Revision summary
Poverty and hunger rest on insecure earnings, unequal land and social access, and weak health and education. Climate and delivery leaks turn a shock into chronic hunger. NFSA 2013 and PMGKAY supply a cereal floor; MGNREGA supplies rural wages. NRLM, PMAY-G, PM POSHAN, POSHAN Abhiyaan, and ICDS attack livelihood, housing, and nutrition. Cereal rations do not by themselves end micronutrient hunger.
Model answer
Introduction
Poverty and hunger in India are not only low income; they are also weak work, weak food systems, and weak public delivery. Causes and schemes must be read together, because a scheme that ignores a cause will leak.
Body
Fundamental causes
- Low and irregular earnings from casual labour and tiny farms leave households without a buffer when prices or illness hit.
- Unequal land, caste, gender, and region mean that growth does not reach the same plate; hunger is often a distribution failure, not a national grain shortage.
- Poor sanitation, health, and education trap families in low productivity, so poverty reproduces across generations.
- Climate shocks, conflict displacement, and leaky last-mile delivery turn a bad season into chronic undernutrition.
Schemes to eliminate poverty and hunger
- The National Food Security Act, 2013, and later free-grain windows such as PMGKAY give a legal or administrative cereal floor to priority households.
- MGNREGA, 2005, supplies rural wage work; DAY-NRLM and PMAY-G attack livelihood and housing poverty.
- PM POSHAN, POSHAN Abhiyaan, ICDS, and Antyodaya Anna Yojana target children, mothers, and the poorest eaters, not only the BPL list.
Limits
- Cesses, targeting errors, and nutrition quality (protein, micronutrients) still sit outside a cereal ration, so hunger can persist after a full PDS bag.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD C[Low work unequal assets shocks] --> P[Poverty and hunger] P --> S[NFSA MGNREGA POSHAN PMAY] S --> O[Food wage nutrition housing]
Conclusion
The fundamental causes of poverty and hunger are insecure work, unequal assets, and weak human development, not a single missing scheme. Elimination programmes work only when NFSA-type food floors, wage work, and nutrition missions close the same household gap.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Discuss the role of non-governmental organisations in the process of policy making.
Next question in the 2022 paper (Q3). View answer →
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Is hunger in India only a production problem?
No. India produces enough grain in normal years. Access, purchasing power, and diet quality are the usual binding constraints.
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Does MGNREGA feed people directly?
It pays wages that buy food. Direct grain still comes through PDS, NFSA, and related food schemes.
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