indicators are inputs, so a household with a toilet may still not use it.

The index does not capture inequality among the poor beyond average intensity.

Cross country comparison is weakened by differences in survey design.

Equal weighting has been questioned, since deprivations differ in severity.

Survey rounds are years apart, so the index cannot track a shock quickly.

The honest use is diagnostic. It tells a district which deprivation to attack first.

The government announced in August 2026 that three crore Lakhpati Didis had been created, and set a target of six crore. About ten crore women are organised in some ninety lakh self help groups.

Asset creation

Credit at a usable price: Group savings, a revolving fund and collateral free loans up to ₹20 lakh have replaced the moneylender for many households.

Assets that earn: Dairy animals, food processing units and drone services under Namo Drone Didi turn credit into productive capital.

Scale through federation: Village organisations and cluster federations give groups bargaining power with banks and buyers, as Kudumbashree shows.

Income security

Smoothing the shocks: Internal lending covers illness, school fees and the lean season, which prevents distress sale of land or cattle.

Work inside public delivery: Members serve as banking correspondents, supply take home rations and run canteens for government programmes.

Empowerment

Money and mobility: Weekly meetings give women a reason to leave the house, handle cash and speak in a public forum.

Entry into public life: Members contest panchayat elections and have led local campaigns against liquor and dowry.

The limits

Debt can outrun capacity: The Andhra Pradesh crisis of 2010 showed what happens when lending grows faster than repayment capacity.

Enterprises stay small: Most remain subsistence activities with thin margins, so income rises without becoming secure.

Coverage is uneven: Southern states are far ahead, and the poorest households are often outside the groups altogether.

Self help groups have delivered credit and confidence, and asset creation more convincingly than income security. They cannot substitute for public health, schooling and a market for what they produce.

Decode

Evaluate against three yardsticks named in the question: asset creation, income security and empowerment of women.

Implicit demand

The examiner expects the three to be graded differently, and the anti poverty vaccine metaphor to be tested rather than repeated.

Architecture

A hook with the Lakhpati Didi numbers → asset creation → income security → empowerment → limits → verdict grading the three.

Articulation

Anchor: three crore Lakhpati Didis, ten crore women in ninety lakh groups, collateral free loans up to ₹20 lakh, the Andhra crisis of 2010. Money line: groups cannot substitute for public health, schooling and a market.

The system

The SHG Bank Linkage Programme began with NABARD in 1992 and remains the largest microfinance programme in the world by membership.

DAY-NRLM, launched in 2011, organises groups into village organisations and cluster federations with community resource persons as trainers.

Collateral free lending to groups was raised to ₹20 lakh, with interest subvention in many states.

Kudumbashree in Kerala links neighbourhood groups to local government, and Jeevika in Bihar built a similar structure.

Microfinance institutions regulated by the Reserve Bank serve the same borrowers through a different channel.

Evidence of impact

Women's bank account ownership reached about 89 per cent in the latest family health survey.

Groups played a large role in relief during the pandemic, producing masks and running community kitchens.

Bank Sakhi and business correspondent models extend banking to villages without branches.

Studies find stronger effects on consumption smoothing and confidence than on enterprise income.

The Lakhpati Didi programme defines success as an annual household income of at least ₹1 lakh, sustained over time.

The cautions

Over lending by competing institutions caused the Andhra Pradesh crisis of 2010 and led to a separate regulatory framework.

Interest rates from microfinance institutions remain high relative to bank credit.

Group work adds to women's unpaid time unless the enterprise earns enough to pay for it.

Elite capture within groups, and the exclusion of the poorest who cannot save regularly, are recurring findings.

Market linkage, not credit, is the binding constraint for most group enterprises.

Framing microfinance as a vaccine risks treating poverty as a problem of credit alone, when it is a problem of assets, wages and services.

Close to ten crore women are now in self help groups. How much of that cycle can credit alone break?

What microfinance does change

It replaces the moneylender: Group credit costs a fraction of informal interest, which is why Jeevika in Bihar reduced dependence on local lenders.

Money in a woman's hands: Income controlled by women raises spending on food and schooling, which is the strongest evidence behind the policy.

What it does not change

Loans are small and short: Credit smooths consumption, but it rarely builds an enterprise that lifts a household out of poverty.

Malnutrition is not a credit problem: It needs sanitation, maternal care and micronutrients, none of which income by itself supplies.

Debt can deepen the trap: The Andhra Pradesh crisis of 2010 followed over lending and coercive recovery.

Self help groups do not break the cycle on their own, and their real value is as a channel. Where nutrition, health and entitlements travel through the group, the cycle weakens.

Decode

A yes or no question, with examples required. The examples are part of the demand.

Implicit demand

Separate what credit can do from what the group as an institution can do.

Architecture

The scale → what it changes → what it does not → verdict.

Articulation

Anchor: the national livelihoods mission, Jeevika, Kudumbashree, the 2010 Andhra Pradesh crisis. Money line: their value is as a channel, not as a cure.

The system

NABARD began the self help group and bank linkage programme in 1992.

DAY NRLM since 2011 has mobilised women into groups, federations and producer collectives.

Kudumbashree runs canteens, kitchen gardens and nutrition work through the same network of members.

Kudumbashree in Kerala is the oldest and largest state mission of this kind.

Jeevika in Bihar and Mission Shakti in Odisha follow similar designs.

Groups now deliver bank correspondence, insurance enrolment and scheme information.

Community cadres drawn from the groups run much of the outreach.

The evidence both ways

Studies find microfinance raises business investment more than it raises health or schooling.

Randomised evaluations have found modest effects on empowerment in the short run.

Income in a woman's control is more consistently linked to child nutrition.

The Andhra Pradesh crisis, 2010 followed aggressive lending and coercive recovery.

It led to state legislation and to tighter regulation of microfinance institutions.

Membership often under represents the very poorest households in a village.

What makes it work

Convergence, so that nutrition and health services use the group as a channel.

Livelihood support beyond credit: training, market linkage and producer companies.

Longer tenure loans, so that investment is possible rather than only consumption.

Protection against over lending, through credit bureaus and lending caps.

Poshan Abhiyaan convergence with groups for community based nutrition work.