UPSC Mains 2019 GS Paper 2 Q7: model answer
There is a growing divergence in the relationship between poverty and hunger in India. The shrinking of social expenditure by the government is forcing the poor to spend more on non-food essential items, squeezing their food budget. Elucidate.
What the question wants
Elucidate how poverty and hunger have diverged in India and how lower social spending pushes the poor to cut food budgets.
How to structure it
Elucidate: explain the divergence, the mechanism, the evidence.
- The divergence
- How spending shifts
- Evidence
- Policy response
How to think it through
Poverty fell, but calorie intake also fell. Why? Partly less physical work, but also because health, education and transport costs rose, squeezing food. HCES 2022–23 shows food below half of rural spending.
Model answer
As incomes rose after the 1990s, poverty fell. Yet average calorie intake also fell. Economists called it the 'calorie puzzle': people were getting less poor and eating less.
The divergence
Poverty is measured by consumption; hunger by nutrition. The two can move apart when households spend their extra income on things other than food.
How lower social spending squeezes food
- When public schools and hospitals are weak, families pay for private tuition and treatment.
- Out-of-pocket health spending pushes millions into debt each year.
- Transport, mobile phones and fuel now take larger shares.
- So the food budget shrinks even as income grows.
Evidence
- HCES 2022–23: food fell below half of rural household spending (about 46%) and below 40% in cities.
- Low spending on protein and vegetables in the poorest groups.
- Studies find many poor households cutting meals when hit by medical bills.
Policy response
Free or cheap health and education protect food budgets; diverse PDS and nutrition programmes help directly.
Public services are a hidden food subsidy; cutting them hits the plate. The divergence is a warning that poverty lines alone do not show hunger.
Draw: A pie chart for a poor household: food shrinking as health, education and transport slices grow.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
calorie puzzle (Deaton and Drèze 2009), HCES 2022–23, Engel's law, OOPE, diet diversity, public provisioning.
Where most answers lose marks
- Assuming falling food share always means prosperity. Explain the squeeze.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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