Explain intra-generational and inter-generational issues of equity from the perspective of inclusive growth and sustainable development.
Approach · directive: “explain”
What it asks · Explain what equity within one generation and equity between generations mean, and link each to inclusive growth and to sustainable development.
It asks 2 things — answer each
- Explain intra-generational equity and link it to inclusive growth
- Explain inter-generational equity and link it to sustainable development
Open with · Sustainable development (Brundtland Report, 1987) meets 'the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. Two equities follow: among people alive today, and towards those yet to come.
Cover
- Intra-generational equity: fairness among people alive today, across income, gender, caste, region and the rural-urban divide, in access to jobs, health, education and resources.
- Inclusive growth lens: growth that bypasses the poor and informal workers widens gaps; remedies are jobs, skills, social protection, financial inclusion and basic services.
- Inter-generational equity: today's use of forests, groundwater, soil, minerals, the atmosphere and public debt should not leave future generations poorer or burdened.
- Sustainability lens: groundwater depletion, coal-heavy growth and climate change shift costs to the young and the unborn, while today's poor face the first impact.
- Tension: poverty can force over-use of commons, and a growth-first push helps today's poor but can burden the future, so the two equities need balancing.
- Response: universal basic services and targeted transfers, polluter-pays and precautionary principles, green finance, renewables and the SDG pledge to leave no one behind.
Close with · Growth passes both tests only when it keeps the SDG pledge to leave no one behind today while staying within ecological limits, so that no cost is passed to those who cannot yet speak.
Add value (verified)
- Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992), Principle 3: the right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet the developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations.Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992), text hosted by the Convention on Biological Diversity ↗“Principle 3 The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2020, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 3 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 222words · Minimalist IAS
Sustainable development (Brundtland Report, 1987) meets 'the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. Two equities follow: among people alive today, and towards those yet to come.
Intra-generational equity: the inclusive growth test
- Meaning: fair access to jobs, health, education and resources across income, gender, caste and region.
- Inclusive growth lens: growth that bypasses informal workers and lagging regions widens gaps; the remedies are jobs, skills, social protection and basic services.
Inter-generational equity: the sustainable development test
- Meaning: today's use of forests, groundwater, minerals, the atmosphere and public debt must not leave later generations poorer.
- Sustainability lens: groundwater depletion, coal-heavy growth and climate change shift costs to the young and the unborn, who have no vote today.
- Tools: the polluter-pays and precautionary principles, green finance and fiscal prudence.
| Aspect | Intra-generational | Inter-generational |
|---|---|---|
| Fairness among | People alive today | Present and future generations |
| Policy test | Inclusive growth | Sustainable development |
Balancing the two
- The tension: poverty forces over-use of the commons, while growth-first policies help today's poor but burden tomorrow; Rio Principle 3 (1992) asks that development meet present and future needs 'equitably'.
Growth passes both tests only when it keeps the SDG pledge to leave no one behind today while staying within ecological limits, so that no cost is passed to those who cannot yet speak.
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 3 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
