GS Paper I 2016 · Q9
12½ marks · 200 words Women, population, poverty & urbanisation X-Ray · Core #34“An essential condition to eradicate poverty is to liberate the poor from the process of deprivation.” Substantiate this statement with suitable examples.
Approach · directive: “substantiate”
What it asks · Show with examples that poverty ends only when the processes that keep people deprived (of assets, education, health, voice) are broken, not just when income rises.
It asks 2 things — answer each
- Substantiate: what 'the process of deprivation' means and why breaking it is essential to eradicate poverty
- Substantiate with suitable examples of interventions that liberate the poor from deprivation
Open with · Amartya Sen's capability approach treats poverty as deprivation of health, education and access to resources; deprivation is a self-reinforcing process, so income support alone cannot end poverty.
Cover
- Amartya Sen's capability approach: poverty is deprivation of health, education and access to resources, not only low income.
- Deprivation as a cycle: landlessness, debt, ill health and dropping out pass poverty to the next generation.
- Discrimination compounds it for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women.
- Measurement: SECC 2011 deprivation criteria; since then NITI Aayog's MPI fell from 29.17% (2013-14) to 11.28% (2022-23).
- Examples: MGNREGA (2005), NFSA 2013, RTE 2009, National Health Mission, Kerala's land reform and schooling.
- Assets and voice: Forest Rights Act 2006, PMAY-G, SHGs under NRLM, Jan Dhan (2014), reserved panchayat seats.
Close with · SDG target 1.2 asks India to halve poverty in all its dimensions by 2030; the multidimensional approach shows that freeing people from deprivation is both the route out of poverty and its destination.
Add value (verified)
- NITI Aayog's discussion paper (January 2024) finds the multidimensional poverty headcount fell from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23, with 24.82 crore people escaping.24.82 crore Indians escape Multidimensional Poverty in last 9 years — PIB (NITI Aayog) ↗“24.82 crore Indians escape Multidimensional Poverty in last 9 years. Steep decline in Poverty Headcount Ratio from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23.”
- SDG target 1.2 seeks to halve, by 2030, the proportion of people living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere — UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs ↗“Target 1.2 By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2016, GS Paper I — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 16 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 296words · Minimalist IAS
The capability approach of Amartya Sen treats poverty as deprivation of health, education and access to resources, not merely low income. Deprivation is a process whose links reinforce one another, so breaking that process is the precondition for ending poverty.
- landlessness and debt
- low wages and ill health
- children leave school
- low skills
- poverty passed on
Why liberation from deprivation is essential
- A cycle, not a state: a landless labourer borrows when ill and withdraws children from school, so a cash transfer alone leaks back into the cycle.
- Discrimination compounds it: Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women face exclusion from land, credit and jobs, so equal income buys them less freedom.
- Measurement agrees: the SECC 2011 identified rural households by deprivations such as landlessness and manual labour; since then, NITI Aayog's multidimensional poverty ratio fell from 29.17% (2013-14) to 11.28% (2022-23), with 24.82 crore people escaping.
Examples of liberating interventions
- Rights to work and food: MGNREGA (2005) gives a legal right to 100 days of wage work; the National Food Security Act 2013 makes subsidised grain an entitlement.
- Capabilities: the Right to Education Act 2009, mid-day meals and the National Health Mission raise the next generation's earning power; Kerala's land reform and schooling delivered high human development at modest incomes.
- Assets and tenure: the Forest Rights Act 2006 and PMAY-G houses, targeted through SECC deprivation data, give a base that a drought cannot wash away.
- Voice and credit: Self-Help Groups under NRLM, Jan Dhan accounts (2014) and reserved panchayat seats give the poor credit, identity and a say in decisions.
SDG target 1.2 asks nations to halve poverty "in all its dimensions according to national definitions" by 2030; India's experience shows that freeing people from deprivation is both the route out of poverty and its destination.
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 16 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
