Watch this video about a day in the life of Rama, a fieldworker from Delhi, as she helps waste pickers in Bhalswa transition from chulhas to LPG cylinders. Rama, who has been working on the ground for the last 15 years, starts her morning juggling work calls and household chores, and ends her day with Chinese food and Kishore Kumar songs. In the video, Rama shares the challenges she faced both professionally and personally due to the nature of her work. She expresses her dream to build a shelter for women experiencing domestic abuse, and eventually pursuing a career in politics by running for MLA.

My name is Rama and I live in Jahangirpuri with my husband and two sons. For approximately 15 years I have worked on the ground with communities, first as an anganwadi helper and then as an ASHA worker. Currently, I work as a change agent with Asar as part of the Cleaner Air and Better Health (CABH) project supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and help people in Bhalswa switch to clean cooking fuel. Bhalswa is a neighbourhood located in Northwest Delhi; it is surrounded by a landfill and is predominantly inhabited by waste pickers. Most households in Bhalswa use chulhas (mud stoves) for cooking, which can cause dangerous levels of household air pollution and lead to dire ramifications on the health of the women who do the cooking. LPG gas cylinders, on the other hand, provide a cleaner alternative. They not only help combat air pollution, but are also easier to use and save the time that would otherwise be spent on collecting firewood for chulhas.

I’ve been working with women and men in Bhalswa to raise awareness about the harms of an open fire and cooking with fuels such as wood or coal. However, people are still reluctant to make this switch for several reasons, the primary one being the high costs. Launched in 2016, the Pradhan Mantrir Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) heavily subsidises the cost of the cylinder to incentivise the transition to cleaner cooking methods. However, many in Bhalswa still lack the correct documentation—including Aadhaar card and labour card—required to avail of the scheme.

As a result, my work has evolved to not only advocate for the benefits of clean cooking but also to create awareness about the PMUY scheme and assisting community members with the documentation necessary for accessing its benefits.  

6.00 AM: I usually wake up to the sound of my phone ringing incessantly. It’s almost always someone from Bhalswa calling to ask when I’m coming to their neighbourhood or to enquire about the status of their PMUY form. Today is no different. Amid the chaos of the phone calls. My husband and I prepare breakfast for the family. We also fix our children’s school lunches. My older son is in grade 12 and my younger one is in grade 8. I have a dog, Timsi, who was a birthday gift from a relative. She also needs to be fed and taken for a walk in the morning. My husband, who is an auto driver, tends to her before heading out to work.

The entire family contributes to these chores. I believe that without all their help, it would’ve been very challenging for me to continue working in the field every day. I still remember, when I first started working in the field as an anganwadi helper back in 2011, my younger son was just one year old. My relatives would repeatedly ask me to leave the anganwadi work and take care of my son. My brother even went to the extent of promising me INR 3,000 every month in lieu of a salary. However, I continued working and would take my child to the field with me every day. I’ve always wanted to help people and I felt that was the only way I could contribute.

I usually make myself aloo parathas in the morning as they keep me full until I come back from work in the evening, especially since I can’t eat on the field. Once I’ve had my breakfast, I go over my schedule, which I always prepare the night before. On most days, my work is a combination of spreading door-to-door awareness, conducting public awareness sessions, and helping people fill out forms for PMUY.

Since I work with waste pickers, who start working early in the morning and return to their homes at around noon, I have to structure my schedule around their availability. Today, I have a public awareness session scheduled, after which I will help some of the women in the community fill out forms for PMUY. After making adjustments to my to-do list, I get ready to leave the house to make my way to Bhalswa.

10.00 AM: The bus stop is a 10-minute walk from my house. I wait here for 15 minutes or so for a bus that can drop me at the end of the road. There are days when I can walk the distance, but it’s very hot today and I don’t want to tire myself out so early. I finally board a bus after waiting for 15 minutes at the stop. Once I get off at my stop, I have to wait for a couple of minutes to take a shared e-rickshaw to my final destination. I have to wait a couple of minutes here while the rickshaw driver gathers other passengers travelling in the same direction. Eventually, I arrive at Bhalswa close to 11 am.

Bhalswa is a vast neighbourhood, with localities divided on the basis of religious and regional identities. For instance, some areas have only people from West Bengal, while others have only Muslim families. The various groups living in Bhalswa speak different languages and have distinct cultures, which can be complicated to navigate as an outsider. Although my earlier work as an anganwadi helper and an ASHA worker had its unique obstacles, I was able to establish a strong rapport with the communities I served fairly easily and quickly. At Bhalswa, however, my journey has been very challenging, particularly because communities here have previously had unpleasant experiences with nonprofits and people from the outside. For instance, a few years ago, a group posing as a nonprofit asked locals to deposit INR 500 and promised sewing machines in return. However, they never got the machines or their money back. So, I had to start the process of building this trust from scratch. The diversity in the community made it tricky as well.

In order to build trust in Bhalswa, I started cultivating relationships with people who had influence in the locality, which included ASHA workers. At the same time, I had to work towards dispelling the community’s scepticism about nonprofits. One way of doing this was tapping into my network of nonprofits in the area to help people access resources. For instance, I supported a 12-year-old girl who was disabled in getting a wheelchair by reaching out to a nonprofit I had worked with previously. Over time, both these approaches helped me connect to the community, and soon enough, my phone was flooded with calls from the women in the neighbourhood.

11.15 AM: Upon reaching Bhalswa, I make my way to the local dispensary where I meet some of the ASHA workers. I am good friends with most of them and having this supportive community of women keeps me motivated. We chat about our day and also discuss if any particular grievances from the community have come up in their conversations. They inform me that a family that has just shifted to Bhalswa had reached out to them regarding a gas cylinder and that they’ve forwarded my contact details to the family.

I catch up with some of the other women at the dispensary whom I had helped obtain cylinders before moving to the next item on my agenda—the community awareness session.

12.00 PM: Community awareness sessions are held in a temple right next to the dispensary. Today, approximately 10–15 women have gathered there. Most have come with their toddlers whom they can’t leave at home. Once everyone is settled in, I bring out the toolkit developed by Asar. It’s 17 pages long and uses illustrations to explain the concept of air pollution and its causes, and sheds light on the long-term repercussions of continuous firewood burning.

During the session, I also emphasise the detrimental effects that the prolonged use of the chulha has on the health of the women responsible for cooking, as well as other household members. These include conditions such as stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and acute respiratory illnesses in young children.

The women actively participate in these sessions too by asking questions and sharing their own experiences. Through these sessions, my objective is not only to disseminate information among those who are present but also for them to take this information back to their peers who may still be on the fence transitioning to LPG. There are those who are accustomed to cooking on a chulha and harbour apprehensions about switching to an LPG cylinder. One of the complaints I often hear from women, especially older ones, is that the food cooked on a chulha tastes better. To dispel this misconception, I usually encourage them to speak to other women in the community who have been using LPG. These women talk about how their eyes no longer burn while cooking, and how they’ve noticed a reduction in respiratory issues.

The transition to LPG cylinders poses a significant financial challenge for the residents of Bhalswa.

The transition to LPG cylinders also poses a significant financial challenge for the residents of Bhalswa, a majority of whom are waste pickers and cannot afford the high costs. This is often a point of debate and discussion during these sessions. To counter this, I often advise women to focus on the long-term benefits of switching to LPG. By redirecting a portion of their daily expenses from wood and other fuels for traditional chulhas, they can gradually save enough to afford LPG refills. For instance, setting aside just INR 30 to 40 per day can accumulate to cover the cost of a refill by the end of each month.

Additionally, I bring their attention to the benefits they are entitled to under the PMUY, which was relaunched by the government in 2021 to make LPG gas cylinders accessible to economically disadvantaged households. Under the PMUY, the first cylinder and its installation are free for those from marginalised backgrounds, post which they can access LPG gas connections at subsidised rates. Beneficiaries receive INR 1,600 for the first refill, which covers a 14 kg cylinder and associated installation costs. An extra INR 300 is provided for each of the subsequent 12 refills. In the past, there were frequent delays in these payments, but since the relaunch, this has been resolved to a large extent.

While the documentation process for PMUY has been simplified significantly, people still struggle to get the correct paperwork in place.

However, this throws up another challenge, which is filling out the paperwork required to access the PMUY. While the documentation process has been simplified significantly, people still struggle to get the correct paperwork in place. Some of the documents required include the ration card, proof of address, Aadhaar card, or a caste certificate. In case someone has migrated to Delhi from another state—quite common in Bhalswa—they would also need a residence proof, such as an electricity bill and a rent agreement. There are instances where people do not possess any documentation at all, and in such cases a migrant card or a labour card also suffices.

Just yesterday, a woman who didn’t have any of the required documents enquired about the scheme. I told her that she could still avail of it via a labour card. However, she didn’t have a labour card either, so currently I’m helping her get one. After that, I’ll help her apply for the PMUY.

2.00 PM: Once the awareness session is over, most people disperse for lunch. Because I usually don’t bring food to the field, I utilise this time to help people with their forms. I fill up to 15–20 forms every day. Once I have enough forms, I take them to the nearby gas agency for submission. This is a 30- to 40-minute trip that I take every other week. Once the gas agency reviews a form, they call the household to pick up the necessary equipment and then the cylinder is delivered.

I also keep a record of all the applicants in my register, making a special note of cases where sufficient documentation isn’t available. I regularly have to follow up with some of them to ensure they’re still working on getting their documentation in place.

My friends—the other ASHA workers—also join me during this time. We usually sit and chat for some time after I’m done with my work.

4.30 PM: After concluding my tasks for the day, I leave for home. It’s usually 4.30 or 5 pm by then. I take the same journey back: e-rickshaw, bus, and then the short walk to my house. In the evenings, it can take me anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour to get back. Since I don’t feel comfortable using the washroom at the dispensary, the first thing I do when I reach home is to go to the toilet. I intentionally avoid drinking water so that I won’t have to use the bathroom. This is particularly challenging during the summer and I feel dehydrated and nauseated. But over time I have become accustomed to this practice.

While I freshen up, my older son makes tea for me. As my husband is also back home on a short break, we all sit together and catch up on our day.

7.00 PM: After taking a break for a couple of hours, I sit down to write my report for the day. When I started working with Asar, I did not know how to use a smartphone and could only make and receive calls. Eventually, I joined a computer training class, and now I use Excel on my phone to prepare my reports; I submit these over WhatsApp to the team at Asar every evening. Since I don’t understand English too well, I use translation tools to convert text to Hindi. Being able to acquire this skill gave me a big confidence boost.

After the day’s work is done, I unwind by listening to Kishore Kumar’s music and some bhajans. In the evening, I also spend some time playing and snuggling with my dog Timsi.

Even though my workdays can be exhausting, it brings me joy to know that I am making a small difference in Bhalswa. Since women no longer have to spend hours foraging for wood to fuel the chulha, they have enough free time to engage in other work, such as shelling peas, for extra income. This also helps them pay for the next LPG refill.

I’ve always wanted to give back to society and help women, who are always asked to suppress their wants and needs, live the fulfilling lives that they deserve. One day, I want to be elected as a member of parliament and contribute to even bigger changes in these communities. I also want to have enough resources to open a shelter for women experiencing domestic violence.   

As told to IDR.

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Know more

• Read this article to learn more about how air pollution impacts outdoor workers in Delhi.
• Read this article to learn about the challenges of availing of LPG connections under PMUY.
• Read this article to learn about how solid cooking fuels lead to climate change. 

This is the norm for programmes launched by the government. Let’s consider Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM), a scheme introduced in 2019 to increase farmer incomes as well as decarbonise the agricultural sector through solar irrigation. The first phase of PM KUSUM, between July and December 2019, was marked by pilots to test how its different components—such as subsidy rates and feed-in tariffs (FiTs), that is, the price at which electricity distribution companies buy back renewable energy from the farmer—would work on the ground.

The scheme has since gathered momentum. As of June 2023, a total of 113.08 MW capacity of small solar power plants—each of up to 2 MW capacity—and 2.45 lakh pumps have been reported installed or solarised to date. At COP 26, the Government of India set an ambitious goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. India has also committed to achieving 50 percent of its cumulative electric power installed from non-fossil fuel sources, which includes solar. While agriculture comes second in total emissions, there is scope to do this without placing the burden on farmers. PM KUSUM is a step in this direction.   

With its trajectory of pilot to scale, it can be assumed that any glitches with this scheme would have been sorted out during the pilot phase, before it was promoted on a nationwide scale. But it was not so straightforward. 

Pilots are not always sufficient

While pilots are useful, they run a risk—when the success of isolated cases is extrapolated on a larger scale, they can sometimes have unintended consequences. This is especially true of interventions in the agriculture and water sector. For instance, farm ponds gained popularity a few years ago. These were small farm-scale interventions that were set up to provide farmers in arid areas access to water during the rabi (winter) and kharif (summer) seasons so that they could grow a second and third crop. At a small scale, ponds built on a few farms are usually effective and rarely have any adverse impact. However, farm ponds built across larger land areas or in greater number can lead to unexpected issues such as water inequity and privatisation of water.

In the case of PM KUSUM, here are three problems that the pilots presented:

1. Schemes like PM KUSUM are ‘gold-plated’, which means that they are offered at highly lucrative terms. For instance, the subsidies provided to farmers by the state and the centre cover 70 percent of the cost of the programme. However, these subsidies are only part of the pilot programme, not the scheme itself. The problem with gold-plating schemes and making them cover such a large part of the cost is that while there may be immediate buy-in from the farmers, there is no real change in long-term behaviour, for without the subsidies the farmers may not opt for the scheme. In addition, subsidies are a huge burden on the government exchequer and are therefore not sustainable in the long run.
2. Biophysical (rainfall, soil conditions, aquifers) and socio-economic (landholding size, religion/caste, household income) conditions vary in a diverse landscape like India, so the external validity of the results of these pilots is questionable. There may be contingencies that are difficult to anticipate in the planning stage of a project.
3. Insights from most pilots suggest that farmers take months, if not years, to understand how schemes work and to trust the payment process associated with them. When we asked farmers in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district about government schemes, their knowledge was limited on several fronts. Some weren’t aware of the schemes, and while others were aware, they didn’t know how to apply for them. This indicates that pilots often work with a small group of possibly ‘progressive or early adopted farmers’. And even for this group, the shift from knowledge to practice in any sort of tangible way often occurs at a longer time scale of five to seven years. This is far more than the average programme evaluation scale of just a few months.

Hence, empirical data from these early pilots are insufficient to scale large projects in a country with contexts as varied as India. Our research found that modelling exercises can anticipate impact more comprehensively instead.

What is agent-based modelling?

Modelling, in the form of simulations, can provide a preview of potential outcomes. A model is a simplified representation of reality, often designed to help explain, understand, or predict certain aspects of that reality. The effectiveness of a model usually depends on how well it approximates the real-world system or scenario it is meant to represent.    

While pilots are actual physical interventions and require time and high investment in resources for implementation, models are often a quicker and less expensive way of understanding the potential impacts of interventions. They can be simply created on a computer using tools that require expertise, but not as much investment as the pilots themselves.

With respect to solar irrigation, agent-based modelling (ABM) can help us understand the choices farmers are likely to make when presented with the income-enhancing options that solar pumps offer. ABM is used to simulate the actions and interactions of autonomous agents (individuals or collective entities such as organisations or groups) in order to assess their effects on the system as a whole.

There are two potential outcomes in such a scenario: (a) Farmers without access to electricity and irrigation can finally pump the water they need to cultivate more, or (b) farmers with access to both electricity and irrigation can sell the excess energy back to the grid through the feed-in tariff. And yet, there is a combination of factors—local biophysical, socio-economic, and sociopolitical—that determine what the farmers would probably do. 

We conducted an ABM exercise to ascertain how farmers were likely to respond to the PM KUSUM scheme. Here, the ‘agent’ is the farmer. The modelling framework is based on the premise that individual farmers decide which crops to cultivate, driven by the need to maximise profit and minimise risk. The crops they choose to cultivate depend on:

1. Existing policies, such as access to strong procurement systems and a guaranteed minimum support price (MSP).
2. The constraints they face around land, water, and electricity.

We chose six case study sites based on farmers’ access to water, land, and electricity. In this article, we discuss our findings from one site.

Case study: Bathinda, Punjab

In Punjab’s Bathinda district, most farmers follow one of three cropping systems: rice–wheat (rice in the kharif season, followed by wheat in the rabi season), cotton–potato, and kinnow (a citrus fruit tree).

Among these groupings, the rice–wheat cropping system requires the most water, followed by cotton–potato, and then kinnow. In this district, availability of land is the major constraint, since approximately 99 percent of cropland is already under irrigation. Most farmers follow irrigation-intensive rice–wheat cropping patterns and can neither bring more land under irrigation nor increase the amount of water they pump.

Farmers in Bathinda do not face an energy limitation as the Punjab government provides free or heavily subsidised electricity to farmers. Their shallow tube wells are powered by grid-connected electricity, and, on average, they receive four to eight hours of electricity every day during the kharif and rabi seasons. This is comparable to the average of four to five hours of electricity that solar panels provide, albeit with a little more certainty in timings.

In terms of water access, groundwater in Punjab is held in massive alluvial aquifers; hence, the pinch of groundwater decline has not yet been felt. Even in low-rainfall years, there is no water scarcity. Studies have shown that the area under rice cultivation is completely unaffected by rainfall variability in Punjab.          

Given that irrigation is at maximum capacity, the question now is whether it could decrease enough to make a dent in the current rate of overexploitation. What crop choices are farmers likely to make? How will their profit change? How will the groundwater status change?

The ABM suggests that a ‘sustainable transition’ is theoretically possible

We define a sustainable transition as an event where a farmer reduces water use while increasing income and either reducing or maintaining the same level of risk.

A farmer growing rice–wheat has three options.

1. Switch to growing cotton–potato: From an income perspective, this option is profitable and reduces water consumption marginally.
2. Switch to growing kinnow: This option reduces water consumption by a large amount but increases income marginally.
3. Continue growing rice–wheat: This option keeps income at current levels, which is lower compared to other crop choices, but water consumption remains dangerously high.

It is theoretically possible for a farmer to move from growing rice–wheat or cotton–potato to kinnow. Our calculations suggest that these transitions are both economically viable and less water intensive. Farmers will earn more through the sale of solar energy and crops while significantly cutting down on their water use as kinnow requires lower levels of irrigation compared with rice–wheat and cotton–potato.

However, both rice–wheat and cotton–potato farmers are unlikely to budge from their current cropping patterns at least in the medium term, even if solar irrigation results in a small increase in their earnings.

There are two types of risk that could dissuade farmers from making a sustainable transition:

1. Price-related risk, which crops without MSP are prone to since they are subject to market forces. What this means is that there are no guaranteed prices for kinnow or potato. If there is a shortage of these products in the market, farmers might gain from an increase in price; however, if supply is greater than demand, it is likely to result in a price crash, affecting the farmer’s home economics. These price variations are unpredictable and hence carry a huge risk.
2. Cultural risks, where farmers are hesitant to move away from growing crops that they are familiar with. Cultivating a new crop requires knowledge and expertise, and access to new input/service providers. Farmers are often path-dependent, which means that the cultivation of a certain crop using certain practices is dominant and self-reinforcing. To move to a new crop would require getting over that cultural barrier, which is challenging.  

Hence, the introduction of solar irrigation may not result in sustainable transitions in Bathinda, as the agent/farmer will continue growing rice–wheat. Solar irrigation might only marginally increase profits, given the initial capital cost that the farmer will have to incur for the solar pump. This choice is likely to result in continued over-abstraction of groundwater resources—as the crops stay the same, so does the high irrigation water requirement.

These choices are ‘locked-in’ despite the clear advantages associated with cultivating a different crop. Our sensitivity analysis showed that at low FiTs and low subsidies, it is not profitable for a rice–wheat farmer to continue growing the same with solar irrigation. In other words, the adoption of solar irrigation itself is likely to be low if farmers remain risk-averse. Only when the FiT crosses a threshold of INR 5 per kilowatt-hour and comes with a subsidy of 70 percent will it be profitable for the farmer to grow rice–wheat after switching to solar. However, it is important to note that switching to cotton–potato and kinnow is profitable for the farmer across most FiTs and subsidies. But earlier descriptions of the farmer’s perceptions of price-related and cultural risks show that this is a highly improbable outcome.

Simulations are not always foolproof

It’s important to note that there will be contingencies or scenarios that modelling will fail to predict because human behaviour is not perfectly predictable. Additionally, there may be ‘black swan’ events, which are developments in these ecosystems that could completely change the trajectory, rendering the outcomes we have outlined here void. For instance, a rural entrepreneur could set up a kinnow-based jam factory and there might be a steady demand for kinnow, which derisks farmers from economic shocks and is environmentally more suitable for the Bathinda landscape.

There are other limitations. One is that the study does not take into account how farmers share knowledge among themselves during the implementation of a programme. This peer-to-peer learning is an important factor that affects their behaviour. The study is also constrained by a focus on crop transitions and not irrigation technologies, even though different irrigation technologies will result in different water savings when switching from one crop to another. Additionally, it only considers income from crop cultivation and not off-farm sources such as livestock rearing.

However, modelling work still holds value. Simulations are particularly important before the large-scale rollout of programmes so that we can account for inadvertent consequences during the planning process itself. The nature of federalism in India dictates that the central government design programmes and state governments implement them. However, given how India is geographically, socio-economically, and culturally diverse, there is merit in finding ways to let state governments inform programme design. Simulations like this one can be powerful tools that allow state governments to inform policy design, and subsequently more effective programme implementation.

To ensure the optimal allocation of government funds, it is essential to rely on simulations. These tools enable us to model various scenarios meticulously, providing invaluable insights for making informed decisions about public spending. By employing simulations, we can forecast outcomes more accurately, identify potential pitfalls, and maximise the effectiveness of each rupee spent. This approach is crucial for responsible fiscal management and the achievement of desired policy outcomes.

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Know more

• Read this article to know how carbon credits could be a path to sustainable agriculture in India. 
• Read this report to learn more about the authors’ agent-based modelling study.
• Read this article to understand why farmers are reluctant to swap paddy for kinnow. 

I work as an eMitra, which is a platform as well as a job role—an eMitra is someone who enables people in Rajasthan to apply for government-mandated schemes and services online. In my work, I use the Jan Soochna Portal—a public information portal operated by the Government of Rajasthan and updated in real time—to track people’s entitlement delivery and application statuses. I work with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS)—an organisation that was founded in Devdungri itself. Our household is run by my parents’ income and the minimum wage of INR 289 per day that I receive working as an eMitra with the MKSS.

When I was seven or eight years old, an unlicensed medical practitioner gave me an injection in the leg, which hit a nerve that it shouldn’t have. It ended up giving me a permanent physical disability. Due to societal superstitions, no one connected my disability to the injection. On the contrary, people thought that I had been possessed. I was not taken to a hospital in time to get the right treatment. Instead, I was taken to a temple, where the local priest kept giving my family false advice—telling us to come back after 2 months, then 4 months, and so on—while making empty promises that I would get better. Two to three years passed in this way, after which no doctor was able to fix the damaged nerve. This disability hindered my quality of life, and while my older brother taught me at home for some time, I didn’t receive any formal education until I was 10 or 11 years old.

I studied at a school in Devdungri till standard 12 and then completed my graduation through distance learning. But when it came to studying for my second undergraduate degree, for which I had to attend classes in person, my mother didn’t want me to leave home. She was worried that there would be no one to take care of me and that I wouldn’t be able to manage alone. I got into arguments with her—I understood her concerns, but I wanted to get out of the house and experience the world. I have often seen people with disabilities become restricted to the four walls of their houses. I did not want that to be my reality.

Over the years, I learned to walk, and even travel. That is how I was able to pursue higher education. My work as an eMitra brings me great meaning by allowing me to help other people, many of whom come from low-income backgrounds and are often unable to access government social entitlements and benefits by themselves.

3.30 AM: I wake up early and for two hours I study for various competitive exams, ranging from the Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers (REET) to the Rajasthan Administrative Services (RAS). It’s my dream to become either a teacher or an RAS officer and provide financial stability to my family. I really enjoy learning and have completed a BEd degree and three master’s degrees. Since I couldn’t get out of my house and attend school till standard 5 because of my disability, I understand the value of education.

Not being able to attend school wasn’t my sole obstacle though—taboo and superstition have followed me for most of my life. Villagers considered seeing me in the morning as a bad omen. My family, especially my mother, had to hear jibes such as, “Send him out after 10 or 11 am. He brings bad luck if we see him first thing in the day.”

But ever since I started working as an eMitra, there has been a shift in the community’s behaviour towards me. The very same people who used to shun me for my disability now wait outside my house in the early hours to ask about the status of their pension, ration, and other social entitlements.

I am happy to help them because I strongly link my work to social service. Supporting and informing people about their entitlements is integral to them realising their rights. For example, an old widowed woman living in poverty came to me because she was not receiving her pension. Though she was eligible for an old-age pension as well as a widow pension, she was not literate and so unable to complete the required paperwork. I filled out her pension form, filed for a job card for her, and tried to get her name added to the National Food Security Act scheme. Ideally, she will receive the benefits from these schemes for the rest of her life. I attend to approximately 50–60 such people on a daily basis at my eMitra centre.

The office opens at 9.30 so I have breakfast and leave for work by 9 am.

9.30 AM: The eMitra’s room is in the MKSS office in Rajsamand’s Bhim tehsil. Our office is called the ‘Godam’, or warehouse, and it is situated between four districts—Rajsamand, Pali, Ajmer, and Bhilwara. People from all these districts visit my office. My work is mainly online, where I help people apply for and follow up on government benefits and make them aware of the various Rajasthan state government schemes for which they are eligible.

The Rajasthan government has set a fixed minimal rate of INR 50 per service in our area. However, I have seen many eMitras charge more than this amount—as high as INR 100–150—even though they give the person a receipt of INR 50.

The bigger concern is the corruption prevalent in the system. I have observed eMitras take advantage of those who are supposed to receive entitlements. For example, a person who holds a labour card under the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996, can avail of the Shubh Shakti Yojana, wherein their daughter receives INR 55,000 from the government if she is unmarried at the age of 18 and educated till at least standard 8. Many people get duped by eMitras who tell them that they could help them obtain their INR 55,000 sooner provided they get a cut of INR 10,000 or INR 20,000. People agree because the eMitra has connections with dishonest officials of the department, and the application form for the scheme is processed quickly. Else, the process—from the application stage to receiving the entitlement—can be very slow.

Even our centre was started as a counter to the corruption in the system. When I had started working at the MKSS office back in 2014, we found that a woman had been made to pay INR 200 instead of INR 20 by an eMitra centre. Because I couldn’t help much on the field, I was given the responsibility to run a model eMitra where people would be charged with the appropriate amount only.

1.30 PM: My colleagues and I take a break to cook and eat lunch together at the Godam. We talk about many topics, ranging from our personal lives to politics. We often discuss accountability and the fraudulent practices present in delivery mechanisms as the links between the eMitras to local officials in various government departments further exacerbates the problem.

The Rajasthan government provides more than 600 services and schemes that can be accessed through eMitra. We have organised three jan sunwais (public hearings) in the past to figure if the right people are receiving the benefits of these schemes. We conduct a social audit in the village to understand what stage each person is at in getting their entitlement. We then bring the entire village and department officials together in one place for a public hearing and rectify any errors in the execution of a scheme for each person. For example, if we’re doing a jan sunwai for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, we’ll identify the problems the people are experiencing and the relevant department can work on correcting the mistakes. It helps us understand if someone has wrongfully received money and we can hold officials accountable for it at the same time in front of the entire village.

5.00 PM: I usually work till 5 or 6 pm. Processing an application can take me anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour because it’s important to fill all the details carefully. I didn’t receive any proper training to render the services so I either rely on YouTube or learn through trial and error.

Because we have access to all the relevant information through the Jan Soochna Portal and fill multiple forms for a person, we can catch mistakes. I remember when a couple years into working as an eMitra, a woman came to us to inquire the status of her pension—it had been months since she had last received an instalment. I checked the records and realised she had been declared dead in the records because of unverified documents. Upon digging deeper, we learned that approximately 6–8 lakh people had been declared dead in Rajasthan when they were, in fact, alive. In such situations, it’s helpful to have connections with those employed in the technical arm of the government as well as officials at various levels so that we can contact them directly. We consulted the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) and block development official (BDO) to highlight this case and find a solution. I have always associated our work with the government—they cannot function without us, and we cannot function without them. 

After work, I sometimes get called for trainings or other meetings. For instance, I closely collaborate with the School for Democracy, an organisation dedicated to democratic and constitutional rights and values. They invite me for workshops to familiarise individuals with important schemes in Rajasthan and educate them on how to use the Jan Soochna Portal. I also conduct sessions with the youth to sensitise them to the discrimination faced by persons with disabilities.

I even tell the parents whose children have disabilities to not restrict them to the home. Instead, children should be encouraged and given the opportunity to do something with their life. Without education, my life would have looked very different, and the taboos associated with me in childhood would have followed me my entire life.

7.00 PM: I reach home and watch television for an hour or so. I really enjoy watching cricket and was quite disappointed when India lost the 2023 World Cup. Other than that, I watch CID. It gets dark here quite early, so I have dinner before 9 pm. Since I don’t get the time to check my phone during the day, I reply to messages and fall asleep soon after as I have to wake up early in the morning to study.

As told to IDR.

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Know more

• Read about a day in the life of a Haqdarshika, who delivers citizens’ rights to their doorsteps.
• Read about what’s missing in government’s plan to secure accessibility for persons with disabilities.

Note: Districts of West Bengal decided not to join the program. Currently only 112 districts are part of ADP. However, in our analysis we cover the CSR spend across all the 115 districts that were identified at the launch of ADP in 2018.

NITI AAYOG identified 115 districts across 28 states based upon composite indicators from Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill development and Basic Infrastructure which have an impact on HDI. In the five years of ADP implementation, the overall composite score has improved by over 72%. Maximum change has been in the areas of Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, and Healthcare.

The broad outlines of ADP are Convergence (of Central & State Schemes), Collaboration (of Central, State level Officers & District Collectors), and Competition among the districts driven by a spirit of mass movement. Districts in the ADP are prodded and encouraged to first catch up with the best district within their state (districts in the frontier), and subsequently aspire to become one of the best in the country, by competing with, and learning from others in the spirit of competitive & cooperative federalism.As of August 2023, the overall composite scores of the Aspirational Districts (ADs) in the north-eastern states and a large number of ADs in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh had an overall composite score of less than or equal to 50, they are now working towards closing the distance with districts that are in the frontier. These states also have a higher share of ADs.

Despite the government advocating CSR investment in ADs, only about 2.15%* of the total CSR during 2014-22 has been invested in these districts, which houses more than 15% of India’s population. In FY 2021-22, CSR spend in ADs increased by more than 50% from the previous year.

More than half (53%) of the total CSR funds are spent on ADs in these five states—Madhya Pradesh (448 Cr.), Andhra Pradesh (387 Cr.), Jharkhand (328 Cr.), Chhattisgarh (301 Cr.) and Gujarat (291 Cr.).

Also, over 3/4th (78%) of the CSR spend in ADs has been across these four top sectors (Education, Healthcare, Rural Development, and Environment Sustainability). During the COVID-19 years, CSR spend in Education and Healthcare increased by more than 70%. A five-fold increase in CSR spend was seen in Environment Sustainability projects between 2020-21 and 2021-22.

In Jan 2023, five years after the launch of ADP, the government of India launched ‘The Aspirational Blocks Programme (ABP)’. This Programme focuses on improving governance to enhance the quality of life of citizens in the most difficult and underdeveloped blocks of India.500 blocks from across 27 states and 4 Union Territories of India were identified to steer and drive the change in aspirational blocks by monitoring key socio-economic indicators categorised under major sectors such as Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Allied Services, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Financial Inclusion, Basic Infrastructure, and overall Social Development. With the launch of ABP, more than 45% of districts in India (~350 districts) are now either part of ADP and/or districts of ABP.

How have the 115 ADs transformed across various thematic areas in the last five years? Which districts have been consistently improving across all thematic areas? How much CSR funding have they received? Which companies are funding these ADs? How do we strengthen investments at the bottom of our pyramid and help these districts reach their transformation goals? Does a 2% allocation of the total CSR investment suffice to facilitate the transformation of aspirational districts?

To know more about ADP & ABP and CSR Spend in ADs and districts of ABP, explore our data assets on Aspirational Districts.

*According to the direct attribution to districts available on MCA CSR portal—a large chunk of CSR remains unattributed to any particular district.

This article was originally published on India Data Insights.

This article was updated on 17th January, 2024 to include a note on the districts that were considered for the analysis.

However, even before this record-breaking month, India was not water-secure. Depleting groundwater reserves has been a very real threat for a long time now. The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) estimates that groundwater in about a third of India’s blocks (an administrative unit within districts) is overexploited or critical or semi-critical. This means the rate at which water is extracted exceeds the limit or is close to the rate at which it is replenished.

Recognising this dire situation, the central government launched Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABY) in 2019. The scheme aims to address groundwater depletion and promote sustainable management practices by encouraging communities to prepare and implement water security plans in a participatory manner.

A field survey conducted by Water, Environment, Land and Livelihoods (WELL) Labs, an environmental research and innovation centre under the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Krea University, in one of the ‘overexploited’ blocks in southern Karnataka, in a village called Nonavinakere, led to an important finding. The water budgeting process carried out under the ABY scheme by the gram panchayat failed to account for imported surface water, i.e. water that flows into the region through canals, but originates from outside the village’s jurisdiction. The interdependence between surface water and groundwater is a missing piece that must factored in for more effective water management.

Atal Bhujal Yojana’s water budgeting exercise

The primary objective of Atal Bhujal Yojana is to enhance groundwater management and mitigate depletion in areas where it is already overexploited, such as Nonavinakere in Karnataka’s Tumkur district. The programme adopts a decentralised and community-led approach, that involves gram panchayats, water user associations and local communities. It promotes groundwater conservation and recharge, improving water usage efficiency and strengthening institutional frameworks for sustainable groundwater management.

Water budgeting serves as a critical planning tool for effective water resource management.

A central aspect of the programme involves formulating and implementing a community-led water security plan at the panchayat level. This plan involves a detailed assessment of the groundwater balance specific to the panchayat, and is derived from measurements of available water resources and how much is used. Based on this water balance analysis, potential interventions for water management are proposed, with the goal of sustaining groundwater resources. This entire process is referred to as ‘water budgeting’.

Water budgeting serves as a critical planning tool for effective water resource management. First, it provides a comprehensive evaluation of water resources in a village, offering valuable insights into water source availability and utilisation. By identifying areas where water consumption exceeds availability, it highlights potential imbalances.

Second, it plays a vital role in identifying problems and generating solutions. By determining the major water consumers and activities, it brings attention to key stakeholders who can contribute to finding sustainable solutions. Water budgeting acts as an early warning mechanism for these stakeholders.

Finally, water budgeting also facilitates the development of a meticulous water management plan, enabling informed decision-making and proactive measures to tackle water-related challenges. The official guidelines for the preparation of the Water Security Plan, also known as ‘groundwater budgeting’, provide a comprehensive overview of all factors that need to be considered.

However, a significant gap exists in the section regarding water availability. Currently, the calculation of water availability takes into account rainfall, groundwater, and the static volume of surface water bodies. This approach overlooks the replenishment of these water bodies and the surface water imported through canals for irrigation and other purposes.

Nonavinakere’s water balance

According to the signboard displayed at the Nonavinakere Gram Panchayat, the water balance prepared under the Atal Bhujal Yojana scheme indicates a negative value of -823.46 Ha-m, based on how much water is available and how much is used by different sectors.

However, on-field observations and secondary information cast doubt on this data. The panchayat has a large Nonavinakere lake (tank) that is fed by water from its catchment area and the Hemavathi canal system.

The lake serves as an irrigation source for around 500 hectares (ha) of agricultural land in the village and surrounding areas. During the post-monsoon period of 2021-22, the lake spanned 410 ha, which later decreased to 226 ha in April, before the onset of monsoon. Even in the lean season, the lake contained approximately 1133.3 Ha-m of water, significantly surpassing the negative water balance reported in the Atal Bhujal Yojana plan.

Both the panchayat office and villagers verified that the lake consistently receives water from the Hemavathi canal system, indicating a higher availability of water. While this information is fragmented, it sufficiently establishes that the village has more water available than what is reported in the Atal Bhujal Yojana plan.

Furthermore, data from the programme’s website shows an increase in groundwater levels from 16.6 metres below ground level (mbgl) in 2016 to 5.46 mbgl in 2022.

The local residents claim that they had seen the upward trend in the water level after the lake’s rejuvenation, higher-than-average rainfall from 2020 to 2022, and water from the Hemavathi canal system.

These factors indicate that the water security plan made under Atal Bhujal Yojana does not accurately represent the ground reality.

Imported surface water 

Including surface water in water balance and budgeting exercises within a groundwater management programme is crucial for two important reasons.

First, excluding surface water from calculations results in an incomplete water scenario. Surface water is utilised in various sectors, such as irrigation, yet it is not accounted for in availability assessments. This omission can lead to a negative water balance, as it has in Nonavinakere, which may not reflect the actual situation. Failing to establish an accurate water balance hinders the recognition of potential problems and suitable solutions. Moreover, an inaccurate representation fails to capture the attention of stakeholders and obstructs their active participation.

By excluding surface water from calculations, a holistic approach to water management cannot be achieved.

Second, the surface water and groundwater are interconnected and should be considered together. Let us consider a scenario where canal water is utilised for irrigation. The water used for irrigation eventually percolates the soil and recharges aquifers. In another instance, canal water is utilised to fill ponds, tanks or lakes. These water bodies contribute to aquifer recharge and enhance local groundwater sources. This is evident from the rise in groundwater level in Nonavinakere.

By excluding surface water from calculations, a holistic approach to water management cannot be achieved. It is essential to recognise the integral relationship between surface water and groundwater in order to ensure comprehensive water management practices.

There is a need for a paradigm shift geared towards integrating imported surface water flows. Nonavinakere is not an isolated case where incorrect methodologies have led to inadequate water management. Similar instances have been documented, with stakeholders advocating for necessary corrections. However, little progress has been made.

One possible counterargument to address in this article is that the Atal Bhujal Yojana focuses on sustainable groundwater management, which is why imported surface water is excluded from the methodology. However, it is crucial to recognise that groundwater, soil moisture, and surface water are integral parts of a single interconnected resource, demanding unified planning, management, and regulation. Surface water and groundwater are mutually dependent resources, often forming a hydrological continuum, where surface water bodies contribute to groundwater replenishment through natural processes like infiltration and recharge.

By considering surface water, we gain a better understanding of the dynamics of water availability, allowing us to identify potential recharge areas and develop strategies to harness the potential of both sources in a sustainable manner.

This critique focuses on the methodology of water budgeting in the Atal Bhujal Yojana, regardless of the data and its sources. Accounting for imported water is a complex task, as it interacts with rainfall, local water bodies, and aquifers, potentially leading to double accounting. However, acknowledging this challenge opens up the discussion and provides an opportunity to explore possible solutions.

When formulating water security plans for groundwater management in gram panchayats, it is crucial to recognise the significance of surface water resources. By adopting an integrated approach that considers the interdependence between surface water and groundwater sources, we can improve water availability, promote sustainable water management practices, and ensure the long-term resilience of our communities. It is high time we rectify the existing gaps and work towards a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to water management.

This article was originally published on Mongabay.

Had the Act been implemented, and the benefits raised in tandem with (say) nominal GDP, Indian women today would be receiving cash benefits of about Rs 20,000 in the event of pregnancy, as they do in Tamil Nadu. This would help to ensure that they are not deprived of adequate nutrition, rest and healthcare at this difficult time.

Instead, the central government has used every possible means to evade its obligations under the Act. For a full four years (2013 to 2017), there was no action at all. In 2017, a national scheme of maternity benefits was finally launched—the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY). This scheme, however, restricts maternity benefits to the “first living child”, at a measly rate of Rs 5,000 in three instalments. By the time Covid-19 hit the country in early 2020, even this restricted coverage was still a distant goal.

Meanwhile, pregnancy and childbirth remained a harrowing experience for millions of women. In 2019, the Jaccha-Baccha Survey (JABS) found horrendous levels of deprivation and insecurity during pregnancy in a sample of 700 rural women spread over six north Indian states. Among 364 women who had delivered a child in the preceding six months, less than a quarter had eaten nutritious food more often than usual during pregnancy, and nearly 40% complained of a lack of rest at that time. Weight gain during pregnancy was way below the recommended norms—just 7 kg on average. This is all the more worrying as so many women are severely undernourished to start with. (See “Maternity Entitlements: Women’s Rights Derailed”, by Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera and Anmol Somanchi, Economic and Political Weekly, 20 November 2021.)

How is PMMVY faring today? This is not easy to tell because PMMVY has no public data portal worth the name. In this respect, it stands out among India’s social programmes, and violates the pro-active disclosure norms of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. We had to fall back on RTI queries to rustle up the most elementary statistics on the progress of PMMVY. The latest response of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, in January 2023 (four months after the query was submitted), includes state-wise and year-wise numbers of PMMVY recipients for the last few years.

According to these official figures, the limited progress that had been made under PMMVY by the end of 2019 was largely undone during the Covid-19 crisis. The number of women who received some PMMVY benefits crashed from 96 lakh in 2019-20 to 75 lakh in 2020-21 and 61 lakh in 2021-22—a decline of nearly 40% over two years.

To put this in perspective, assuming a birth rate of 19.5 per thousand (the Sample Registration System estimate for 2020), and a total population of 140 crore, the annual number of births in India today must be around 270 lakh. Barely 23% of these births were covered under PMMVY in 2021-22 (see Chart). Even if we assume, optimistically, that another 10% of births are covered by maternity benefit schemes in the formal sector, overall coverage would still be as low as one third of all births.

These PMMVY coverage figures refer to the number of mothers who received at least one of the three instalments. If we raise the bar and focus on women who received all three instalments, the coverage figures are much lower. In 2021-22, the number of pregnant women who received the third PMMVY instalment was just 35 lakh—about 13% of the annual number of births.

State-wise figures are presented in Table 1. Between 2019-20 and 2021-22, PMMVY coverage declined in all major states except Kerala and Jammu-Kashmir, sharply so in many cases. In West Bengal, it appears that the scheme has come to a standstill—perhaps it is victim of a centre-state dispute there, like the rural employment guarantee scheme? PMMVY also came to a virtual standstill by 2021-22 in several other states, including some “double engine” states like Gujarat. The third instalment eludes most women in most states.

We can shift the goalposts and focus on first births, the official target of PMMVY. When the fertility rate is around two children per woman and most women have at least one child, as is the case in India today, first births account for about half of all births. Thus, the coverage figures would roughly double if we put first births in the denominator instead of all births (see Chart). Even then, they would be quite low—46% for “at least one instalment” in 2021-22 and 26% for the third instalment.

It is unlikely that PMMVY coverage expanded radically in 2022-23. Indeed, central expenditure on the SAMARTHYA package (of which PMMVY is the main component) was barely 10% higher in 2022-23 than in 2021-22. Incidentally, we are talking peanuts—barely Rs 2,000 crore per year, compared with an estimated requirement of about Rs 14,000 crore per year for full-fledged implementation of maternity benefits under the National Food Security Act.

The PMMVY setback in 2020-21 and 2021-22 is a sign of mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis. PMMVY is just a cash transfer scheme, there was no good reason for it to be so badly disrupted. And there was certainly no excuse for the disruption to continue in 2022-23.

The root of this fiasco is that pregnant women count for very little in public policy and electoral politics. Quite likely, a real effort to universalize maternity benefits would have made waves. Instead, the central government took refuge in a lame scheme that didn’t really take off. On three occasions, the Finance Minister ignored an appeal from 60 Indian economists for much higher spending on maternity benefits. The opposition parties, Congress included, did very little to challenge this inertia. The outcome is a lost decade for maternity entitlements.

This article was originally published on The India Forum.

When ‘free’ is prefixed to ‘public library’, it immediately redraws the lines of who deserves to have the right to read and the right to information. Doors and shelves are thrown open to all. It is by default, definition, and design anti-caste, gender and disability inclusive, and accessible to all regardless of their social or economic background.

This is not a new understanding of the public library. The earliest instance in modern India goes back to 1906 when Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the maharaja of Baroda, invited the American librarian W A Borden to help establish public libraries across his state to further his public education programme. Fast-forward to 1986, when the Chattopadhyay committee drafted the National Policy on Library and Information System, which linked access to equity. But little came of it in terms of reform. The draft was never ratified into policy.

In recent years, and especially during the COVID-19 lockdown, grassroots efforts have sprouted free libraries across the country, most notably where quality education and access to books has generationally been lacking. Even before the pandemic broke out, librarians in villages, urban working-class neighbourhoods, remote outposts, tribal settlements, and prisons began talking to one another, seeking resources on librarianship and library infrastructure. These conversations coalesced into the Free Libraries Network (FLN), which today has more than 200 library organisations, practitioners, and activists who drive the free library movement. We envision not just support for our own individual struggles in running community libraries but also a free public library system for all.   

A public library must be free on two counts—free from any kind of fee, be it for membership, penalty, or a service like the use of the internet or a workshop; and free from barriers of caste, class, gender, and disability, giving everyone the freedom to read to acquire knowledge and information. If libraries are not free, how can the country achieve intellectual equity? FLN focuses its attention, among other things, on the 1986 draft national policy, from which the provision for ‘free’ has been summarily discarded in reports written through the 1980s. In 2022, when a Rajya Sabha review committee revived the conversation to centre libraries as a critical component of culture and education, there was no mention of ‘free’ as an essential understanding of public libraries.

The Indian public library system

What would our public library system tell us about the intellectual health of the country? Today, we see the consequence of ignoring equity in knowledge and information when, as a collective, we are unable to tell good pieces of information from bad ones, and cannot discern when someone is pushing us towards herd thinking. Policy focus all along has been on school-led, curriculum-based literacy and numeracy. But creative and critical thinking, which are the bedrock of a progressive society, have not been championed with the same vigour. What that omission has cost us is tremendous: a loss of intellectual discernment and the ability to imagine an equitable world. 

A free public library system can change that.

India reportedly has 54,856 public libraries (although there is no definitive source and data differs depending on where one looks), but many suffer from systemic neglect. There’s no clarity on which library is open, which is shut, which programmes and curriculum a library follows to invite readers into reading and, most importantly, which is free and which isn’t. Without updated and accurate data, how can we start rebuilding our public library programme?

Public libraries in India are the prerogative of the state, yet only 19 states have formulated library legislation. Of these, The Haryana Public Libraries Act, 1989, is the only one that claims to grant free public access. Yet, despite legislation, Haryana’s public libraries are not really free. It should be noted that a library cess, derived from state revenue taxes, pays for the upkeep of these libraries—in other words, the public funds them.  

Now consider the Delhi Public Library, which falls under the purview of the Union Government. The membership fee is INR 25 for below poverty line (BPL) card holders and INR 100 for others. Those who apply must have membership forms attested by a ‘responsible person’, such as a gazetted officer or lecturer, or produce INR 3,000 as security deposit if attestation is not possible. Membership is also contingent on proof of current residence. Even if the fee were not a deterrent, the demand for documentation is.  

The free library as a public good

Enter a public library today and you’ll think it continues to serve centuries-old purposes of academic education alone, because you’re more likely to find students preparing for an exam than any other demographic. But public libraries are meant for more than that. They are public places that transform into hubs of collective imagination and free-thinking spaces for people to gather, to create, to think collectively and build something for the future. Such collective spaces are key to human development. As the IFLA-UNESCO Public Library Manifesto points out, community libraries foster local connections and are crucial to creating a well-informed citizenry required for a healthy democracy.

It must be reimagined not just as a place for learning and thinking but also as a space for social and cultural engagement. To that end, a free public library can emerge as that third place between home and work—for people to gather, socialise, and actively build community life. This means the library has a huge role to play for non-readers too. 

Community at the core

A free library is defined by its collective of people and not just its collection of books. In fact, the community exercises ownership over the library and is empowered to determine library programmes, book collections, languages, reading levels, and reading aspirations. For example, you may have adolescents coming in, who are at an age where they’re interested in exploring various kinds of relationships with one another. One cannot, as a free library worker, exclaim, “Oh my God, keep them apart!” A library that responds to its members will wonder, “Can we organise sexual health and wellness workshops for them, in addition to building a collection that speaks to their interests as well as broadens them?” That’s what makes the library a dynamic space—the fact that it is constantly in dialogue with the community.

Whoever lives in the community communes at the library, making the collective diverse and inclusive.

When it sets out to be a welcoming space, the library automatically transforms into a multi-generational, multicultural oasis. In one of the libraries I work at in Delhi, the neighbourhood (Khirki) includes people of different religions and caste identities, migrant workers from Bihar and West Bengal, as well as asylum seekers from countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, and Syria. Whoever lives in that community communes at the library, making the collective diverse and inclusive.

It’s only when there’s dialogue between the community and the people who fund the library that the idea of the free library is truly safe. It is not ideal for any single group outside the community to hold sway on critical operational and policy decisions. That’s why it is essential to define librarianship as best practices and curriculum that derive from community consultation. For example, if the community indicates it requires Ambedkarite literature or books about the Mughals, the library has to provide them.

Even as it sets out to be a democratic, egalitarian space, the public library must guard against excessive regulation, for anyone who controls the library controls knowledge and information flowing through the library. This is another reason to urgently push for library reform, and ensure that the library is driven by policy but is not policed.

What the government is doing

The National Mission on Libraries was launched in 2014 with an outlay of INR 400 crore to develop model libraries and create digitised archives of books, manuscripts, and audio-visual material through the National Virtual Library. But given how inequitable digital access is in India, this is still not an example of an accessible public library that anyone and everyone can use. The questions to consider when pushing for a digital library are: who has access to the internet, who has access to smart devices that can browse a platform like the National Virtual Library, and what kind of digital literacy do they need to enter it? When you start asking these questions, you realise that in this country, digital can emerge as yet another barrier between people and reading. Many in the publishing industry are also pushing digital books, to the detriment of print. What they’re in turn widening is the gap between a majority of Indians and books at a time they need it the most. 

Perhaps these are concerns that the government needs to address at its upcoming Festival of Libraries 2023, an initiative by the Union Ministry of Culture. New library policies, fresh funding (INR 100 crore), and a library ranking system, among other initiatives, are expected to be launched at this forum, with the objective of reinvigorating the country’s library system. It’s a welcome move as long as it keeps the public library people-focused. ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ won’t happen as a matter of injunction. You cannot order people to move together but you can structure the possibility of their meeting one another, of finding common cause and forming solidarities in the world of ideas. This can only come from creating free spaces. That’s the beauty of the publicly funded free library—a free intellectual, social, and cultural space that supports the aspirations of all and is powered not by the individual and not by the government, but by the community it was built to serve.

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Know more

• Learn how a community library network in Bhopal is more than a place for borrowing books.
• Learn more about the financial state of India’s public libraries.
• Learn more about what the budgetary allocations for social welfare look like for 2023–24.

In a bid to address these gaps, Women’s World Banking (WWB) has partnered with relevant stakeholders in the financial sector to bring women-centred products, services, and policies to the market. At WWB’s Making Finance Work For Women Summit, IDR interviewed Mary Ellen Iskendarian, president and CEO of WWB, and Kalpana Ajayan, WWB’s regional head for South Asia, on the subject.

In this interview, Mary Ellen and Kalpana discuss investments that have been made towards enabling women’s financial inclusion, the gaps that still remain, and the challenges in developing financial products and services while working with partners worldwide to advance women’s economic empowerment. They also touch upon the inextricable link between digital literacy and financial inclusion in a world where digital financial services have become ubiquitous. 

How does India compare with other emerging markets when it comes to financial inclusion for women?

Mary Ellen: One of the biggest concerns we have in India that we don’t quite see to the same extent in other countries is the lingering social and cultural norms around owning smartphones. It’s a real issue here. That said, the investment that India has made in its digital public infrastructure—the Aadhaar system, PMJDY accounts, and UPI system—is head and shoulders above where other emerging markets are at the moment. I am thrilled that India is eager to export some of this work to other countries, with the G20 presidency really shining a light on how much tremendous work has been done here. It also shows what that kind of upfront investment can do and what kind of dividends it can pay down the line.

Speaking of investments India has made on this front, what else do you think needs to be done in the next five years to improve access to finance for women?

Mary Ellen: The PMJDY is a great innovation, but we at WWB have observed that although women in India open PMJDY accounts, their accounts tend to remain dormant. This suggests that the product either isn’t relevant to them or that they are not convinced of its relevance to their lives. So, I think that it will be critical for any infrastructure or product development that is rolled out in India over the next five years to take a step back and think, “How can we take women’s needs and the barriers women face into consideration before we launch?” Our work here in the last few years has been very focused on that issue of engagement with the PMJDY account. We, therefore, rolled out a savings product called Jan Dhan Plus alongside Bank of Baroda, and we’ve taken this to Indian Bank and Union Bank. We’re trying to incentivise women to save and to build savings behaviour. And once they’ve engaged with this account, there’s an opportunity then to cross-sell other products.

Bringing more women into the workforce of the financial sector is a great investment that India has begun.

One of the other things that I think parts of India are doing in a very exciting way is driving more women business correspondents (BCs) and women agents. The implementation of the BC Sakhi programme, which seeks to promote digital banking through women banking correspondents, has resulted in more women signing up for accounts, and a higher rate of conversion from signing up to actually depositing money. So, I think bringing more women into the workforce of the financial sector is another great investment that India has begun and should enhance in the next five years.

Kalpana: I also think that women’s access to credit is something that really needs to be addressed. And we’ve been working with the apex credit bodies in this country for this. In fact, Mary Ellen and I met the chairman of the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) recently, and they expressed a willingness to offer loans to women entrepreneurs at rates that are significantly lower than commercial rates. But since most women in India don’t have a credit footprint, they’re rendered invisible to the institutions seeking to enable their access to credit. So how do you really make these women visible? I think this is what we must solve in the near future.

Mary Ellen: I think it’s worth doubling down on that, as many people may not understand this invisibility. For example, the self-help group (SHG) is an extraordinary institution, but often only one member of the group has any identification, which is actually just used for naming the group. So, she’s not even necessarily identified as the borrower. Therefore, the idea we discussed with SIDBI involves ensuring that the loans and repayment track records of these invisible women, who have been borrowing and have great repayment records, get registered with credit bureaus.

Research shows that barriers to finance for women have been as much about the ecosystem (market, social norms, etc.) as about lending institutions providing capital. How do you suggest we address this? And who needs to be working on it?

Kalpana: There is space for nonprofits engaged with women, financial institutions, and policymakers to work within their arenas to facilitate meaningful change. There is a definitive role for everybody in the ecosystem, including the husbands. For example, if there’s a phone in the household, does the wife get access to that phone? There are multiple ways in which you can make women participate. The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is a great platform, and it can really help nano and micro-entrepreneurs by enabling their linkage to markets. For example, how will a small pickle-maker in the interior of Maharashtra get their product out? That’s where the ONDC can play a significant role. But how do you even bring her on board? How do you build visibility and awareness about an initiative such as the ONDC? I think there are many stakeholders in the ecosystem that need to work on it.

Mary Ellen, you’ve previously spoken about the improved access to smartphones for women. I was wondering if you could speak about the intersection of digital literacy and financial inclusion?

Mary Ellen: There isn’t just an intersection any more. The delivery of financial services to the last mile at an affordable price is going to be digital. So, it’s absolutely essential that women are confident in their use of the phone, and it’s very much the centrepiece of every product roll-out we conduct. We’ve done quite a bit of work on what we’re calling ‘digital financial capabilities’, because this isn’t just about understanding which buttons to press or being numerate, but really feeling a sense of confidence and ownership. The reason we fight so hard for financial inclusion is that we see it as fundamental to women’s empowerment. But if they’re not empowered to use the technology that will enable this inclusion, it’ll be a great loss.

Kalpana: Our definition of digital financial capabilities includes not just a skill and knowledge component, but also an attitude component. And that attitude is trust and confidence. So, for me, it’s not just about having the skill and knowledge to operate within the financial system, but you need to be confident and trust the system to meaningfully engage with the system.

What are some models or approaches that haven’t worked in emerging markets like India? And what are some that have seen more success? What can we learn from those?

Kalpana: A gap that still remains is the urban market. We’ve tried several initiatives in the urban market for low-income women, but we’ve realised that interventions such as educational camps—which are ideal for rural markets—don’t work in urban ones. This is because women in urban areas simply don’t have the time to assemble at a place and listen to people speak about financial literacy and related issues.

When we moved to rural regions from the three urban centres of Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai—where we piloted the Jan Dhan Plus programme—we had to unlearn these things and introduce strategies that are relevant to the rural segment.

Mary Ellen: I won’t have as clean an answer as Kalpana, but there’s one thing that’s the greatest source of frustration for me, which I’m so determined to fight. So, WWB believes very strongly in the concept of customer lifetime value. This means that when we introduce a product to a financial service provider, we indicate how it would make this new client or a completely dormant client (as in the case of Jan Dhan Plus) profitable over a long time. When we present that kind of data to substantiate a pure bottom-line-driven argument but are met with rejection from the management of an organisation, I just feel like screaming.

When we have an MD or a CEO who’s really committed to the cause, they’ll push the initiative through.

I think it’s important to find a strategy that tips the balance, whether it’s being able to show greater risk mitigation through a product or present the issue as one that the senior leadership can adopt as a personal cause. The latter has been a very successful strategy for us, because when we have an MD or a CEO who’s really committed to the cause, they’ll push the initiative through. But this can be a source of immense frustration. And we’ve experienced this in all the regions that we work in.

But there’s also hope. For instance, there was a digital wallet that we delivered for a bank in another South Asian market. Again, we were able to demonstrate a customer lifetime value, but management broke our hearts and decided not to take it forward. But not even a year later, a bank in another country approached us with the agenda to implement something similar, and this bank is now doing gangbusters with literally the same model, with some local amendments to the product.

The economic crisis triggered by the pandemic has naturally had a devastating impact on women’s financial inclusion. How important is it to keep that at the centre as we rebuild?

Mary Ellen: We’re missing a big part of the picture if we only focus on women as being vulnerable or having suffered during the crisis. We must think of them as part of the solution for how we’re going to get ourselves out of this particular crisis. What I have observed in every country that we’ve worked in is that when we design products keeping women in mind, which usually means making something as easy to understand and quick as possible, men love them too. You can’t say the reverse. When there’s a product that’s designed for men, it just doesn’t work the other way. So it’s a worthwhile investment when you design for women, as you often reach both men and women.

Kalpana: I’m actually reminded of a quote I love from Mary Ellen’s book, which I think explains what financial inclusion is all about: “It’s not just a good thing to do, it’s the right thing to do.” This hits at the heart of what you described, what we call ‘women-centric design’. Pushing the women’s agenda is not only a social good, but it also makes business sense. If you design for her, it works for both.

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Know more

• Learn about how banks can enable women’s financial inclusion.
• Read this report on enabling women’s entrepreneurship through philanthropy.

To commemorate this day, we are looking at ‘Ayushman Bharat’ – a flagship scheme of the Government of India, which was launched as recommended by the National Health Policy 2017 to achieve the vision of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Introduction to Ayushman Bharat

The Government of India launched Ayushman Bharat in 2018 to expand universal health coverage, especially to rural and vulnerable populations. This initiative has an underlying commitment, which is to “leave no one behind”, and has been designed to meet SDG 3, Target 3.8, i.e. achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health care services and access to safe, effective, quality.

Ayushman Bharat (AB) aims to undertake interventions to holistically address health at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. The main aim is to provide essential health services throughout the country through four pillars of this programme:

1. Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs)

The first component pertains to the creation of 1.5 Lakh Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs), which brings healthcare closer to the homes of the people. These centres provide Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC), covering both maternal and child health services and non-communicable diseases, including free essential drugs and diagnostic services.

In FY 2018-2019, a budget of 1200 crore was allocated as a flagship programme to Ayushman Bharat – Health & Wellness Centres.

A notable landmark of 1.5 Lakh Ayushman Bharat Health & Wellness centres has been surpassed in 2023. These centres were operationalised within India to provide the citizens with easy access to healthcare. Since the establishment of HWCs, the program has achieved more than:

• 86.90 crore screenings for Non-communicable diseases
• 9.3 crore teleconsultations were provided
• 135 crore cumulative footfalls
• 1.60 crore wellness sessions at HWCs.

An important aspect of HWCs was to provide comprehensive healthcare for Non-communicable diseases (NCDs). During the period of Aug 2020 to Dec 2022 (25 months), remarkable progress was seen in the number of screenings for NCDs.

While the total number of screenings went up by 510%, a major jump was seen in screenings for Oral Cancer, which increased by 148 million (570% increase).

2. Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY)

The second important component of Ayushman Bharat is the ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana – also popularly known as PM-JAY. This scheme was launched on 23 September 2018, with the vision of achieving SDG Target 3.8 – ensuring financial protection against catastrophic health expenditure and access to affordable and quality healthcare for all.

The year-on-year budget allocation of Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY rose significantly from 2400 crores in FY 2018-19 to 6400 crores in FY 2019-20. Though the budget allocation remained constant for the last 4 years, the budget allocation was increased to 7200 crores in FY 2023-24 – a threefold increase since its inception in 2018-19.

PM-JAY is the largest health assurance scheme in the world, covering over 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families (~50 crore beneficiaries) that constitute the bottom 40% of the Indian population who will receive an annual health coverage of Rs. 5 lakhs per family, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.

PM-JAY provides the States with the flexibility to choose their implementation. The different modes of implementation are:

• Trust mode – Claims are paid directly by the State Health Agencies (SHA’s)
• Insurance mode – Claims are paid by the insurance company, and SHA pays a premium to the insurance company.
• Hybrid mode – Claims up to a certain amount are being covered by the Insurance company, and claims above the defined threshold are covered by the SHA’s company.

So far, 33 States have adopted the Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY scheme, and these states implement the scheme in different modes. 23 states have adopted the Trust mode, which caters to 63.9% of the beneficiaries in India. Three states viz. Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu have adopted the Hybrid mode of implementation, which contributes to 19.5% of the beneficiaries.

Progress of PM-JAY in India

The PM-JAY beneficiaries get an e-card called ‘Ayushman Bharat Card’ that can be used to avail services at an empanelled hospital (public or private) anywhere in the country. As of March 2023, more than 21 crore Ayushman Bharat cards have been created, and 28,561 hospitals are empanelled under PM-JAY in India, and the total amount incurred under PM-JAY is INR 53,942.7 crores.

Since the inception of PM-JAY in 2018, the trend of Ayushman Bharat card creation has been erratic. The impact of COVID-19 can be seen in the trends of both card creation and hospital admissions. While new card creations slowed down during the first wave (Apr – Nov 2020), the number of hospital admissions spiked during the second wave.

As of March 2023, ~21.33 crore Ayushman Bharat cards have been created and ~4.46 crore hospital admissions (~1 admission every 5 cards). More than 50% of the card share is from five large states – Madhya Pradesh (16.6%), Uttar Pradesh (12.2%), Gujarat (8.3%), Chhattisgarh (7.9%) and Karnataka (6.4%).

Share of hospital admission is found to be higher in the Southern states such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala, viz 19.5% and 10.9%, respectively. This indicates that awareness of the benefits of the Ayushman Bharat scheme seems to be higher among the rural beneficiary families in the southern region.

Highly populous states like Bihar and Maharashtra have very low percentages of Ayushman Bharat card creation as well as hospital admissions. In spite of having a higher share of Ayushman Bharat cards in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the hospital admission shares are low – 4.4% and 5.7%, respectively.

While the majority of the states have very low hospital admissions per 100 Ayushman Bharat cards -ranging between 0 to 25. Tamil Nadu topped with ~331 Hospital admissions per 100 Ayushman Bharat cards followed by Kerala (~68), Rajasthan (~41) and Meghalaya (~32) per 100 cards created.

The load on empanelled hospitals seems to be higher in the states of Bihar and Assam. These states have more than 20 thousand beneficiary families per empanelled hospital. On the other hand, the southern states have approximately only 3 thousand beneficiary families per empanelled hospital.

While there are a total of 28,561 hospitals were empanelled under PM-JAY, a lot of these seem to be inactive. As of Mar ‘23, 22% of these hospitals were inactive, further increasing the load on the active hospitals. ~79% of empanelled hospitals in Arunachal Pradesh and more than 50% of empanelled hospitals in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Manipur are now inactive.

While the PM-JAY scheme provides access to comprehensive healthcare, the most popular services availed were General Medicine (40%) followed by services for Infectious Diseases (15.7%).

Among the procedures, the most popular procedure undertaken has been Hemodialysis (~40.5%) followed by screening tests for COVID-19 Infection(~25.8%). 

3. Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)

On 27 September 2021, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission(ABDM) (earlier known as National Digital Health Mission) was announced with a budget of Rs. 1,600 crore for five years. It aims to develop the backbone to support the integrated digital health infrastructure of the country and create a secure online platform based on open, interoperable digital standards.

4. Pradhan Mantri-Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM)

This mission, earlier known as Pradhan Mantri Atma Nirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana scheme, was provided an outlay of about Rs. 64,180 crores till FY 2025-26 and was launched on 25 October, 2021. This is the largest pan-India scheme for strengthening healthcare infrastructure across the country. The measures under the scheme focus on developing capacities of health systems and institutions across the continuum of care at all levels viz. primary, secondary and tertiary and on preparing health systems for effective response to current and future pandemics/disasters.

Setting up these 4 pillars has paved the path to an underlying commitment of India’s goal for SDG 3 to “leave no one behind” and the coming years will determine whether every rural beneficiary is covered and benefited from this.

Additional resources:

• Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission Dashboard
• Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY Dashboard

This article was originally published by India Data Insights.

Economists have arrived at these estimates through various means, including projections of past data to private sources. One estimate is based on an entirely different threshold for poverty, while another uses unemployment data.

Officially, there has been no update to India’s poverty estimates since 2011, when there were about 269 million poor people in India (21.9% of the population), which was equivalent to 2.5 times the population of Bihar at that time. These estimates are based on data from the Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys, typically carried out every five years. But India is missing two rounds of data.

Poverty numbers are important for gauging the economic progress of a country, and the government also needs these numbers to estimate the number of beneficiaries of schemes, such as the Public Distribution System for food, meant for poverty alleviation.

The official poverty line

Officially, a person who lives on a monthly expenditure of Rs 1,000 or less in cities and Rs 816 or less in villages, at 2011-12 prices is poor, per the poverty line determined by an Expert Group (Tendulkar) in that year. This is the threshold used to determine poverty status in India. Those who live on or below the poverty line can avail of subsidised rations (up to 35 kg for the poorest households) under the National Food Security Act, subsidised loans for construction of housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Prime Minister’s housing scheme), Skill Training for Employment Promotion among Urban Poor (STEP-UP), etc.

Even people who live above the poverty line, especially those in urban areas, lack access to basic facilities.

Madhura Swaminathan, a professor at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, had criticised the poverty threshold at that time, for using a lower consumption of calories than required for a healthy diet, and considering very little expenditure on health and education. Even people who live above the poverty line, especially those in urban areas, lack access to basic facilities like housing, health and education, as IndiaSpend reported in 2022.

The Rangarajan Committee, appointed by the United Progressive Alliance-II government, in 2014 suggested a different poverty threshold, using higher expenditures, and estimated the poor at slightly higher than the 2011 official estimate. But the findings of the committee were not accepted by the government, and the official poverty line continues to be based on the 2011 numbers.

The poverty lines set by both expert groups are based on the expenditure required to purchase a minimum standard of living and includes the expenditure on health, education and housing. The source of consumption data are consumption surveys by the National Statistical Organisation from 2011-12.

Other estimates of poverty in India

Given the lack of recent consumption surveys, poverty estimates have tried using different methodologies on either public or private data.

Estimates of the number of poor people after the 2014 Rangarajan report are based on adjustments to existing data to bring them on par with the NSO data.

Surjit Bhalla, executive director for India at the International Monetary Fund, along with economist Karan Bhasin and Arvind Virmani, a member of the NITI Aayog, used the World Bank’s poverty line of $3.2 as the threshold and growth in expenditure from the National Accounts Statistics to project consumption. They found that poverty had decreased considerably after 2014: Only 2.5% of the population were living on $1.9 a day, the threshold for “extreme poverty”. The authors however suggest that the poverty line be raised to $3.2 a day, and estimate that 26.5% of Indians live below this new poverty line.

As the authors note in the paper, this “is the first paper (at least known to us) to measure the direct explicit effect of in kind-transfers and subsidies on poverty in India”. When they consider the effects of subsidies and in-kind transfers, they estimate that only 0.9% of Indians were extremely poor (living on less than $1.9 per day) and 18.2% were poor (living on $3.2 per day) in 2020.

They estimate that only 2.5% of Indian people were poor (without the effects of food transfer), going by food expenditures recorded from over a week to a year. This is called the “recall period”.

A significant difference between the estimates put forth by the researchers is the use of different “recall periods” or the duration of time over which the survey respondents are asked to list their expenditures. The NSO switched to the mixed recall period or reference period from 1999-2000, meaning that expenses on high-frequency purchases like food are captured over a period of 30 days and those on durables like clothing are captured over the preceding year. On the other hand, the CPHS data are based on the uniform recall period under which all expenditures are recorded over a period of 30 days. A third method, used to estimate both the Rangarajan poverty line and that used by Bhalla, Bhasin and Virmani, considers three different recall periods: a seven-day recall period for some food items, 30-day recall for some items such as rent and utilities, and 365-day recall for other items, such as clothing and shoes.

The methodology used to “forecast (or nowcast)” (sic) poverty, wrote Bhalla, Bhasin and Virmani, is useful in the absence of high-frequency data. However, the absence of data cannot be overcome by just methodology, according to Amaresh Dubey, an economist and senior consultant at the independent economic policy research institute, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in New Delhi. “In fact, we say that methodology is no substitute for the data.”

Researchers at OP Jindal and UNU-Wider university show that poverty rose during the pandemic.

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, which is an independent think-tank that gathers data related to the Indian economy, conducts its own consumption surveys called the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS). Some researchers have used this dataset to estimate poverty. But Jean Dreze and Anmol Somanchi have criticised these data for not being representative of poor households, and researchers have used different techniques to make these estimates more comparable to data from the NSO surveys. In response, Mahesh Vyas, the Managing Director and CEO of CMIE, wrote that the CPHS data have practical limitations but are not biased towards the rich.

For instance, World Bank economists Sutirtha Sinha Roy and Roy van der Weide, adjust the CMIE consumption data to bring it closer to the NSO consumption data in their 2022 paper. They found that the number of people living below the World Bank poverty line fell in 2022, reducing to 145.71 million or 10.2% of the population.

Using the same private data source of CPHS, researchers at OP Jindal and UNU-Wider university show that poverty rose during the pandemic (because of the decline in income) and fell to 4.7% in rural areas and 0.45% in urban areas after the second wave. Their results also confirm that the number of poor people in India in 2022 is less than that in 2011. The difference between their results and those of the World Bank economists is because the latter used different weights for the consumption of poor households to make the results comparable with the traditional poverty estimates based on the NSO data.

The most recent exercise in poverty estimation was by Columbia University economist Arvind Panagariya and Vishal More, an economist and financial researcher with Intelink Advisors in New Delhi, using consumption data gathered as part of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). They found that the number of people below the Tendulkar poverty line fell in 2020-21 and was at 26.9%.

“PLFS data may not be appropriate for estimating poverty,” said P.C. Mohanan, former chief of the National Statistical Commission.

IndiaSpend reached out to the writers of all papers for their comments. This story will be updated when they respond.

Why do we need these data

The consumption expenditure survey for 2022-23 is complete but the results will be released along with the results of the 2023-24 round to make them more credible, according to Mohanan.

In December 2022, we had reported how India is missing key poverty and consumption estimates, and why these data are needed frequently and should be of good quality.

For instance, the data on poverty indicate how many people live above and below the poverty line. But this number changes as people can become richer and move above the poverty line or, become poorer and move below the poverty line.

“Success of poverty eradication initiatives depend on equitable distribution of economic growth, as 87% of poverty reduction has been due to growth. However, those who do not participate in the growth process directly, need to be helped through poverty alleviation programmes,” said Dubey.

Without these data, the respective ministries cannot update the list of beneficiaries for poverty alleviation schemes.

Based on new poverty estimates, India needs to update the list of beneficiaries eligible for food subsidies; using old data could be missing nearly 100 million who need food rations, as we reported in April 2020. Similarly, outdated data from the 2011 census are being used to target beneficiaries for welfare schemes meant for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, etc., we reported in June 2022.

IndiaSpend wrote to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation for their comment on the release of the consumption expenditure survey. This story will be updated when they respond.

This article was originally published on IndiaSpend.