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.
It asks 2 things — 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 food, nutrition, health, water and sanitation, livelihoods and governance
Open with · NFHS-5 found 35.5% of children under five stunted; stunted children grow into less productive adults, so poverty and malnutrition feed each other 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 35.5% of under-fives stunted and more than half of children and women anaemic.
- Food security: PMGKAY free foodgrains for 81.35 crore beneficiaries for five years.
- First 1,000 days: POSHAN Abhiyaan, anganwadi services, maternity benefit, fortified rice, PM POSHAN.
- Nutrition-sensitive: Jal Jeevan Mission, Swachh Bharat, girls' education, millets; health: CMAM, deworming, immunisation.
- Income and governance: MGNREGA, SHG livelihoods, Poshan Tracker and convergence; 24.82 crore escaped multidimensional poverty in 9 years.
Close with · Article 47 and SDG Target 2.2, ending all forms of malnutrition by 2030, demand converging food, health, water and income on the first 1,000 days.
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”
- NFHS-5 (PIB): stunting among children under five fell from 38.4% to 35.5%.NFHS-5 national report release - PIB, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare ↗“Stunting has reduced from 38.4% to 35.5%, Wasting has reduced from 21.0% to 19.3%”
- NFHS-5 phase 2: more than half of children and women, including pregnant women, are anaemic.NFHS-5 Phase 2 factsheets - PIB, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare ↗“Anaemia among children and women continues to be a cause of concern.More than half of the children and women (including pregnant women)”
- The Cabinet decided to provide free foodgrains under PMGKAY to 81.35 crore beneficiaries for five years.Free Foodgrains for 81.35 crore beneficiaries for five years: Cabinet Decision - PIB ↗“Free Foodgrains for 81.35 crore beneficiaries for five years: Cabinet Decision”
- NITI Aayog: 24.82 crore Indians escaped multidimensional poverty between 2013-14 and 2022-23.NITI Aayog discussion paper on multidimensional poverty - PIB ↗“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 2.2 aims to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030.Goal 2 - UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Sustainable Development ↗“By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2024, GS Paper II — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 3 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 222words · Minimalist IAS
NFHS-5 found 35.5% of children under five stunted. A stunted child grows into a less productive adult, so poverty and malnutrition feed each other across generations.
How the vicious cycle erodes human capital
- Undernourished mother
- Low birth weight
- Stunting, anaemia
- Weak learning, low wages
- Poverty again
- Intergenerational transfer: poor diets in pregnancy produce low-birth-weight babies.
- Hidden hunger: NFHS-5 found more than half of children and women anaemic, sapping energy and attention.
- Lost productivity: early stunting impairs cognition, schooling and adult earnings, locking families in low-wage work.
Steps to break the cycle
- Food security: PMGKAY gives free foodgrains to 81.35 crore beneficiaries for five years.
- First 1,000 days: POSHAN Abhiyaan, anganwadi services, maternity benefit, fortified rice and PM POSHAN school meals.
- Nutrition-sensitive: safe water and sanitation (Jal Jeevan Mission, Swachh Bharat), girls' education and millets for diet diversity.
- Health: community management of acute malnutrition, deworming and immunisation.
- Income: MGNREGA and SHG livelihoods raise purchasing power for food and care.
- Governance: Poshan Tracker monitoring, convergence across ministries and behaviour-change campaigns.
- Proof it works: NITI Aayog estimates 24.82 crore Indians escaped multidimensional poverty in nine years.
Article 47 makes nutrition a primary duty of the State, and SDG Target 2.2 seeks to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030. Both are met only when food, health, water and income converge on the first 1,000 days.
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.
