UPSC Mains 2019 GS2 Q7 — Poverty and Hunger
There is a growing divergence in the relationship between poverty and hunger in India. The shrinking of social expenditure by the government is forcing the poor to spend more on non-food essential items squeezing their food-budget. — Elucidate.
Question Decoded — examiner's intent
- Directive verbs
- Elucidate
- Scope keywords
- growing divergencerelationship between poverty and hungershrinking of social expenditurenon-food essential itemssqueezing their food-budget
- Implicit sub-parts
- Evidence of the divergence: Why poverty figures might decline while hunger/malnutrition persists.
- Identification of non-food essential costs: Specific sectors like health, education, and transport where private spending has risen.
- Mechanisms of the 'Squeeze': How state withdrawal from public services directly impacts the household calorie intake.
- The role of the 'expenditure-income gap' in redefining the poverty line vs. nutritional security.
- Common pitfalls
- Treating it as a generic essay on poverty without addressing the 'divergence' or the specific link to 'hunger'.
- Failing to mention the 'shrinkage of social expenditure' as the primary cause, focusing instead only on inflation.
- Over-focusing on PDS and food schemes instead of non-food expenditures like health and private education.
- Neglecting to mention that even as income rises above the poverty line, the quality of nutrition may actually decline (the calorie-expenditure paradox).
- Dimensions required
- Economic (Budgetary allocation/Out-of-pocket expenditure)Sociological (Impact on vulnerable groups)Public Policy (Education, Health, and Transport infrastructure)Statistical (NSSO/NFHS data trends)
- Marks allocation hint
Spend 25-30 words establishing the divergence with data (e.g., NFHS or Global Hunger Index vs. Poverty headcount). Dedicate 80 words to the core mechanism: how high out-of-pocket costs in health and education force trade-offs against nutrition. Conclude with 40 words on policy shifts required to bridge the gap between being 'non-poor' and 'well-nourished'.
Unlock the full analysis for this question
You've seen the question and its examiner-intent decoding. Subscribers also get:
- 🔗 Similar Previous Year Questions — cross-year, cross-paper matches so you study the topic, not the question
- 📚 Source Map — verified citations from Laxmikanth, NCERT, PRS, Yojana, Economic Survey, Spectrum
- 🌱 How this topic is evolving — current-affairs bridge anchored to live TARS news clustering
- 🧭 Examiner's Pattern — how the topic has been framed across every year UPSC has tested it
- ✍️ Answer Skeleton — a structured outline (intro → body → conclusion) you can flesh out
- 🎯 AI evaluation — write your answer, get rubric-based scoring from gs-eval
Or browse 132+ free preview questions across all years and papers — the first 3 questions of every paper are unlocked.
Ready to practice?
Subscribers can attempt this question in 150 words and get an instant, rubric-based evaluation showing where they stand.
Subscribe to evaluate your answer →