Page 330 - ES 2020-21_Volume-1-2 [28-01-21]

10

The Bare Necessities

CHAPTER

Look for the bare necessities,
The simple bare necessities,
Forget about your worries and your strife,
I mean the bare necessities!
—The Jungle Book

Access to “the bare necessities” such as housing, water, sanitation, electricity and clean
cooking fuel are a sine qua non to live a decent life. This chapter examines the progress
made in providing access to “the bare necessities” by constructing 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., 69 and 76 on Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition
th
th
in India.

Compared to 2012, access to “the bare necessities” has improved across all States in the
country in 2018. Access to bare necessities is the highest in the States such as Kerala,
Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat while it is the lowest in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal
and Tripura. The improvements are widespread as they span each of the five dimensions
viz., access to water, housing, sanitation, micro-environment and other facilities. Inter-
State disparities in the access to “the bare necessities” have declined in 2018 when
compared to 2012 across rural and urban areas. This is because the States where the level
of access to “the bare necessities” was low in 2012 have gained relatively more between
2012 and 2018. Access to “the bare necessities” has improved disproportionately more
for the poorest households when compared to the richest households across rural and
urban areas. The improvement in equity is particularly noteworthy because while the rich
can seek private alternatives, lobby for better services, or if need be, move to areas where
public goods are better provided for, the poor rarely have such choices.

Using data from the National Family Health Surveys, we correlate the BNI in 2012
and 2018 with infant mortality rate and under-5 mortality rate in 2015-16 and 2019-
20 respectively and find that the improved access to “the bare necessities” has led to
improvements in health indicators. Similarly, we also find that improved access to “the
bare necessities” correlates with future improvements in education indicators.