Poverty and malnutrition create a vicious cycle, adversely affecting human capital formation. What steps can be taken to break the cycle ?
Approach · directive: “what”
What it asks · Explain the two-way link between poverty and malnutrition and how it erodes human capital, then propose steps across nutrition, health, water and livelihoods to break it.
The question has 2 parts — answer each
- Explain the vicious cycle: how poverty and malnutrition reinforce each other and erode human capital
- What steps can break the cycle: concrete measures across nutrition, health, water and sanitation, livelihoods and governance
Open with · Poverty limits diets and access to care; malnutrition in turn lowers learning, productivity and earnings — passing deprivation across generations.
Cover
- The cycle: undernourished mothers, low birth weight, stunting, weaker cognition and schooling, low-wage work, and poverty again.
- Scale: NFHS-5 found about 35.5% of children under five stunted, with anaemia widespread among women and children.
- Nutrition-specific: focus on the first 1,000 days — POSHAN Abhiyaan, anganwadi services, PM POSHAN, fortified rice, maternity benefit.
- Nutrition-sensitive: sanitation and safe water (Swachh Bharat, Jal Jeevan Mission), women's education, diet diversity including millets.
- Income: MGNREGA, SHG livelihoods and social protection raise purchasing power for food and care.
- Governance: convergence across ministries, Poshan Tracker monitoring, community management of acute malnutrition, behaviour-change campaigns.
Close with · Breaking the cycle needs convergence of nutrition, health, water and livelihoods, concentrated on the first 1,000 days of life.
Add value (verified)
- Article 47 makes nutrition and public health a primary duty of the State. The Constitution of India (as on 1 May 2024), Article 47 — Legislative Department ↗“The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2024, GS Paper II — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 193 words (UPSC limit 150) · Minimalist IAS
Poverty restricts diets, care and sanitation; malnutrition in turn lowers learning, productivity and earnings, so deprivation passes to the next generation. Article 47 makes nutrition and public health a primary duty of the State.
The cycle and its cost
- Undernourished mothers bear low-birth-weight children; stunting in the first two years impairs cognition and schooling; adults enter low-wage work and stay poor.
- Scale: NFHS-5 (2019–21) found about 35.5% of children under five stunted, with anaemia widespread among women and children.
Steps to break it
- First 1,000 days: POSHAN Abhiyaan, anganwadi services, maternity benefit, fortified rice through the PDS and PM POSHAN school meals.
- Nutrition-sensitive: safe water and sanitation through the Jal Jeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat, girls' education, and diet diversity including millets and kitchen gardens.
- Health: community management of severe acute malnutrition, deworming, immunisation and ante-natal care through Ayushman Arogya Mandirs.
- Income: MGNREGA, SHG-based livelihoods and social protection raise household purchasing power for food and care.
- Governance: convergence across ministries, Poshan Tracker monitoring, behaviour-change campaigns and community participation.
Breaking the cycle requires converging nutrition, health, water and livelihoods on the first 1,000 days — human capital is built before a child reaches school.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.