The Bare Necessities | Economic Survey & Government Reports - UPSC PDF Download

 Page 1


CHAPTER
10
Look for the bare necessities, 
The simple bare necessities, 
Forget about your worries and your strife, 
I mean the bare necessities!
—The Jungle Book
Access to “the bare necessities” such as housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean 
cooking fuel are a sine qua non to live a decent life. This chapter examines the progress 
made in providing access to “the bare necessities” by constructing a Bare Necessities 
Index (BNI) at the rural, urban and all India level. The BNI summarises 26 indicators on 
five dimensions viz., water, sanitation, housing, micro-environment, and other facilities. 
The BNI has been created for all states for 2012 and 2018 using data from two NSO 
rounds viz., 69
th
 and 76
th
 on Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition 
in India.
Compared to 2012, access to “the bare necessities” has improved across all States in the 
country in 2018. Access to bare necessities is the highest in the States such as Kerala, 
Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat while it is the lowest in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal 
and Tripura. The improvements are widespread as they span each of the five dimensions 
viz., access to water, housing, sanitation, micro-environment and other facilities. Inter-
State disparities in the access to “the bare necessities” have declined in 2018 when 
compared to 2012 across rural and urban areas. This is because the States where the level 
of access to “the bare necessities” was low in 2012 have gained relatively more between 
2012 and 2018. Access to “the bare necessities” has improved disproportionately more 
for the poorest households when compared to the richest households across rural and 
urban areas. The improvement in equity is particularly noteworthy because while the rich 
can seek private alternatives, lobby for better services, or if need be, move to areas where 
public goods are better provided for, the poor rarely have such choices. 
Using data from the National Family Health Surveys, we correlate the BNI in 2012 
and 2018 with infant mortality rate and under-5 mortality rate in 2015-16 and 2019-
20 respectively and find that the improved access to “the bare necessities” has led to 
improvements in health indicators. Similarly, we also find that improved access to “the 
bare necessities” correlates with future improvements in education indicators.
The Bare Necessities
Page 2


CHAPTER
10
Look for the bare necessities, 
The simple bare necessities, 
Forget about your worries and your strife, 
I mean the bare necessities!
—The Jungle Book
Access to “the bare necessities” such as housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean 
cooking fuel are a sine qua non to live a decent life. This chapter examines the progress 
made in providing access to “the bare necessities” by constructing a Bare Necessities 
Index (BNI) at the rural, urban and all India level. The BNI summarises 26 indicators on 
five dimensions viz., water, sanitation, housing, micro-environment, and other facilities. 
The BNI has been created for all states for 2012 and 2018 using data from two NSO 
rounds viz., 69
th
 and 76
th
 on Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition 
in India.
Compared to 2012, access to “the bare necessities” has improved across all States in the 
country in 2018. Access to bare necessities is the highest in the States such as Kerala, 
Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat while it is the lowest in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal 
and Tripura. The improvements are widespread as they span each of the five dimensions 
viz., access to water, housing, sanitation, micro-environment and other facilities. Inter-
State disparities in the access to “the bare necessities” have declined in 2018 when 
compared to 2012 across rural and urban areas. This is because the States where the level 
of access to “the bare necessities” was low in 2012 have gained relatively more between 
2012 and 2018. Access to “the bare necessities” has improved disproportionately more 
for the poorest households when compared to the richest households across rural and 
urban areas. The improvement in equity is particularly noteworthy because while the rich 
can seek private alternatives, lobby for better services, or if need be, move to areas where 
public goods are better provided for, the poor rarely have such choices. 
Using data from the National Family Health Surveys, we correlate the BNI in 2012 
and 2018 with infant mortality rate and under-5 mortality rate in 2015-16 and 2019-
20 respectively and find that the improved access to “the bare necessities” has led to 
improvements in health indicators. Similarly, we also find that improved access to “the 
bare necessities” correlates with future improvements in education indicators.
The Bare Necessities
314 Economic Survey 2020-21   V olume 1
INTRODUCTION
10.1 Since the 1950s, when Shri. Pitambar Pant advocated the idea of “minimum needs”, the 
idea that economic development can be viewed as a process of providing the “bare necessities 
of life” to citizens has been around in India. A family’s ability to access bare necessities – such 
as housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean cooking fuel – have therefore been regarded 
as an important barometer of economic development in academic and policymaking circles. 
This idea of accessing the bare necessities of life as a sine qua non has resonated with the 
common man as well. No wonder Bollywood’s rhetoric, which often mirrors socio-economic 
issues in the country (Desai, 2004), has zoomed in on “the bare necessities” in movies such as 
Roti, Kapda Aur Makaan (1974). A pointed question by the angry young man Shri. Amitabh 
Bachchan in the 1989 movie Main Azaad Hoon “pkyhl cjl esa] vki ,d balku osQ fy, ,d fxykl 
ikuh ugha ns ldrs] rks vki D;k dj ldrs gSa?” highlights the importance of “the bare necessities” 
to the common man. The song “the bare necessities” in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book 
captures their importance too. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focus on providing 
“the bare necessities” to all: Goal 6 focuses on access to clean water and sanitation to all while, 
goal 7 inter alia aims to provide universal access to electricity and clean cooking fuel. The 
Economic Survey 2019-20 examined access to food through the idea of “Thalinomics: The 
Economics of a Plate of Food in India.” In this chapter, the Economic Survey builds on that 
endeavour by examining the progress made in the country on providing “the bare necessities” 
to all its citizens. 
10.2 The “bare necessities” of housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean cooking fuel are 
jointly consumed by all the members of a household. They, therefore, touch the life of every 
member in the household. As these are durable assets, they deliver services to the household 
over long periods of time. Access to clean drinking water, safe sanitation and clean cooking 
fuel also have direct linkages with health of the members in the household. Access to these 
saves time for a household, which they can utilise in productive activities such as education 
and learning.
10.3 In order to improve access to “the bare necessities,” successive governments have 
made constant efforts. The network of schemes designed to deliver these necessities include 
inter-alia the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), National Rural Drinking Water Programme 
(NRDWP), Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (PMAY), Saubhagya, and Ujjwala Yojana 
(Box-1). These Schemes were equipped with new features such as use of technology, real 
time monitoring, geo-tagging of assets, social audit, embedded digital flow of information, 
and direct benefit transfers wherever possible. As Chapter 10 in the Economic Survey 2018-
19 highlights, these features improved the transparency in governance and enhanced the 
efficiency and effectiveness of the Schemes.
Page 3


CHAPTER
10
Look for the bare necessities, 
The simple bare necessities, 
Forget about your worries and your strife, 
I mean the bare necessities!
—The Jungle Book
Access to “the bare necessities” such as housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean 
cooking fuel are a sine qua non to live a decent life. This chapter examines the progress 
made in providing access to “the bare necessities” by constructing a Bare Necessities 
Index (BNI) at the rural, urban and all India level. The BNI summarises 26 indicators on 
five dimensions viz., water, sanitation, housing, micro-environment, and other facilities. 
The BNI has been created for all states for 2012 and 2018 using data from two NSO 
rounds viz., 69
th
 and 76
th
 on Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition 
in India.
Compared to 2012, access to “the bare necessities” has improved across all States in the 
country in 2018. Access to bare necessities is the highest in the States such as Kerala, 
Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat while it is the lowest in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal 
and Tripura. The improvements are widespread as they span each of the five dimensions 
viz., access to water, housing, sanitation, micro-environment and other facilities. Inter-
State disparities in the access to “the bare necessities” have declined in 2018 when 
compared to 2012 across rural and urban areas. This is because the States where the level 
of access to “the bare necessities” was low in 2012 have gained relatively more between 
2012 and 2018. Access to “the bare necessities” has improved disproportionately more 
for the poorest households when compared to the richest households across rural and 
urban areas. The improvement in equity is particularly noteworthy because while the rich 
can seek private alternatives, lobby for better services, or if need be, move to areas where 
public goods are better provided for, the poor rarely have such choices. 
Using data from the National Family Health Surveys, we correlate the BNI in 2012 
and 2018 with infant mortality rate and under-5 mortality rate in 2015-16 and 2019-
20 respectively and find that the improved access to “the bare necessities” has led to 
improvements in health indicators. Similarly, we also find that improved access to “the 
bare necessities” correlates with future improvements in education indicators.
The Bare Necessities
314 Economic Survey 2020-21   V olume 1
INTRODUCTION
10.1 Since the 1950s, when Shri. Pitambar Pant advocated the idea of “minimum needs”, the 
idea that economic development can be viewed as a process of providing the “bare necessities 
of life” to citizens has been around in India. A family’s ability to access bare necessities – such 
as housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean cooking fuel – have therefore been regarded 
as an important barometer of economic development in academic and policymaking circles. 
This idea of accessing the bare necessities of life as a sine qua non has resonated with the 
common man as well. No wonder Bollywood’s rhetoric, which often mirrors socio-economic 
issues in the country (Desai, 2004), has zoomed in on “the bare necessities” in movies such as 
Roti, Kapda Aur Makaan (1974). A pointed question by the angry young man Shri. Amitabh 
Bachchan in the 1989 movie Main Azaad Hoon “pkyhl cjl esa] vki ,d balku osQ fy, ,d fxykl 
ikuh ugha ns ldrs] rks vki D;k dj ldrs gSa?” highlights the importance of “the bare necessities” 
to the common man. The song “the bare necessities” in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book 
captures their importance too. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focus on providing 
“the bare necessities” to all: Goal 6 focuses on access to clean water and sanitation to all while, 
goal 7 inter alia aims to provide universal access to electricity and clean cooking fuel. The 
Economic Survey 2019-20 examined access to food through the idea of “Thalinomics: The 
Economics of a Plate of Food in India.” In this chapter, the Economic Survey builds on that 
endeavour by examining the progress made in the country on providing “the bare necessities” 
to all its citizens. 
10.2 The “bare necessities” of housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean cooking fuel are 
jointly consumed by all the members of a household. They, therefore, touch the life of every 
member in the household. As these are durable assets, they deliver services to the household 
over long periods of time. Access to clean drinking water, safe sanitation and clean cooking 
fuel also have direct linkages with health of the members in the household. Access to these 
saves time for a household, which they can utilise in productive activities such as education 
and learning.
10.3 In order to improve access to “the bare necessities,” successive governments have 
made constant efforts. The network of schemes designed to deliver these necessities include 
inter-alia the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), National Rural Drinking Water Programme 
(NRDWP), Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (PMAY), Saubhagya, and Ujjwala Yojana 
(Box-1). These Schemes were equipped with new features such as use of technology, real 
time monitoring, geo-tagging of assets, social audit, embedded digital flow of information, 
and direct benefit transfers wherever possible. As Chapter 10 in the Economic Survey 2018-
19 highlights, these features improved the transparency in governance and enhanced the 
efficiency and effectiveness of the Schemes.
315 The Bare Necessities
Scheme Objective Targets and achievements
Swachh Bharat 
Mission-Rural and 
Urban
Objective of SBM-Rural was 
to attain Open Defecation Free 
(ODF) India by 2
nd
 October, 
2019 by providing access 
to toilet facilities to all rural 
households in the country. 
Objective of SBM-Uuban is 
to achieve 100 per cent Open 
Defecation Free (ODF) status 
and 100 per cent scientific 
processing of the Municipal 
Solid Waste (MSW) being 
generated in the country.
Under SBM, rural sanitation coverage 
has made an incredible leap in the 
target achievement with more than 10 
crore toilets built across rural India. 
With a view to sustain the gains made 
under the programme in the last five 
years and to ensure that no one is left 
behind and to achieve the overall 
cleanliness in villages, phase II of 
SBM(G) from 2020-21 to 2024-25 is 
being implemented focusing on ODF 
sustainability and Solid & Liquid 
Waste Management (SLWM) through 
convergence between different verticals 
of financing and various Schemes of 
Central and State Governments such as 
15
th
 Finance Commission grants to local 
bodies, MNREGS, Corporate Social 
Responsibility (CSR) funds etc.
Since its launch in 2014, SBM-U has 
made significant progress in the area 
of both sanitation and solid waste 
management. 4,327 Urban Local Bodies 
(ULBs) have been declared ODF so far. 
This has been made possible through 
construction of more than 66 lakhs 
individual household toilets and over 
6 lakhs community/ public toilets, far 
exceeding the Mission’s targets. The 
Mission is now focusing on holistic 
sanitation through its ODF+ and 
ODF++ protocols with a total of 1,319 
cities certified ODF+ and 489 cities 
certified ODF++ as on date. In the area 
of solid waste management, 100 per 
cent of wards have complete door-to 
door collection. Further, out of 1,40,588 
Tonnes Per Day (TPD) waste generated 
per day, 68 per cent (i.e., 95,676 TPD) 
is being processed.
Box 1: Government Schemes for Bare Necessities
Page 4


CHAPTER
10
Look for the bare necessities, 
The simple bare necessities, 
Forget about your worries and your strife, 
I mean the bare necessities!
—The Jungle Book
Access to “the bare necessities” such as housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean 
cooking fuel are a sine qua non to live a decent life. This chapter examines the progress 
made in providing access to “the bare necessities” by constructing a Bare Necessities 
Index (BNI) at the rural, urban and all India level. The BNI summarises 26 indicators on 
five dimensions viz., water, sanitation, housing, micro-environment, and other facilities. 
The BNI has been created for all states for 2012 and 2018 using data from two NSO 
rounds viz., 69
th
 and 76
th
 on Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition 
in India.
Compared to 2012, access to “the bare necessities” has improved across all States in the 
country in 2018. Access to bare necessities is the highest in the States such as Kerala, 
Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat while it is the lowest in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal 
and Tripura. The improvements are widespread as they span each of the five dimensions 
viz., access to water, housing, sanitation, micro-environment and other facilities. Inter-
State disparities in the access to “the bare necessities” have declined in 2018 when 
compared to 2012 across rural and urban areas. This is because the States where the level 
of access to “the bare necessities” was low in 2012 have gained relatively more between 
2012 and 2018. Access to “the bare necessities” has improved disproportionately more 
for the poorest households when compared to the richest households across rural and 
urban areas. The improvement in equity is particularly noteworthy because while the rich 
can seek private alternatives, lobby for better services, or if need be, move to areas where 
public goods are better provided for, the poor rarely have such choices. 
Using data from the National Family Health Surveys, we correlate the BNI in 2012 
and 2018 with infant mortality rate and under-5 mortality rate in 2015-16 and 2019-
20 respectively and find that the improved access to “the bare necessities” has led to 
improvements in health indicators. Similarly, we also find that improved access to “the 
bare necessities” correlates with future improvements in education indicators.
The Bare Necessities
314 Economic Survey 2020-21   V olume 1
INTRODUCTION
10.1 Since the 1950s, when Shri. Pitambar Pant advocated the idea of “minimum needs”, the 
idea that economic development can be viewed as a process of providing the “bare necessities 
of life” to citizens has been around in India. A family’s ability to access bare necessities – such 
as housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean cooking fuel – have therefore been regarded 
as an important barometer of economic development in academic and policymaking circles. 
This idea of accessing the bare necessities of life as a sine qua non has resonated with the 
common man as well. No wonder Bollywood’s rhetoric, which often mirrors socio-economic 
issues in the country (Desai, 2004), has zoomed in on “the bare necessities” in movies such as 
Roti, Kapda Aur Makaan (1974). A pointed question by the angry young man Shri. Amitabh 
Bachchan in the 1989 movie Main Azaad Hoon “pkyhl cjl esa] vki ,d balku osQ fy, ,d fxykl 
ikuh ugha ns ldrs] rks vki D;k dj ldrs gSa?” highlights the importance of “the bare necessities” 
to the common man. The song “the bare necessities” in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book 
captures their importance too. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focus on providing 
“the bare necessities” to all: Goal 6 focuses on access to clean water and sanitation to all while, 
goal 7 inter alia aims to provide universal access to electricity and clean cooking fuel. The 
Economic Survey 2019-20 examined access to food through the idea of “Thalinomics: The 
Economics of a Plate of Food in India.” In this chapter, the Economic Survey builds on that 
endeavour by examining the progress made in the country on providing “the bare necessities” 
to all its citizens. 
10.2 The “bare necessities” of housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean cooking fuel are 
jointly consumed by all the members of a household. They, therefore, touch the life of every 
member in the household. As these are durable assets, they deliver services to the household 
over long periods of time. Access to clean drinking water, safe sanitation and clean cooking 
fuel also have direct linkages with health of the members in the household. Access to these 
saves time for a household, which they can utilise in productive activities such as education 
and learning.
10.3 In order to improve access to “the bare necessities,” successive governments have 
made constant efforts. The network of schemes designed to deliver these necessities include 
inter-alia the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), National Rural Drinking Water Programme 
(NRDWP), Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (PMAY), Saubhagya, and Ujjwala Yojana 
(Box-1). These Schemes were equipped with new features such as use of technology, real 
time monitoring, geo-tagging of assets, social audit, embedded digital flow of information, 
and direct benefit transfers wherever possible. As Chapter 10 in the Economic Survey 2018-
19 highlights, these features improved the transparency in governance and enhanced the 
efficiency and effectiveness of the Schemes.
315 The Bare Necessities
Scheme Objective Targets and achievements
Swachh Bharat 
Mission-Rural and 
Urban
Objective of SBM-Rural was 
to attain Open Defecation Free 
(ODF) India by 2
nd
 October, 
2019 by providing access 
to toilet facilities to all rural 
households in the country. 
Objective of SBM-Uuban is 
to achieve 100 per cent Open 
Defecation Free (ODF) status 
and 100 per cent scientific 
processing of the Municipal 
Solid Waste (MSW) being 
generated in the country.
Under SBM, rural sanitation coverage 
has made an incredible leap in the 
target achievement with more than 10 
crore toilets built across rural India. 
With a view to sustain the gains made 
under the programme in the last five 
years and to ensure that no one is left 
behind and to achieve the overall 
cleanliness in villages, phase II of 
SBM(G) from 2020-21 to 2024-25 is 
being implemented focusing on ODF 
sustainability and Solid & Liquid 
Waste Management (SLWM) through 
convergence between different verticals 
of financing and various Schemes of 
Central and State Governments such as 
15
th
 Finance Commission grants to local 
bodies, MNREGS, Corporate Social 
Responsibility (CSR) funds etc.
Since its launch in 2014, SBM-U has 
made significant progress in the area 
of both sanitation and solid waste 
management. 4,327 Urban Local Bodies 
(ULBs) have been declared ODF so far. 
This has been made possible through 
construction of more than 66 lakhs 
individual household toilets and over 
6 lakhs community/ public toilets, far 
exceeding the Mission’s targets. The 
Mission is now focusing on holistic 
sanitation through its ODF+ and 
ODF++ protocols with a total of 1,319 
cities certified ODF+ and 489 cities 
certified ODF++ as on date. In the area 
of solid waste management, 100 per 
cent of wards have complete door-to 
door collection. Further, out of 1,40,588 
Tonnes Per Day (TPD) waste generated 
per day, 68 per cent (i.e., 95,676 TPD) 
is being processed.
Box 1: Government Schemes for Bare Necessities
316 Economic Survey 2020-21   V olume 1
Pradhan 
Mantri 
Awaas 
Yojana 
(PMAY)
PMAY intends to provide 
housing for all in urban and 
rural areas by 2022. 
Under PMAY (Urban), as on 18
th
 January, 
2021, 109.2 lakh houses have been sanctioned 
out of which 70.4 lakh houses have been 
grounded for construction of which  41.3 lakh 
have been built to the beneficiaries under 
PMAY(U) since inception of the scheme in 
June, 2015.
The target number of houses for construction 
under PMAY (Gramin) is 2.95 crore in two phases 
i.e. 1.00 crore in Phase I (2016-17 to 2018-19) 
and 1.95 crore in Phase II (2019-20 to 2021-22). 
Since 2014-15, construction of approx. 1.94 crore 
rural houses have been completed, out of which 
1.22 crore houses have been constructed under 
the revamped scheme of PMAY-G and 0.72 crore 
under erstwhile Indira Awaas Yojana scheme.
NRDWP, 
now Jal 
Jeevan 
Mission 
(JJM) 
The objectives of the NRDWP  
was to provide safe and 
adequate water for drinking, 
cooking and other domestic 
needs to every rural person on 
a sustainable basis. Goal of 
JJM is to provide functional 
tap water connection (FTWC) 
every rural household by 
2024 and get assured supply 
of potable piped water at a 
service level of 55 litres per 
capita per day (lpcd) regularly 
on long-term basis by ensuring 
functionality of the tap water 
connections 
At the time of roll out of the scheme in August 
2019, about 3.23 crore (17 per cent) households 
out of total 18.93 crore rural households had tap 
water supply. Remaining 15.70 crore (83 per 
cent) rural households were to be provided with 
functional tap water connections by 2024. Upto 
16
th
 January, 2021, so far about 3.2 crore of rural 
households have been provided with FTWC 
since the launch of the Mission. Keeping with 
‘no one is left out’ principle, 18 districts in the 
country spread across Gujarat (5), Telangana (5), 
Himachal Pradesh (1), Jammu & Kashmir (2), 
Goa (2) and Punjab (3) have become ‘Har Ghar 
Jal districts’whereas 57,935 villages have also 
become ‘Har Ghar Jal Gaon’.
Sahaj Bijli 
Har Ghar 
Yojana – 
Saubhagya
Government launched 
Saubhagya Yojana in October, 
2017 with the objective to 
achieve universal household 
electrification by providing 
electricity connections to 
all willing un-electrified 
households in rural areas and 
all willing poor households in 
urban areas in the country, by 
March, 2019. 
All States have declared electrification of all 
households on Saubhagya portal, except 18,734 
households in Left Wing Extremists (LWE) 
affected areas of Chhattisgarh as on 31.03.2019. 
Electricity connections to 262.84 lakh 
households have been released from 11.10.2017 
to 31.03.2019. Subsequently, seven States 
reported that 19.09 lakh un-electrified households 
identified before 31.03.2019, which were earlier 
un-willing but have expressed willingness to get 
electricity connection. States have been asked to 
electrify these households under Saubhagya. 
Page 5


CHAPTER
10
Look for the bare necessities, 
The simple bare necessities, 
Forget about your worries and your strife, 
I mean the bare necessities!
—The Jungle Book
Access to “the bare necessities” such as housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean 
cooking fuel are a sine qua non to live a decent life. This chapter examines the progress 
made in providing access to “the bare necessities” by constructing a Bare Necessities 
Index (BNI) at the rural, urban and all India level. The BNI summarises 26 indicators on 
five dimensions viz., water, sanitation, housing, micro-environment, and other facilities. 
The BNI has been created for all states for 2012 and 2018 using data from two NSO 
rounds viz., 69
th
 and 76
th
 on Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition 
in India.
Compared to 2012, access to “the bare necessities” has improved across all States in the 
country in 2018. Access to bare necessities is the highest in the States such as Kerala, 
Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat while it is the lowest in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal 
and Tripura. The improvements are widespread as they span each of the five dimensions 
viz., access to water, housing, sanitation, micro-environment and other facilities. Inter-
State disparities in the access to “the bare necessities” have declined in 2018 when 
compared to 2012 across rural and urban areas. This is because the States where the level 
of access to “the bare necessities” was low in 2012 have gained relatively more between 
2012 and 2018. Access to “the bare necessities” has improved disproportionately more 
for the poorest households when compared to the richest households across rural and 
urban areas. The improvement in equity is particularly noteworthy because while the rich 
can seek private alternatives, lobby for better services, or if need be, move to areas where 
public goods are better provided for, the poor rarely have such choices. 
Using data from the National Family Health Surveys, we correlate the BNI in 2012 
and 2018 with infant mortality rate and under-5 mortality rate in 2015-16 and 2019-
20 respectively and find that the improved access to “the bare necessities” has led to 
improvements in health indicators. Similarly, we also find that improved access to “the 
bare necessities” correlates with future improvements in education indicators.
The Bare Necessities
314 Economic Survey 2020-21   V olume 1
INTRODUCTION
10.1 Since the 1950s, when Shri. Pitambar Pant advocated the idea of “minimum needs”, the 
idea that economic development can be viewed as a process of providing the “bare necessities 
of life” to citizens has been around in India. A family’s ability to access bare necessities – such 
as housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean cooking fuel – have therefore been regarded 
as an important barometer of economic development in academic and policymaking circles. 
This idea of accessing the bare necessities of life as a sine qua non has resonated with the 
common man as well. No wonder Bollywood’s rhetoric, which often mirrors socio-economic 
issues in the country (Desai, 2004), has zoomed in on “the bare necessities” in movies such as 
Roti, Kapda Aur Makaan (1974). A pointed question by the angry young man Shri. Amitabh 
Bachchan in the 1989 movie Main Azaad Hoon “pkyhl cjl esa] vki ,d balku osQ fy, ,d fxykl 
ikuh ugha ns ldrs] rks vki D;k dj ldrs gSa?” highlights the importance of “the bare necessities” 
to the common man. The song “the bare necessities” in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book 
captures their importance too. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focus on providing 
“the bare necessities” to all: Goal 6 focuses on access to clean water and sanitation to all while, 
goal 7 inter alia aims to provide universal access to electricity and clean cooking fuel. The 
Economic Survey 2019-20 examined access to food through the idea of “Thalinomics: The 
Economics of a Plate of Food in India.” In this chapter, the Economic Survey builds on that 
endeavour by examining the progress made in the country on providing “the bare necessities” 
to all its citizens. 
10.2 The “bare necessities” of housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean cooking fuel are 
jointly consumed by all the members of a household. They, therefore, touch the life of every 
member in the household. As these are durable assets, they deliver services to the household 
over long periods of time. Access to clean drinking water, safe sanitation and clean cooking 
fuel also have direct linkages with health of the members in the household. Access to these 
saves time for a household, which they can utilise in productive activities such as education 
and learning.
10.3 In order to improve access to “the bare necessities,” successive governments have 
made constant efforts. The network of schemes designed to deliver these necessities include 
inter-alia the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), National Rural Drinking Water Programme 
(NRDWP), Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (PMAY), Saubhagya, and Ujjwala Yojana 
(Box-1). These Schemes were equipped with new features such as use of technology, real 
time monitoring, geo-tagging of assets, social audit, embedded digital flow of information, 
and direct benefit transfers wherever possible. As Chapter 10 in the Economic Survey 2018-
19 highlights, these features improved the transparency in governance and enhanced the 
efficiency and effectiveness of the Schemes.
315 The Bare Necessities
Scheme Objective Targets and achievements
Swachh Bharat 
Mission-Rural and 
Urban
Objective of SBM-Rural was 
to attain Open Defecation Free 
(ODF) India by 2
nd
 October, 
2019 by providing access 
to toilet facilities to all rural 
households in the country. 
Objective of SBM-Uuban is 
to achieve 100 per cent Open 
Defecation Free (ODF) status 
and 100 per cent scientific 
processing of the Municipal 
Solid Waste (MSW) being 
generated in the country.
Under SBM, rural sanitation coverage 
has made an incredible leap in the 
target achievement with more than 10 
crore toilets built across rural India. 
With a view to sustain the gains made 
under the programme in the last five 
years and to ensure that no one is left 
behind and to achieve the overall 
cleanliness in villages, phase II of 
SBM(G) from 2020-21 to 2024-25 is 
being implemented focusing on ODF 
sustainability and Solid & Liquid 
Waste Management (SLWM) through 
convergence between different verticals 
of financing and various Schemes of 
Central and State Governments such as 
15
th
 Finance Commission grants to local 
bodies, MNREGS, Corporate Social 
Responsibility (CSR) funds etc.
Since its launch in 2014, SBM-U has 
made significant progress in the area 
of both sanitation and solid waste 
management. 4,327 Urban Local Bodies 
(ULBs) have been declared ODF so far. 
This has been made possible through 
construction of more than 66 lakhs 
individual household toilets and over 
6 lakhs community/ public toilets, far 
exceeding the Mission’s targets. The 
Mission is now focusing on holistic 
sanitation through its ODF+ and 
ODF++ protocols with a total of 1,319 
cities certified ODF+ and 489 cities 
certified ODF++ as on date. In the area 
of solid waste management, 100 per 
cent of wards have complete door-to 
door collection. Further, out of 1,40,588 
Tonnes Per Day (TPD) waste generated 
per day, 68 per cent (i.e., 95,676 TPD) 
is being processed.
Box 1: Government Schemes for Bare Necessities
316 Economic Survey 2020-21   V olume 1
Pradhan 
Mantri 
Awaas 
Yojana 
(PMAY)
PMAY intends to provide 
housing for all in urban and 
rural areas by 2022. 
Under PMAY (Urban), as on 18
th
 January, 
2021, 109.2 lakh houses have been sanctioned 
out of which 70.4 lakh houses have been 
grounded for construction of which  41.3 lakh 
have been built to the beneficiaries under 
PMAY(U) since inception of the scheme in 
June, 2015.
The target number of houses for construction 
under PMAY (Gramin) is 2.95 crore in two phases 
i.e. 1.00 crore in Phase I (2016-17 to 2018-19) 
and 1.95 crore in Phase II (2019-20 to 2021-22). 
Since 2014-15, construction of approx. 1.94 crore 
rural houses have been completed, out of which 
1.22 crore houses have been constructed under 
the revamped scheme of PMAY-G and 0.72 crore 
under erstwhile Indira Awaas Yojana scheme.
NRDWP, 
now Jal 
Jeevan 
Mission 
(JJM) 
The objectives of the NRDWP  
was to provide safe and 
adequate water for drinking, 
cooking and other domestic 
needs to every rural person on 
a sustainable basis. Goal of 
JJM is to provide functional 
tap water connection (FTWC) 
every rural household by 
2024 and get assured supply 
of potable piped water at a 
service level of 55 litres per 
capita per day (lpcd) regularly 
on long-term basis by ensuring 
functionality of the tap water 
connections 
At the time of roll out of the scheme in August 
2019, about 3.23 crore (17 per cent) households 
out of total 18.93 crore rural households had tap 
water supply. Remaining 15.70 crore (83 per 
cent) rural households were to be provided with 
functional tap water connections by 2024. Upto 
16
th
 January, 2021, so far about 3.2 crore of rural 
households have been provided with FTWC 
since the launch of the Mission. Keeping with 
‘no one is left out’ principle, 18 districts in the 
country spread across Gujarat (5), Telangana (5), 
Himachal Pradesh (1), Jammu & Kashmir (2), 
Goa (2) and Punjab (3) have become ‘Har Ghar 
Jal districts’whereas 57,935 villages have also 
become ‘Har Ghar Jal Gaon’.
Sahaj Bijli 
Har Ghar 
Yojana – 
Saubhagya
Government launched 
Saubhagya Yojana in October, 
2017 with the objective to 
achieve universal household 
electrification by providing 
electricity connections to 
all willing un-electrified 
households in rural areas and 
all willing poor households in 
urban areas in the country, by 
March, 2019. 
All States have declared electrification of all 
households on Saubhagya portal, except 18,734 
households in Left Wing Extremists (LWE) 
affected areas of Chhattisgarh as on 31.03.2019. 
Electricity connections to 262.84 lakh 
households have been released from 11.10.2017 
to 31.03.2019. Subsequently, seven States 
reported that 19.09 lakh un-electrified households 
identified before 31.03.2019, which were earlier 
un-willing but have expressed willingness to get 
electricity connection. States have been asked to 
electrify these households under Saubhagya. 
317 The Bare Necessities
These households are being electrified by the 
concerned States and as on 20.12.2019, electricity 
connections to 7.42 lakh Households have been 
released.
Pradhan 
Mantri 
Ujjwala 
Yojana 
(PMUY)
PMUY launched in May, 
2016 in order to provide 
clean cooking fuel to poor 
households with a target 
to provide 8 crore deposit 
free LPG connection. This 
connection is provided in 
the name of an adult woman 
member of a poor family and 
the beneficiary has an option to 
avail connection with 14.2 kg 
or 5 kg cylinder. The existing 
beneficiary with 14.2 kg LPG 
cylinder has an option to swap 
with 5 kg cylinder also.
Under PMUY , a target to provide 8 crore new LPG 
connections has been achieved in September, 
2019, 7 months in advance of the target date of 
31
st
 March, 2020. 
Source: Complied based on information received from concerned Ministries/Departments
10.4 To measure the progress in the delivery of “the bare necessities”, the Survey develops a 
composite index called the Bare Necessities Index (BNI); see Box 2 for the details about the 
construction of the index. The BNI measures access to “the bare necessities” for households 
in rural areas, urban areas and at the all India level. These necessities are measured using 26 
comparable indicators on five dimensions viz., water, sanitation, housing, micro-environment, 
and other facilities. The indicators used to capture the availability and quality of housing, access 
to bathroom, kitchen, toilet, drinking water, waste discharge facilities, clean cooking fuel and 
disease free environment, etc. The composite index for the States/UTs for 2012 and 2018 has 
been created using data mainly from two NSO rounds viz., 69
th
 (2012) and 76
th
 (2018), on 
Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, and Housing Condition in India.
Box 2: The Bare Necessities Index
The “basic needs” approach to economic development focuses on the minimum specified quantities 
of basic necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, water and sanitation that are necessary to prevent 
ill health, and undernourishment (Streeten, 1981; Emmerij, 2010). Sen (1999) defines poverty as a 
failure to achieve certain minimum basic needs or capacities. Shaffer (2008) similarly defines poverty 
as the deprivation of material requirements for the minimum acceptable fulfilment of basic needs. 
The Bare Necessities Index (BNI) is an attempt to quantify this approach to economic development 
using data from the National Statistical Office (NSO).
The data for developing the Bare Necessities Index (BNI) is sourced from two NSO Rounds on 
drinking water, sanitation, hygiene, and housing condition in India: 69
th
 (2012) and 76
th
 (2018). The 
data on the indicator ‘household using LPG for cooking’ for 2011-12 is taken from NSO Report on 
Energy Sources of Indian Households for Cooking and Lighting 2011-12. The BNI is created for all