Bare Necessities Index

Bare Necessities Index

Economic Survey 2020-21 constructs a Bare Necessities Index (BNI) at the rural, urban and all India level. The BNI summarises 26 indicators on five dimensions viz., water, sanitation, housing, micro-environment, and other facilities. The BNI has been created for all States for 2012 and 2018 using data from two NSO rounds viz., 69th and 76th on Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition in India.

About the index

The index has been developed as a means of assessing economic development using the "basic needs" approach.

This approach sets minimum specified quantities of 26 basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter, water, and sanitation, housing, micro-environment, and other facilities.

It has been defined based on data collected by the National Statistical Office on the abovementioned dimensions in 2012 and 2018.

The BNI is built on the idea of Thalinomics in the Economic Survey for 2019-20, through which it had sought to examine the access to food in the country.

The Economic Survey (2020-21) has underlined the need to focus on reducing variations in the access to bare necessities across states, between rural and urban areas, and between income groups.

With us moving to a completely digital era, the bare necessities are no more confined to “Roti, Kapda aur Makan” but goes beyond it.

Access to technology; smartphones, internet and connectivity with the whole nation are the newly added bare necessities to go hand in hand with the world.

Steps taken to Provide the Bare Necessities

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Saubhaggya yojana for housing.

PM-JAY and National Health Mission for the health sector. Increased allocations for some of the bare necessities in the budget 2020-21 such as the health.

PM eVIDYA, Swayam Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and PRAGYATA in the educational sector.

Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana: It is aimed at incentivising the creation of new employment opportunities during the Covid-19 economic recovery phase.

Niti Aayog Sustainable Development Goals Index: The index documents the progress made by India’s States and Union Territories towards achieving the 2030 SDG targets.

Improvements across various dimensions

According to the survey access to drinking water to households in most of the States has improved in 2018 compared to 2012 in rural as well as urban areas.

Survey also shows that the sanitation access has improved for all States in rural areas and for most of the States in urban areas in 2018 compared to 2012.

Survey observes improvement in Housing Index also indicating improvement in access to housing and reduction in inter-States disparities with disproportionate benefits for the lowest income group in 2018 vis-à-vis 2012.

The economic Survey also notes improvement in micro environment for all States in 2018 except for Assam in rural and Odisha and Assam in urban areas as compared to 2012.

Similarly Survey has observed improvement in access to other facilities which captures the availability of Kitchen, Kitchen with a water tap, good ventilation in house, access to bathroom, electricity use and type of fuel used for cooking.

Improved health and education outcomes

Survey also points to a positive correlation between access to bare necessities and better health and education outcome, it observes improvement in child survival, decline in still births, malnutrition, and infant mortality with improved access to sanitation and clean drinking water.

Further electrification and access to toilets in schools has also increased educational outcome, says the Economic Survey.