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CSAT 2020 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2020 · Question 42 · Reading comprehension

With reference to the above passage, which of the following is/are the most rational and practical…

Passage—2

India is at once among the fastest growing global economies and home to the largest number of malnourished children in the world. There are regions where malnutrition is not the exception but the norm. And across the country, malnutrition is the cause of death for roughly half the 1.3 million children who die before their fifth birthday each year. Even those children who survive suffer permanently from the damage that has already been done to their bodies and minds from not getting enough of the right foods and nutrients. Around 44 million children under 5 are stunted. That makes it harder for them to learn in school and subsequently earn a living as adults. Their lifetime earnings potential is almost a quarter less than that of their healthy peers.

CSAT 2020 · Q42

Reading comprehension Medium

With reference to the above passage, which of the following is/are the most rational and practical implication/implications?

  1. 1.India’s Public Distribution System should be monitored by the Union Government.
  2. 2.Girls should be encouraged to delay marriage and first pregnancy.
  3. 3.Mothers should be encouraged to breastfeed their children immediately after birth.
  4. 4.The supply of safe drinking water and proper sanitation facilities to all should be ensured.
  5. 5.Authorities should ensure the vaccination as prescribed.

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

Answer & explanation

Answer: (b) 2, 3, 4 and 5

The passage describes child malnutrition that kills, stunts and harms learning and earnings. Delayed marriage and pregnancy, early breastfeeding, safe water and sanitation, and vaccination all act directly on a young child's nutrition and health. Who monitors the PDS is an administrative question the passage gives no basis for.

  • ✗ 1. The passage says nothing about the PDS failing or about which government should monitor it; shifting control does not follow from the problem described.
  • ✓ 2. Very early pregnancies often mean undernourished mothers and low-weight babies; delaying marriage and first pregnancy gives the child a healthier start against the early damage the passage describes.
  • ✓ 3. Children suffer from 'not getting enough of the right foods and nutrients'; breastfeeding from birth is the first and most direct source of them.
  • ✓ 4. Unsafe water and poor sanitation cause repeated infections that stop a child's body from using food, feeding the stunting the passage describes.
  • ✓ 5. Malnutrition causes about half of under-5 deaths; preventing diseases through vaccination protects already weak children and their growth.

Remember · For 'practical implications', keep steps that act directly on the problem described; drop those about which authority should control a scheme.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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